Bill Baggs

We spent a little time with Rachel this morning at Penny's house watching the Wimbledon Men's Singles Final. Eventually, Djokovic defeated Federer in a 5th set tie breaker. We didn't hang around to see that though as we decided to go to Bill Baggs State Park on Key Biscayne to swim and snorkel off of the beach there. I had a chance to test the under water capabilities of my GoPro. Here's Rachel throwing an underwater "U":

Laura and Rachel in the shallows putting on their flippers:

A nearby lighthouse:

Some of the fish around the rocks near the lighthouse:

The lighthouse from the ocean:

The beach from the top of the lighthouse:

After the beach, we had pizza for dinner and then hung out at the hotel pool for a while. Rachel did a little preparation for the math tutoring she does with a middle school student on Mondays.

We drove Rachel home and met Shubham and Max for dessert at Whip 'n' Dip. Oddly, instead of saying goodbye to them when we were done, we said, "See you next weekend." They'll be visiting Walla Walla next weekend.

Dogs

We spent a nice day with Rachel today. We met her at the house where she is dog/house sitting this morning and met her charge, Penny. Penny is a low-key, mid-sized dog that is pretty friendly:

This is her watching the Wimbledon men's doubles final with us after we took her for a walk. These folks also have a few turtles:

They don't have nearly the same personality as Penny. We also visited Olive, another dog that Rachel takes care of on occasion. She's a puppy with a lot of energy. I think she met her match with Laura though:

After lunch, we went to the Miami Zoo:

The animals were pretty active today. As zoos go, this one is pretty good. The enclosures were large and beautiful. The animals seemed relatively content. There weren't too many people for a Saturday afternoon.

On the way home, we went to ChilliN for some nitrogen-cooled ice-cream.

The Villages -> Indiantown -> Miami

We bade farewell to Tom and Sharron and headed to Indiantown, FL to visit Aunt Marilyn and Uncle Lew:

 They live in a secluded home that they built themselves some 20 years ago and now share with a very strange cat. We had lunch with them at the local golf course and had some good conversation before saying goodbye and continuing south to see Rachel in Miami.

It turned out to be "convenient" to meet Rachel at the "wet lab", a bar that is situated in one of the academic buildings of the University of Miami that is located on Virginia Key. We met Rachel, Shubham and Max and a few other friends on the patio and had a couple of beers and eventually dinner:

I have to say, an on-campus bar is a great idea. Whitman needs to consider this option carefully.

Salted caramel martinis

This morning Laura and I sorted through all of the camping gear and other miscellany we'd left here last summer on our cross-country drive to Miami. We tossed a few things and packed the rest into an old Amazon box and shipped it back to Walla Walla via UPS. It wasn't cheap. The 53lb box cost $115 to ship, but replacing all of that gear would've cost more, so....

We all went out to lunch at one of the many restaurants here in The Villages. It was pretty crowded, but we found a table outside:

Eating outside in Spain was tough because folks were only allowed to smoke outside. Here in the US, you can't smoke anywhere, so eating outside is not a smoke-filled hellscape. The food was good.

After lunch, Laura, Sharron and Tom went to a doctor's appt for Tom. I went to the gym. After the gym, we went to dinner at Roger & Donna's house (good friends of Sharron & Tom). Roger is an impressive cook. We had some of the best salmon I've ever consumed. Also, some grilled asparagus:

After dinner, Donna was kind enough to take a picture of the four of us:

while Roger broke out his bartending skills and made some awesome salted caramel martinis:

Village People

Our first full day in The Villages was enjoyable. We went to the pool this morning while the weather was good (and hot). We noticed this little yard sign while walking:

I thought it was pretty clear, and cute too.

While at the pool, I called Lynette and got caught up on the Walla Walla news. She's also willing to pick us up at the airport next Thursday. Turns out, even arriving at the airport at 6pm, all of the rental car agencies will be closed (small town). Lynette will pick us up and take us home and either lend us one of her cars, or we'll pick up a rental in the morning.

Laura got her haircut today. I think it looks really good:

Sharron organized Tom's pills and vitamins for the coming week:

The sheer quantity of pills is really daunting.

I started writing the text of my convocation talk. I'll feel better once I have about 1500 words that I can start hacking away at.

We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant. I finally feel like I'm meeting my Mexican food quota again after a year of very little in Spain.

After dinner, Laura, Sharron and Tom went down to one of the town squares to see some musicians play. I went to the gym.

This evening Laura and I watched Stage 5 of the Tour de France.

***

Walla Walla and the Whitman community continue to reel at the murder of Kyle Martz on Monday. Martz worked in student services at Whitman for about 7 years supporting international students. Though I didn't know him, he was universally liked. Apparently the murder, committed by a homeless man, was random, though clearly a lot remains to be disclosed. The perpetrator was captured in Baker City and has admitted to the crime.