Jen spent the week recovering from concussion. She rested a lot and went to the beach across the street from the marina a few times. It was beautiful beach and super quiet. Not a lot of people go there, so it was a great place to relax and read.

Mike spent the week working. One of the owners of the company Mike works for was gracious enough to loan us his car for our time there… Thanks so much Larry! Having a car allows us to explore easier and run errands.

Kelly did trip planning, and got marinas scheduled for us. As well as she washed the boat.

We met a boat captain, John. He works on the boat parked behind us, he’s super sweet and friendly. He gave us the number for a guy to call to help us get our canopy fixed. Which we were able to have fixed in two days.

The boat next to us at the marina is owned by a super nice guy, Phill. His company builds sets for tv shows and movies. Oh and fun fact his dad played Santa in the movie “A Christmas Story”.

On Thursday’s at the park next to Bill Bird Marina, is the Food Trucks in the Park Festival. Bonnie got to go with us, she was such a good girl and loved getting to go.

The dogs all got baths. Harley gets his on the back of the boat, and does really well with it. Bonnie and Teddy get their baths in the kitchen sink and they tolerate it.

On Saturday we spent the day exploring Miami. We started the morning by going to the Van Gough museum. It’s a traveling exhibit that has brought Van Gough’s artwork to life! They recreated his paintings of his apartment so that you can actually step in and have a seat. The digitized his artwork and projected in a large 360 degree room. The sunflowers cascaded down the walls and the boat in the starry night paint travels around the room. It is a beautiful and relaxing tribute to his work. We all missed Kelly’s mom (Grandma Shimmin) because we know she would have loved to seen it.

Miami is known for its street, graffiti artwork on buildings. We drove around some the famous streets like Wynwood Walls. Graffiti artwork is celebrated and there is actually a guide to see the most popular sites.

Another highlight of the day was touring the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens. It was owned by businessman James Deering, a manufacturer of harvester equipment. The gardens around the home is known for its great beauty and perfect picture backdrop. We saw many ladies dressed in pretty sundresses taking pictures. Watching the ladies was just as much fun and seeing the landscape. Among these ladies was Jen… she takes so many pictures everywhere we go lol

We ended the day with dinner at Area code 55 Brazilian Steakhouse. Captian John suggested we go there, and it was very good!

We returned Larry’s car and went back to the boat and got ready to head to Ft. Lauderdale for tomorrow.