Looked like the rain was about to come, so, of course, Kelley suggests that we should go for our afternoon walk. What a great idea!

We walked up Las Olas looking in shops. You see everything here – although the furrier has gone out of business – with the weather what it is I find that hard to believe!?! But, I leave you with this web address. We saw these in a show store. Enjoy!

By the way, we must be losing our touch – it didn’t rain, not even a sprinkle!

I can smell home. I am like a horse who realizes that the trail is leading back to the stable. Seas? Who cares about seas? Rain? Good, the boat won’t need a scrubbing from the salt.

We left Dinner Key. No wind – calm seas ahead or so we had read!

Surprise! Swells of 5 feet! But, none of it matters. We are going home. In reality the boat handles the ocean quite nicely. We continue tooling along. The winds pick up; rain comes. But we boat on. And I thank Kelley that he said we should leave early.

Once we were settled in the slip he has rented for a month, I checked the weather and look what was posted:

BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED

SPECIAL MARINE WARNING

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MIAMI FL

212 PM EDT SAT MAR 22 2008

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN MIAMI HAS ISSUED A

* SPECIAL MARINE WARNING FOR...

  COASTAL WATERS FROM DEERFIELD BEACH TO OCEAN REEF FL OUT 20 NM

* UNTIL 315 PM EDT

* AT 210 PM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A

  THUNDERSTORM...CAPABLE OF PRODUCING A WATERSPOUT...ABOUT 12 NM EAST

  OF SUNNY ISLES....MOVING NORTHEAST AT 9 KNOTS. GUSTY WINDS OVER 34

  KNOTS AND HAIL ARE ALSO POSSIBLE WITH THIS STORM.

ANOTHER CLUSTER OF STORMS WAS MOVING OFF THE MIAMI-DADE COAST NEAR

GOLDEN BEACH AND WERE ALSO CAPABLE OF PRODUCING STRONG WINDS.

FREQUENT TO EXCESSIVE LIGHTNING IS OCCURRING WITH THESE STORMS. IF

CAUGHT ON THE OPEN WATER STAY BELOW DECK IF POSSIBLE...KEEP AWAY FROM

UNGROUNDED METAL OBJECTS.

WATERSPOUTS CAN EASILY OVERTURN BOATS AND CREATE LOCALLY HAZARDOUS

SEAS. YOUR BEST COURSE OF EVASIVE ACTION IF THREATENED BY A

WATERSPOUT IS TO MOVE AT A 90 DEGREE ANGLE FROM ITS APPARENT

MOVEMENT. SEEK SAFE HARBOR IMMEDIATELY.

How happy are we that we are safe and sound! We decide to celebrate and go for a walk.

Hey, we hear thunder…maybe it will drizzle…or RAIN! And rain it did! We stopped and had a glass of wine and watched the rain. It’ll let up soon. Well, time for another? Nah. We’ll dash to one store covering after another. Alas, there are no more stores. Trees are dripping larger drops than the sky is letting fall.

You know, it was a free shower! I suggested we sing “Singin’ in the Rain,” but, it is hard to sing and run, hence the reason in the movie An American in Paris Gene Kelly was dancing. Another positive though, it continued raining most of the night, and hard, we didn’t need to wash the boat.

We fly home Wednesday. I am excited! Hope to see you all. We will be home until the 15th. Family! Friends! Home! Partaker Cottage! Casa Safari! We shall be so busy!

Thursday, the 20th! Enough! Let’s go. The small craft warning is gone and we take off for Dinner Key. We are amazed at how calm it is outside Largo Sound. It is hard to believe that there was a storm. What we are boating in is not what the weather report says it should be.  How cool is that?

There are several places where we can cross from the Hawk Channel over into Biscayne Bay. Kelley picks Angelfish Channel.  Sometimes I think that he looks at the charts and checks out all of his options and then chooses the narrowest one! He didn’t disappoint me this time.

I really think that when we go through narrow channels and we need to be attentive to our boating is the best time. We are feeling confident. I would encourage anyone who wants to do this to do so. Watch the weather, the tides and your charts! And remember that Boat US is there to provide you with information to keep you safe. They don’t want to have to come and rescue you if they don’t have to.

The Bay was surprisingly choppy. After a few hours we were ready to pull into Dinner Key Marina. What a great marina. The city marina’s here are fabulous. We have stayed in many and we are always pleased with how nice the people are and how helpful. Ah, a city? That must mean dinner out!

On Friday we jumped on our bikes and rode about 2 miles to Vizcaya.  What a thrill to visit this winter home of James Deering. The architecture, the workmanship, the gardens. Where does one start?

This is the first thing you see upon entering the grounds.

Looking from the front door back to the entrance you can see the long drive. It was longer when the home was first built.

After touring the house, Kelley and I walked the gardens. There are gardens on all four sides of the estate. This is off to one side and looking back at the house. This is a pond that becomes a flows down the hill towards the house.

On the water side was what pleased us both the most:

This looks like a ship! It is the dock for Deering’s yacht. What looks like a moat is where his friends could come by dinghy to his patio.

There are wooden poles that are brightly painted in barber pole stripes of blue and white or red and white. Deering wanted it to feel like Venice.

The workmanship and the details throughout the whole house amaze us. We couldn’t take pictures of the inside of the house. But the outside!

This is one of many grottos. And look at the treat that one finds when looking up inside it:

All made from shells…..how many shelling days would it take to gather those babies?

There were so many side gardens, some protected and others not. Here is one of my favorites:

Lovely! If you ever come to Coconut Grove outside Miami, you miss promise us that you will visit Vizcaya. I would have loved to have brought a book and read in one of the gardens. I easily could have pretended to have been invited by Deering to enjoy his estate. I would have willingly come in costume and accepted tea in the tea room as I tried to plan my afternoon – stroll the grounds? swim? nap in my lovely suite looking over Biscayne Bay? and then there would be the time necessary to dress for dinner!