Sailing Around

What can be better than to say goodbye to March sailing around in Biscayne Bay? If you were doing just that, this is a view you would have seen.

Don't Talk to me About Palms.. Yet...

Here is a return visit to the Montgomery Botanical Center. There are palms and palms everywhere you look. I do not know enough about palms so I can't tell you much... May be... If you come back in say 5 years... I probably will know a lot more.

No Rides For Me

This year, the Miami Dade County Youth Fair opened a bit later than usual. It is now an annual pilgrim for me to get here to look around. Here is today's Miami sunset over the fair ground. Did I say "to look around" ? Yes, I am not crazy to set foot on any of the rides. Are you kidding me??? No way!

Classic Caddy

What do you know... Another classic car in the parking lot of Miami. This is a classic Cadillac de Ville convertible. I can't be sure, but I think this is 1957. Correct me if I'm wrong, please...

5K Run

I was up real early today, at 6AM to come here helping runners register for their 5K run. The track surrounds the campus of Gulliver prep school on Kendall Drive near SW 67th Avenue. Great track and here are the runners just about passing out at the end of their 5K run. Some run. Those who can't run, walk. Me? I watched.

Boat Shuttle

This is a view of Biscayne Bay from the Coconut Grove Sailing Club. You can see sail boats anchored to rental buoys marked by the white spherical floats. A boat shuttle carries the boat owners to/from their boats. To request a ride back to shore, an air horn is blasted and hopefully the shuttle boat captain can hear it. That shuttle boat is seen here unloading its passengers to the left of the photo.

Go Figure

I am very puzzled! This location had a very nice structure that was the now former Burger King fast food joint. They demolished it! Then they replaced it with this new but very ugly structure that is the new Burger King. Inside, it's smaller, less functional and the bathroom fixture is already broken! I can't figure this thing out! They must have money to burn.

Wanna Be Watermelon

Here is the same jack fruit tree that I showed you last year. It's starting to fruit again. This tree, and many others have the tendency to grow its fruits close to, or right on the ground. I think they are saying they'd rather be a watermelon, don't you think?

I Love Stephanie

Well, I think this man must really love Stephanie. Although it's not trivial, if he ever changes his mind, or she does hers, he can replace this with a new name. It sure will be easier than changing a tattoo.

Untrimmed

This is to show you that longan trees can grow to be very large, if left untrimmed for years... It looks like there will be lots of longans again this year... That's three years in a row, a record.

I Want You

I have blogged the silk floss tree here... and here... without realizing that I live near one that has matured much longer. This is how this one looks today, huge! But please do not confuse this tree with the Baobab, although they are in the same family, practically kissing cousins. Now that I have seen it nearby, I want to grow one in my backyard. That means I need to find a baby floss silk tree... and I know just where to get one. Stay tuned!

Bel Air 1957

The 1957 Bel Air is among the most recognizable American cars of all time; well-maintained examples, especially Sport Coupes and Convertibles are highly sought after by collectors and enthusiasts. Here is a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air 2-Door Convertible in great shape and well groomed in transit. I am sure the proud owner of this vehicle has consulted the weather stations to make sure that this baby does not get caught in one of Miami's thundershowers.

Outdoor Bar-B-Que

I ran into this huge BBQ setup today. Actually, there are two of these larger than life cylinder grills that were smoking with yummy smelling ribs. Haven't seen this anywhere before, I inquired to learn that this is "The Mustard Seed, Inc." "Where Friends Meet For Great Food." A meal here costs a mere US $7. Today, this enterprise belonging to a mister Tyrone Johnson is catering to the crowd expected to come to the world's largest sale of Palms and Cycads hosted at the Montgomery Botanical Center. As a bonus to this free admission event of today and tomorrow, a guided tour of the botanical center is given for a mere US $5 donation, which is a great bargain to be had. Fighting against all temptations, I did not have the rib, and settled for a corn on the cob sprinkled with salt and black pepper. Oh so good!

Big Yellow

As you can see, every year, I can't help but to show you again and again a tree like this one. This is in the parking lot of the Home Depot store on Kendall drive near SW 127th Avenue. It's one of the bigger tree you can find in Miami, not the best one, but what it lacks in beauty, it makes it up in volume.

Green Night

This has now become a yearly tradition in Miami. Coral Gables, every year, on a day like today, which is St. Patrick's Day, closes streets around the downtown area (creating a traffic mess,) to host the yearly beer drinking, open air concert, food consuming, overall happy night for a lot of people. This is the food concession next to where I stood selling beer as a volunteer. If you come, it is universally understood that you cannot be a cheap skate. Almost everything costs US $8. Beer, fish and chips, chicken tender etc... Some grunted and hissed and complained, but they always shelled out 8 tickets (that's eight dollars) to get a freshly drawn beer: Guinness, Harp, Smithswick's or half and half; or a hot fried meal in a paper container. I was so busy collecting tickets and pouring beer I only had time to take one photo. Sorry not to have some shots of the beautiful people with Leprechaun outfits, but you can imagine what they might have look like, everyone with a beer cup in hand.

Charcoal Grilling Opening

There is another change in the eating scene in South Miami. This is on Sunset Drive, near the corner of SW 97th Avenue. This used to be my pal Banjong's excellent Thai restaurant named "Thai Orchid." He sold that business many years ago and seeded his now thriving real orchid business "Banjong Orchids" with the money that he gained there. The restaurant remained a Thai food restaurant for a while, struggling, until now. This location is now taken over by La Fogata which is supposed to be a Mexican charcoal grilling kind of food. As I said, I have a hard time to keep up with all these changes.

Obelisk

In Miami, if not in other places of the US as well, you can see a new structure that springs up in new highways that looks like an obelisk. That is a new way to support the large signs posted on expressways. They are also designed to support the new systems of toll-by-plate. Here is a new one on SW 104th street holding the direction to expressway 874 going North. If it has to extend to the other side, another obelisk is erected and the orange cylinders are connected to reach it as far as needed.

UBreakIFix

In Miami, ANYWHERE you go, you see that EVERYONE is manipulating a cell phone of some sort. It's purely amazing. It is no wonder you see this new business.

Thorns, Spines and Prickles

In botanical morphology, thorns, spines, and prickles are hard structures with sharp, or at least pointed, ends. Thorns are modified branches or stems. Spines are modified leaves, stipules, or parts of leaves. Prickles are more comparable to hairs. The Book of Genesis recounts the creation of thorns as one of the punishments for the sin of Adam and Eve. One of the most enduring cultural images is the Crown of Thorns described in the Bible as having been placed on the head of Jesus before his crucifixion.

Meet Euphorbia milii (Crown-of-thorns or Christ Plant) which is a woody, succulent species of Euphorbia native to Madagascar. The species name commemorates Baron Milius, once governor of Réunion, who introduced the species to France in 1821. It is suspected that the species was introduced to the Middle East in ancient times, and legend associates it with the crown of thorns mentioned above. I have a couple of these guys in my yard and I wouldn't touch them even if my life depends on it.

Plymouth Congregational Church

I was fearless today and drove to the Grove in a spur of the moment. Big mistake! As predicted a couple of days ago, the streets down here are jammed to the max! This is around 3PM, and there is really no way to get in. The main arteries leading to South Bayshore Drive are blocked and traffic are turned away to make room for the Colombian parade from noon to 11 pm. After the parade, there is a concert in Peacock Park. So... I gave up again just like last year. To not waste a trip for nothing, I decided to follow up on a promise I made last year. This is the famous Plymouth Congregational Church where Barbie had the wedding of her short-lived marriage.