Vacation - Day 1 & 2

Rich and I flew out of Bellingham on Wednesday the 4th at 8 something in the evening, then we had a couple hours at SeaTac before flying to St. Paul, and on to Miami. Here we are joyously waiting to board our flight in Seattle... I told Rich to make a face to show his excitement for our trip. Apparently what entered his mind was... "2 weeks straight with Angela and over a week wit the Inlaws!"

We arrrived in Miami just before noon on Thursday. Luckily one of our planes wasn't very full so we got to move to an empty row and actually get some sleep. I didn't take my favorite flying medicine... so I didn't get my normal deep sleep that I usually get when I fly, but I know I dosed off a few times at least! Rich slept way better than me, and wore a hat to cover his hair, so he got to be in the Miami airport arrival picture! Thursday we had lunch with my mom by the pool, and then took the bus to a mall a few miles away so Rich could get some new swim trunks. (It wasn't nice enough to lay out that day, otherwise trust me, that's what I would have been doing!) A warning to all... downtown Miami is a bit sketchy! Especially when you're on the city bus! I had noticed we were the only white people on the bus, but my thoughts hadn't gone any further than that, so I was actually surprised when Rich decided there was NO WAY we were going to take that bus again. When I told him I hadn't really noticed, he insisted that he'd be fine riding it by himself, but couldn't handle the thought of me being on it with him. :-) What a guy.

We had all day Friday before the rest of the crew was arriving in Miami, so we decided to rent a car and go to the Everglades (which I had thought was a mountain range before actually going - "I expected the Everglades to be a little rockier than this" :-) J/K, I had learned it was not before we decided to go! We took an air boat tour through the Everglades, which was pretty fun! It's crazy how those boats can go even when the water is so shallow, or the grass so thick in the water. Considering how loud those airboats were, we actually saw a few alligators, turtles, and lots of birds. Here's a picture of the first alligator we saw... hard to see I know, but it's there, sun bathing on the grass! Here's a couple more pics from our airboat tour...They also had a few animals in captivity, and I couldn't resist posting this picture. Who has the best comment for this little high centered turtle???