A wonderful weekend in Miami!!!

Well, as I mentioned, bf and I traveled down to Miami for a long weekend, to attend his cousin's wedding. We had a terrific time!!! Here's the rest of the story... We left after I finished work on Thursday, traveled the 6 or so hours down to Miramar, FL, in our cute little Mazda 3 rental... we traveled among some heavy duty convection, as the sea breeze worked its way in, initiating on all the juicy afternoon heating. At one point, there was a substantial shelf cloud that caught my fancy... you know me...So, we arrived in Miramar, and crashed at bf's cousin's house... another cousin... and woke the next morning to some early sea breeze convection firing, putting some thunderstorms up to our south. As we were leaving, a momma duck and 5 little ducklings were waddling around the neighborhood like they owned the place. You know me, I went to town taking pics of that cute little duck family, wandering around the neighborhood like they owned the place. I was surprised at how close she brought her little ones to us... SO CUTE!!!... of course, I was quickly distracted by the NICE towers going up, while we were on our way to the National Hurricane Center...We quickly arrived at the NHC, which was a very short drive from the cousin's house, and I set up the tripod to capture pics outside the building, which is basically built like a bunker... don't guess they want it to blow away... look bad when the hurricane center disappears... We took our pics... ...then, bf suggested we go inside. No, they don't do tours during the season, no we didn't have an appointment or a point of contact. No, it wasn't Tuesday or Thursday from 10-2, but we certainly wouldn't get in if we didn't try... well, we walked in, which totally baffled the very helpful "police service technician" (a wuh???)... lol, who stumbled over his words letting us know that we weren't really supposed to be inside there... lolThat last shot is one of the blossoms on the tree outside of the hurricane center. Right now, Miami is colored in orange as all their Poinciana trees are in full bloom, gorgeously brilliant orange blossoms fill the air. Well, after having fun with the hurricane police, we headed on down to Key Biscayne, where we saw this cute little bird scurrying along the shore line.... and besides the arbitrary cone shaped funnel cloud that we just happened to stumble upon, that was about all there was to Key Biscayne... Oh, did I mention that we saw a funnel cloud?... oh, and while we were on Key Biscayne, there was a cone funnel that appeared in front of me after one of the turns... Did I mention that it happened to be the remnants of one of the 4 tornado reported "tornadoes" (in the entire CONUS) from, Friday, June 13th?!!! Let me tell you, there was some serious Happy Dew Dancing with that one. Unfortunately, with it being unexpected as it was, I didn't capture the cone... I only captured it at the dissipation stage. Bummer. I did see it though. WAHOO!!!I saw the end of a tornado!!!!! :OD The sky was actually pretty ominous looking for much of the afternoon.Then, we headed to the hotel to get fixed up for the wedding and reception. Bf and I had a terrific time at this Latin flaired reception, since the bride was Panamanian.











The next day was terrific, too. We got together with everyone from bf's family, and I got to learn about some things that are common in Miami, including the Poinciana trees and the Banyan tree, which is bf's favorite tree. They are so cool, they drop branches which eventually stiffen to form an extra support to aid the trunk. Very cool. I can see why they are his favorite.

The first banyan tree in the U.S. was planted by Thomas Alva Edison in Fort Myers, Florida. It was given to Edison by Harvey Firestone after Firestone visited India in 1925 and was planted in the Edison and Ford Winter Estates. The tree, originally only 4 feet (1.2 m) tall, now covers 400 feet (120 m). Older banyan trees are characterized by their aerial prop roots which grow into thick woody trunks which, with age, can become indistinguishable from the main trunk. Old trees can spread out laterally using these prop roots to cover a wide area. ~Source

I was also thrilled to see parrots eating from the bird feeder. I had never seen anything like that before. We visited South Beach for some yummy Giradelli and art studio exploration and headed back to Miramar for the night. Then, it was time to head back, but not before meeting yet another team member, Jeff Gammons. We met up with Jeff in Fort Pierce, and he took us to this perfectly named chaser convergence spot called "The Original Hurricane Grill & Wings". Great food, great stories, wonderful time, beautiful water and as a night cap, a nice back building convective system started firing back behind us... I was amazed at the amount of beach erosion. Jeff had described it, but I guess seeing is believing sometimes... Oh, a funny story... this group came walking up with a HUGE fish in their hand... We thought, WOW! What a catch! Apparently, someone had caught it and handed it to this lady, saying she could have it. We were all cracking up at the little lady holding the monstrous catch.
All in all, a wonderful trip. We were even treated to a nice arch rainbow on the way home, which, of course, we stopped to shoot.
I am not up on local weather or anything... I'll get back into that tomorrow. I know there is a public severe weather outlook... here is the map if you're interested...Have a wonderful day!!!
~Dewdrop