Dec. 30 - Miami, FL

Marine Stadium - Anchorage

“We can't be afraid of change. You may feel very secure in the pond that you are in, but if you never venture out of it, you will never know that there is such a thing as an ocean, a sea. Holding onto something that is good for you now, may be the very reason why you don't have something better.” - C. JoyBell C.

We're in the land of beautiful water now. Mansions, yachts, people and bridges...this part of Florida is filled with excess. They say everything's bigger in Texas...well I'm beginning to think not. Some of the houses we went by today were huge compounds that took up a full block of land on the ICW. Beautiful homes and even more impressive yachts, and we could only see what was along the ICW. There are canals everywhere with more mansions and more yachts. There were a lot of boats moving around today but we saw no one outside any of the pretty homes or around their beautiful pools. In fact most looked like no one was home at all. I guess they were out working to pay for their huge homes. I think I like our simpler life.

By the time we reached the Hillsboro Inlet to the Atlantic Ocean we had been under 15 bridges and only gone 30 miles in about six hours. If we wanted to make it to Miami tonight we decided we better do the rest of the trip in the Atlantic. It was a wonderful day to be on the outside, the water was beautiful and we could finally get moving. Even though our top speed is still slow we made much better time. We came through Government Cut into Miami and what a zoo...there were tugs, yachts, small boats, speed boats, sailboats and a few crazy kids on jet skis. It seemed smaller than other ports we've come through so everyone was in very close proximity to each other. Once through the cut and traffic we were close to our anchorage in Marine Stadium. The anchorage has a beautiful view of the Miami skyline and we were treated to a pre New Year Eve fireworks show. It was short but very nice and very close...I guess they were making sure things were right for tomorrow night's big show.

West Palm Beach

Some of the bridges were very low today, so we took our bimini down so we could get through without waiting for a scheduled opening. This bridge Stan would touch when he reached his hand up.

A few of the large beautiful homes on the ICW

We're used to seeing pelicans, seagulls and terns on the bridges, but this was something new for us.

Hillsboro Inlet Lighthouse

The port of Miami...at least there wasn't a cruise ship leaving.

I think this is the closest we've ever been to a ship being loaded with box cars.

The view of Miami from our anchorage