Thanksgiving In Miami

Once again, an enjoyable visit in Miami brought sunshine, excellent eating, time to visit with Jary, Diana, and Dustin, and a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration. We left Brunswick on Tuesday morning in our rental car and were pleased to find warm weather once we crossed into Florida. The drive, though long (8 hours) was an easy one - not much traffic for the Thanksgiving week, and not major delays. We did manage a side trip outside of Daytona Beach to track down some fresh citrus fruit - and we weren't disappointed. "The best grapefruit and oranges I ever ate." We arrived in time to get settled in our apartment (a weekly rental) within walking distance of Diana's and Jary's apartment. Having not seen their new place, we approved of their move - it has a beautiful view of the Venetian Causeway, and also the cruise ships leaving Miami.

Wednesday was a typical pre-Thanksgiving day: shop and cook. We certainly didn't have full dinner responsibilities butvwere in charge of hor d'oeurves - stuffed peppadews, prosciutto wrapped green beans, and shrimp/scallop ceviche and mashed white and sweet potatoes. For the size of the kitchen, that was enough! We left the real cooking to our hosts, Nat, Bill, and Tere - friends of D&J. And we weren't disappointed - all the usual excellent fare. There were 17 people at the table - and seven different places represented: Spain, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Virginia, and Florida. It was quite an international gathering - with conversations all going on at once in various languages. Lots of fun!

The rest of the visit was spent recovering from over-eating, and then eating some more - Jary has found some new restaurants since we last visited Miami and they are all great gastronomic experiences. We also enjoyed some big-city shopping - first stops at Lowes and West Marine to pick up supplies for awaiting projects.

We left Miami on Monday and stopped to see our friends, Val and Harold, who were our travel mates when we explored the Bahamas two years ago. They now live in Palm Bay, FL so we had fun hearing about their life on land, remembering some fun travels, and planning for the next travels together - when they have a boat again. Back on the road on Tuesday, and back to Brunswick where we had left the boat. Time to work on some necessary boat projects before we can continue travels south again.