South Florida

We are now in South Florida for a few more days before heading across the Atlantic. We are staying with my mom in Hollywood and spending lots of time getting our affairs back in order after being gone from the States for so long (i.e. taxes, bills, personal maintenance, appointments and interviews, and catching up on the blog).

While we are here, I (Sheri) am meeting with one half of the student group that I will be taking to Tanzania with me in July. I am again working for World Challenge Expeditions leading a group of high school students on a one-month trip with the primary goal being leadership development and team building. This year, the group will be made up of 4 students from an American school in Palm Beach, Florida and 4 students from a school in Northampton, England. It will be a small group to manage - especially since there will be 3 adults! I'll be sure to post the stories later in the summer.

Michiel and I are learning how to deal with heat and humidity again and are working on some "savage" tans. Though we find Southern Florida really depressing, with its never-ending parade of retail centers, frighteningly bad drivers and flat, monotonous landscapes, we've been entertaining ourselves with shuffleboard tournaments (WooHoo!), a day trip to some nice tropical botanic gardens, swimming and a trip to the Florida Keys. We ended up cutting our Keys trip short, though, because of the exceptionally high costs of camping ($52 for a private campground!!! and $31 for a State campground, which often are full), the unbearable heat and the ferocious biting insects. On the plus side, the snorkeling at the reef off the coast of Key Largo was wonderful and well worth the trip and the architecture of the homes in Key West was delightful to see.

Here are some highlights:

Sunset from our campsite: Bahia Honda State Park and Michiel amongst the mangroves at John Pennekamp Coral Reef SP

Key West homes

Fairchild Tropical Botanic Gardens also features blown glass sculptures by Chihuly strategically placed throughout. The plant above (left) was, indeed, real - Michiel had to touch it to believe it.

This sculpture is a representation of the sun. The one on the right is a display of plants of Madagascar interspersed with glass tubes.