Miami

The day after visiting Universal, Minho and I went on a 5 hour road trip to visit the one and only Nicolas Londono in Miami.  Minho doesn't have prescription sunglasses, but thankfully, Grandma had a great pair of shades that were more than big enough to fit over Minho's specs.  Very stylish as well.

After passing through a very prominent part of town, we decided to hit up Miami beach.  The water looked freezing, so we kept to the sand.  I think this is Minho's way of showing he's excited.

And here's Knuckles.  Fortunately it was cold, otherwise all the ladies would have come flocking.

I like this pic because I look taller than Minho.

Realized that chucks aren't a great option for the sand.

Looks great.  Too bad it was chilly.

This has got to be a distant cousin of my car.  I mean it has it all: tape holding various parts of the car together, a missing left turn signal, custom paint job, and lots and lots of junk in the back.  Reminds me of a time when one of my coworkers was living out of the back of his van.  It also reminded me of the old days as a kid where we would sit in the back of the station wagon looking backwards awkwardly at the drivers behind us while getting motion sickness.

Thanks to Nick for a great place to crash after doing it up in Miami.  We got back around 9 or 10 or something like that and Nick's mom immediately started apologizing that the beds weren't made yet.  I think she expected us to stay out a little bit later.  I felt really lame.

The next day, we did a boating tour of the everglades.

We had to go pretty early in the morning to catch the first ride so that we could be back in time for Grandma's church service.  When we said goodbye to Nick, he may have only been half awake.  The early morning sun on the water was great though.  Glad we did it.

That green jacket I got earlier really turned out to be useful.

Didn't see any alligators, but lots and lots of this particular white bird.

And they took a dump on my new jacket.

Shimmering light and spray from the boat.

Mangroves, which probably immigrated over from Africa.  They have special leaves that absorb salt from the water and then die sacrificially for the rest of the tree.  The dead leaves turn the water all brown.  As you can see, we went out at low tide.

Nice clear day.

Initially, I was pushing to go on one of those fan boats that they use a lot in the everglades, but I'm glad Minho convinced me to go on this calmer ride.  Good man.