Morning Flight

Monday evening I flew my wife and three children down to Myrtle Beach. I decided to stay the night and get up the crack of dawn to fly back. This morning was beautiful for flying despite the low clouds and reduced visibility.

Twin Falls

We rode up here on the motorcycle. Twin Falls is about 20 miles north of Pickens, SC. You hike along the river a short way and then come to these falls. There are two here but the second is behind our heads. The water is very cold. Usually it's not crowded. It's a great place to go on a hot afternoon.

Lighthouse at Cape Florida

We climbed up inside this lighthouse and looked down to see a giant iguana laying on top of a tree. The other side of the lighthouse had a view of the Miami skyline. We walked through the keeper's house. It looked like a nice place to live, except no indoor plumbing. We do take that for granted these days.

We are having ongoing discussion of whether we should include our names in our blog. It's awkward to write without using the names. But if we put the names in, will we lose our privacy? Then forevermore if someone does a search under our names they will find all our vacation photos. So for now no names.

Looks a little like Strom Thurmond

Something about him looks a little like Strom Thurmond. This was the guitar player at Casa Panza. I will have to upload my picture of Strom Thurmond to compare them.

Casa Panza, Little Havana, Cortadillo

We are celebrating my husband's July birthday here in Key Biscayne. Last night we went to Little Havana over the bridge in Miami. We ate dinner at this Spanish restaurant where they had a live flamenco show. I bought the guitar player's CD because he really looked like Strom Thurmond, but shorter. He was a very good player. We both ate paella with chicken. I almost ordered the squid in his own ink but I chickened out. I asked our waitress what the potatas bravas was, and she said "angry potatoes." It was a little spicy.

They have a good band at our hotel every night. It has been a very nice trip and I highly recommend the Ritz Carlton Key Biscayne. Soon we may never be able to stay at such a nice hotel.

Tonight we ate at a cuban cafe right on the island. They have this coffee drink they call cortadillo, but it is just like cappucino. Our waiter said the name comes from cortar (coffee cut with milk). I have realized from this trip that my Spanish is very poor. I can understand maybe one or two phrases out of every sentence I hear. Spanish is everywhere here.

South Beach was a little disappointing, very crowded, nowhere to park, and full of tourists.

We can go back to eating what we want -- we passed our medical!

Husband and wife both have worldwide medical clearance. Not that we were worried, we're both pretty healthy. Well, husband was a little worried because when he had his chest x-ray he saw a big black spot. He looked it up on the internet and they said only be worried about white spots.

I read a funny post on the a-100 group about the chubby guy worried his weight might keep him from passing his medical. If it did, he should sue. I know a good lawyer.

To celebrate we went to the Vietnamese restaurant in Greenville - Pho Noodleville. Bubble Tea is our favorite but it's so hard to share because someone might suck all your bubbles out.

Now just waiting on security. How much more waiting? I emailed to find out and all they said was they are still checking on some leads and the target date is August 10.

Until we can go foreign, we'll bring foreign to us

We had a great time hosting a British soccer coach, Chantel, for a week of soccer camp. We kept her busy after hours going square dancing, visiting the local Irish pub (Corbett McGee's), listening to the band at Downtown Sounds, and going out on the lake.

It was really fun to talk to her about her home in Birmingham, England. She's in the U.S. all summer directing British soccer camps. The kids had a great time.