We got to stay with my co-counselor Zach and His Family. They were exceptionally nice people and gave us a tour around coral gables. Coral gable has some of the nicest houses I have ever seen. They were massive. Once again we found ourselves on another spectacular beach. This time at Key Biscayne. We also got o hang out at one of America’s Glamour spots, Miami Beach. Where the shopping dreams of the rich and famous can be fulfilled and people watching is as interesting as anything else one can do. Along our trip through Florida I had been in contact [View Full Entry]

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So, it has been decided for us. We are renting a car and driving 1,500 miles to Chicago. Yeah, thanks Ike. We are planning on leaving on Monday and getting as far north as we can. West would be nice too but when you live at the bottom of a state that is as long as Florida is, you have to drive quite a ways north before you can head west! With three days of preparation taken away, this weekend will be quite busy cramming all the stuff in we need to do to leave on Monday. The adventure begins soon! [View Full Entry]

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Gustav is done now but we have Hannah, Ike and Josephine marching across the Atlantic. Hannah looks like she will miss us here in South Florida but is aiming towards where we need to be going by train next Thursday. Ike is right behind and as of tonight, we are in the middle of the path they are showing. We are still not sure if we will have to reroute our return trip after the cruise due to damage from Gustav and now we are rerouting the outbound part! We are thinking that we will cancel our train from Miami to [View Full Entry]

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The monkey wrench has a name. Gustav. With it bearing down on the Gulf Coast, we are rethinking our return trip from Los Angeles at the end of our cruise. The plan now is to take the Sunset Limited to New Orleans, spend the night and then head out the next day on the Crescent to D.C. and then the Silver Meteor down to Miami. The likelihood of Gustav destroying not only New Orleans again, and possibly taking out the tracks along the Gulf Coast, makes us want to look at other options. Not what we wanted to do. The thought [View Full Entry]

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I am so excited! I am an absolute Phantom Of The Opera "Phanatic"!. We have seen this musical in Chicago, Milwaukee, Toronto, Boston, FT. Lauderdale and London (England-where it all began). Now we will be able to add Seattle to our list of locations. Another activity we will engage in is a bit of fun called Geocaching . Click on the link to go to the website to get the full explanation. In a nutshell, we go hunting with a GPS unit for "hidden treas [View Full Entry]

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After the crazy flight from Chiang Mai to Miami, Simon and Lauren were not only tired but unable to sleep because of the 11 hour time difference... The United States threw a giant fireworks party for Lauren and Simon as they arrived on July 4th back to Lauren's home for the last four years, where she had departed from to begin the epic journey to New Zealand many months ago. Sleep was the order of the day, but unfortunately, waking up at 11pm and not being able to sit still afterwards was evidence to suggest Simon and Lauren had not yet [View Full Entry]

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On the descent into Miami, the pilot announced that things could get a little bumpy as there were storms in the area. Within a minute it felt like the plane entered a 3 second asteroid field. It was violent but thankfully brief…sweaty palms again for me, while Sam sat back and enjoyed the ride! We caught the shuttle bus to our hotel under a deluge of tropical rain. I was busy preparing myself for the conditions by heaving our bags from the storage area in the back of the vehicle over the seats to where we sat. This would prevent a [View Full Entry]

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Welcome to Miami, Bienvenido a Miami... If there is a part of the USA that has been colonized and taken over by Latin America, that is Miami. People in the street will even speak a mixture of Spanish and English, all tangled together in the same sentence, quite difficult to follow even. So Miami was pretty much the perfect pre-view to our one month break from travelling back in Colombia. It was quite an intense week filled with lots of food, drinks, friends, beach, party and not enough sleep. The first few days were relaxing enough, staying at Juan & Patri's [View Full Entry]

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Good heavens. Today I spent hours with my clothes. Formal (12 nights), Informal (7 nights), Resort Casual (46 nights). For all you women out there, you know how tough this can be! For you men? I don't wanna hear about it! '-) I'm about half way through figuring out what I'm going to bring. I haven't gotten to the shoes or jewelery yet! I see that we also have several Balls. "Black and White Ball", "Oriental Ball", "Halloween Night" and the "Tropical Paradise Ball". Ummm....what the heck do I bring for these events? Dave has it easy. He has a tux. [View Full Entry]

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Hey Everyone, I haven't been on this blog in a long time, but I got an e-mail from them and it reminded me about it. Things have been great in Miami. I have already done some diving, been to the Dominican Republic for field work, and been getting my appartment all set up. Also, I leave on a research cruise to the Bahamas a week from today. I will give you all links to my facebook photos of the Dominican Republic and some underwater photos if you want to see. Hope everyone is doing well. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2298610&l=465c9&id=5701930 More dominican Republic picture [View Full Entry]

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