Still in Miami

Our anchor has been in the same place since New Year's Eve day! We're loving this little anchorage we're at. It is in a little basin near Oleta River State Park. There's a little beach here, a huge park with lots of walking and biking trails and mangrove canals where we explored in our dinghy (rowing). Of course, if we rented kyaks it would've been more efficient, but the dinghy did just fine. We saw all kinds of cool wildlife (mostly birds), but a huge iguana was following us along the shore too. Dolphins swim by our boat daily. The signs here say to drive cautiously because it's a manatee zone, but we haven't seen any since leaving Titusville.

Yesterday we took a bus to South Beach and spent the day exploring there. It was like being in a foreign country. We didn't hear too many people speaking English. But the scenery was amazing. South Beach is a great place to people watch. There were tons of restarants and stores and, of course, a beautiful beach. Definitely take a look at the pictures for this leg of the trip (if you can handle seeing us enjoying 80 degree days - sorry :). http://www1.snapfish.com/home/t_=102133856 (click on Miami) - if you can not see the pictures, send Michele an email at mpapile@papile.net .

We finally got to go swimmig off the boat here too. The water is still a little chilly, but the color is a nice turquoise. Once we get to the keys, we hope to start doing some diving with our new dive equipment! So tomorrow, we will reluctantly pull up the anchor and leave this little oasis. But the next stop promises to be even more spectacular.