Second Week in South Florida

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Sunday: St Patrick's day parade in downtown hollywood with a friend I met at board game night. Perfect weather- not humid and about 75*. Went up to the top of her high rise building and got a pretty good view- can even see the guitar hotel in the distance. Also witnessed some glass blowing and just overall good downtown festivities.

Monday: Went back to board game group at the brewery and played some good games!

Thursday: An evening walk on the boardwalk? yes please. However the sun still doesn't set over the ocean on the East coast. Feels strange.

Friday: Went to the tiny section of hollywood beach that allows dogs. And there were many dogs there. This was the first beach experience copper enjoyed but it wasn't for the beach or the waves- those are still weird but making new friends is always a good dog evening.

Saturday: Biscayne National Park. A unique national park because it is 95% water. The 5% that is not water has a very small land area on the mainland and then is mostly keys out in the ocean. Florida keys are different than islands- they are formed from dead coral reef versus formed by geologic rock. So really the only way to explore this park is by boat unless you want to spent your entire day at the visitor center. So onto a national park boat tour I went. The weather was warm and humid again (when is it not) but that made the breeze of the open air boat very enjoyable. We went sailed out to a key that was once privately owned before the national park was formed and the owner built a light house which he wanted to use to signal to the mainland when he was having a party. But the lighthouse was forbidden to be used by the coast guard since it would screw with people's navigation. So the lighthouse is decoration only 😊 Overall Biscayne needs a boat to be enjoyed and has no entrance fees. So the keys on the weekend become giant parties- lots of cuban music playing and people camping out for the weekend on their private boats. It's one of the most accessible but also inaccessible parks since it's right on the shore of miami and it's all water- but you need to own or rent a boat to really explore.

In the evening I decided I needed to check out the guitar hotel I saw in the distance on Sunday. It's just a huge casino that you can get lost in. Finally did get a couple angles outside but man what a weird building. It's huge and shaped like a guitar!!!

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