Catching Up

Jim and Chris are back home for two months so we had them over for dinner and conversation. There was so much to talk about - RVing, traveling, investing, working on the road, future business ideas and the such. Their visit couldn't have been more timely, too, since we've lost one hard-drive and my computer has been acting up. I don't trust too many people with our computers, so we just limped along until they got here. Jim's been our "computer geek" for years now. But that'll be another post, I'm sure. Last night was to be a social visit, not business...

Jim was frightened when he heard I was going to cook dinner for them...so Andy cooked instead! Thanks Andy!

Then we had to go upstairs and sit in the jacuzzi...

Here's a nighttime view of our city from the pool deck...I just love our view from the pool deck - nighttime or daytime.

We're hoping to get together for a weekend in our RVs and to also get some kayak-diving in while they're home. I'm sure these two months will slip by quickly...

Music to Our Ears

Living in a high rise, we don't expect to have much wildlife right out our door. Our most consistent sightings are the pigeons who live in/on our neighboring building. So it was a pleasant surprise weeks ago when we heard some "singing". Normally, if we ever actually *hear* a pigeon it's because they are sitting on our patio (Andy doesn't like this too much because they always leave behind a little present!). We've determined that our new singing neighbors are European Starlings. They've built a nest in a hole in the eave of the building across the way. Although they are non-native, they've been living in the US since the late 1800's. They look like a basic blackbird, but when the sun shines on them you can see that they are quite pretty with iridescent colors and patterns. I haven't yet gotten a good picture, so you can visit this site for photos and bird sounds.

We do get to enjoy some other entertainment from our pool deck (which is on the 31st floor) or from our balcony - we can watch vultures soar by and an occasional hawk or kestrel (he's been too fast and far away to clearly identify him in his acrobatics). Periodically there will be a flock of ibis. Watching the birds from the height of our building allows for a different perspective.

We're happy to have our Starlings singing to us everyday now. We hope they like the neighborhood and stay awhile.

Ocean Fest

Another annual event that we tend to volunteer for is called Ocean Fest. Ocean Fest promotes scuba diving. There's usually several of us from our kayak-scuba club, Kayuba, that helps out during this event. This year we helped out during the Treasure Hunt, which we haven't done in prior years. The organizers throw out large metal washers (painted hot pink) into the ocean for divers to hunt for. Divers who find a 'treasure' get a prize.

Andy and I, along with three other club members, were the Kayak-Safety team. Not a hard job - we're just out in the water in case anyone needs us, and we had to try to keep divers from leaving the "treasure zone". The only 'issue' that occurred was that some of the divers didn't have dive flags (making them harder for us to see, too) and they went out past the swim buoys. This put them at risk from jet skiers and boaters, so we would just paddle alongside their bubbles to protect them in case they surfaced.

Here the divers are just entering the water:

And here are all of their dive flags bobbing in the water.

It was easy and fun - who could complain about being out on the flat ocean on such a beautiful day?!

Just Cruisin'

One recent weekend we took a bike ride around town with our friends, Alex & Noemi. It was a ride to nowhere. The plan was just to ride around town and show them some of the sites that we've found on previous explorations.

One of the first places we wanted to share with them was this 'castle'. Some day we'll find out the history on this building...

Here's a common view in Ft Lauderdale - the New River...

We took them through neighborhoods and showed them some of our favorite houses and the such. It was nice to just relax and ride with friends. When we did this, I thought I should share some of my 'favorite' things about Ft Lauderdale with you...so, I'll try to carry my camera more often and post pictures to show you what I love about living here in South Florida.