Hello again! I went to church today - at last! So apologies to my non-church friends and family while I write a bit about that. You can skip onto the next bit if you want to! I enquired at the hostel about local churches last night and they pointed me in the direction of a nearby one. I found it while we were out wandering - Miami Beach Community Church - which sounded promising, so I phoned them (no notice board) about service times. Jane didn't set the alarm properly so I woke up at 9.40am (service at 10.30), so it was a bit of a rush to get there. A beautiful building undergoing some restoration work; pews inside which could probably accommodate several hundred although the congregation was quite small. The church advertises itself as for Catholics and Protestants alike and as 'embracing all lifestyles', which sort of prepared me for the rather liberal service which followed. They had a beautiful choir who sang a few songs - I enjoyed that. The pastor and choir wore robes and, although it wasn't strictly a liturgical service, there was a fairly rigid programme to follow - a couple of hymns, musical pieces, Bible reading, sermon etc. The pulpit looked like the witness stand in a court of law, with its railings and large American flag. The pastor has been at the church for over thirty years. The service was only an hour long and the pastor's sermon lacked substance, unfortunately. It bore little relation to the Scripture reading and he certainly didn't preach the gospel. It was a more 'feel good factor' talk which aimed to make the people comfortable with themselves, rather than challenged. At the end, I've never seen a church empty so quickly! Within two minutes, I think every member had either gone home or vacated to the hall for coffee. I went for coffee and, despite the fact that I was obviously a visitor and obviously alone, not a single person came to speak to me until the pastor arrived - thankfully, he did and proceeded to steer me towards a group of women who I chatted to for a while. It's sad to say it, but I certainly didn't see much of the love of God in action. But I'm glad I went, because it was good to be in God's house again and to sing some great hymns and say the Lord's prayer. After a quick lunch, I took myself off to Miami beach and spent a couple of hours swimming and sunbathing - the water is lovely and warm! Apparently, there are sharks in these waters so I kept in the shallows around other people! After that, I wandered up Ocean Drive, observing life in all its rich variety hear! This is the place of the Beautiful People - and there are beautiful bodies in abundance here - and nobody's hiding anything! The men display their pecs in the park by the beach and I suspect a lot of the women hear have had some help from their surgeons to achieve their amazing figures! It's enough to make a girl feel quite inadequate! I bought a massive ice-cream and watched dancing on the streets, dancing on tables in the street bars - some which appeared to be almost exclusively for black people and others for gay people. It's been gloriously hot all day, although a lady at the church tells me there is generally some rain most days at this time of the year. We have three more nights here, then we have finally managed to book a hostel for three nights in Key West - which is an expensive place to stay. Then we have one night back here before heading for Boston. Haven't seen the girls all day, so will head off now to find out what they have been doing. Bye!