December 30 – January 1

We anchored just out from the Miami Yacht Club. This was quite a remarkable spot, looking out on the Miami skyline to the west and Miami Beach to the east.

The day was again fabulous, so we set out to explore the beach and shops in the area known as South Beach. This is the popular and trendy area of Miami Beach. One of the highlights was the Lincoln Pedestrian Parkway, approximately an eight-block section of the street closed to traffic and full of great shops and restaurants. Kristi had some good shopping, and we all enjoyed a great supper at Nexxt.

South Beach was so much fun on Sunday, we just had to go back and check it out on New Years Eve day. It appears that this is ‘the’ place to be for New Years Eve, and it was fun to see all the preparations.

We spent some time on the beach, enjoyed an afternoon drink and appetizers at a couple of the bars along Ocean Drive and then returned to the boat for supper. We had no sooner finished the barbecue when we were treated to a spectacular display of fireworks over the Miami skyline.

How quickly a year goes. How quickly this week has gone. We have been having a great time and wish the same for all of you.

Happy New Years

December 27-29

The weather has been fantastic, and shows no signs of changing. We spent another fabulous day at the beach, and in the evening walked down to Los Olas Boulevard for dinner and gelato.

Brett’s birthday was on the 28th, and the kids made plans to go to the Panthers hockey game in the evening. Ribs were on the menu for dinner, so in the morning we headed out in the dinghy to find a grocery store.

This turned out to be quite an adventure, confronting dragons (well, pretty big iguanas), rescuing damsels in distress (another story) and ended up taking much of the day.

Try as hard as we might, we still had leftovers for another day.

On Saturday we headed down to Miami. It was a beautiful day with a 15 knot wind, but basically ‘on the nose’. This made for a rather bumpy ride motoring into the waves. While not unpleasant, everyone generally has a different idea of what is fun, except for the end of the sail drink, which we all agreed tasted pretty good.

December 26

I remember having to wait forever for it to be Christmas morning, but this was getting crazy.

Brett and Kristi were to arrive at 11:30 Christmas night, but were again delayed and did not get to the boat until after 3:00 am. It was fun to see the ‘goofy grin’ on their faces that always seems to accompany palm trees and warm temperatures.


After a relaxing start in the morning, and checking out the stockings, we headed down to the beach for the afternoon. Quite a stretch from the cross-country ski trails, and you will notice that Kristi appears to be much happier with this option. She maintains that after we made her ski 10 miles to the cabin, and back again, when she was only three, she has never been that fond of the skiing option.

The motel/apartment complex where we were able to get a slip had a barbecue, and so we returned from the beach in time to grill a turkey breast for dinner. Bill, who took us under his wing, joined us for dinner.




Although Corinne and I had already received our best present the previous night, it was still fun to gather around the Christmas tree.