Greetings From Miami Beach

I have been flying all night from Sao Paulo BRAZIL to Miami FLORIDA - 8 hours in all. I was lucky to be able to get an earlier flight and avoid a long circuit from Brazil to Miami to Dallas to Tallahassee. I have a straight flight from Miami to Tallahassee at 7 PM tonight. That gave me 12 hours to roam around Miami Beach - the city where Lulu and I eloped to - the city where Drew lived for 5 years and got his doctorate - and the place Doris Hollenbach Meneses came to right out of high school in 1972 and married her sweetheart she met when they were working at Sears.

Miami Beach is magical to us. It has great weather - beautiful beaches - lots of entertainment - and wonderful memories. I have to tell you I like Miami Beach better than Rio de Janiero - even though both places do not speak English. Here - the water is much warmer. Both places have ladies sun bathing topless. But this place is only a 9 hours drive from Tallahassee.

In the 2000 Millenium Celebration - Lulu and I spent the night on South Beach - watching the biggest fireworks display ever to that time - and hoping all the PC's would crash. The fireworks were so close that our shirts were full of scorches from the blasts.

I have a rental car and another 9 hours to spend here. It is raining and a bit windy - but at least it is warm - 80 degrees according to the rental Ford Focus's thermometer. The sky is obscure - like a typical tropical storm.

One neat thing - Miami Beach has free wifi - sponsored by the city. I just pulled over to use the computer - and there it was. I signed up - got a logon and password - but it said that it is free.

I will upload a few pictures later when I get better light.