Miami Heat

Jackie and I went to the Heat vs. Clippers game a few weeks ago. They have $5 nights when bad teams come to town so we decided to take advantage of it. The $5 nose bleeds were not bad for the first half but we lucked out when we got a call from a couple here in Miami that said they had open seats next to them on row 10, right behind the Heat bench. The Heat dominated that game.

We went again last week when the Minnesota T-wolves came to town. It was Jermaine O'Neal's first game with the Heat so there were a few more fans. Below is a picture from that game...

Fake out! Don't you hate it when that happens? Here's the real picture...

You can kind of make out the players from up here

The view of downtown coming out from the game. Our building is the building on the far right (goes up to about half of the buildings on the left)

Valentine's Day - Florida Style

Our first Valentine's Day as a married couple was a success. It's hard not to make it a success when you have such resources as the Florida Keys next door. I'll admit I was actually a little nervous as February 14th approached because I didn't have a plan. I tried to remember what we did last year and then I finally realized we both worked that night and then probably just watched a movie.

We packed up a lunch and headed to Marathon Key, about half way down the keys. There is a little, family friendly and sandy beach there. The water temp right now is around 72 or 73, not bad for February. That is about as warm as it gets in California.

Our battery light came on while we were on the drive down so we didn't get as many pictures as we would have liked. We turned the camera off and saved a few pictures for the sunset.

Heading into Key largo

Driving on one of the many bridges. It was weird to see all of the power lines on the side of the road
It made a nice resting spot for all of the birds

All of the travel brochures said that the Keys have the best sunset in the world. It turns out that their sunset is similar to the one I've seen in California, Hawaii, South Africa and anywhere else the sun sets over the water.

Orlando Temple

Jackie and I went up to Orlando last week to go to the temple. We took the bus with other members of the Stake, leaving at 5:00 am. We slept on the way up there and a little on the way back as well. It took all day but it was worth it because the temple is always a wonderful place.

One of the best parts was the trip to Camila's Brazilian Restaurant in Orlando. It was so good. It felt like I was in Brazil again. We were excited when we found out they have another restaurant in Miami and then even more excited when we saw that the address is just a few blocks away.

We took a trip out to the Everglades National Park at Shark Valley this past weekend and had a great time. It is a beautiful area and not too far from downtown Miami.

Posing with the aligator

I was a lot more nervous about the gators than Jackie, and you can tell in the video posted below

We took a tram that did a 15 mile loop. At half way point, there is a tower and it is great for taking pictures. You can see about 20 miles in all directions.

This guy's mouth was resting on the sidewalk, yikes!

Jackie loved the baby alligators the best

She made me get in real close

So close that we scared them so that they jumped back in the water. Oops

Beautiful birds were all over the place

The most popular hang out

They have crazy feet