We woke to another beautiful sunny day despite the gloomy, rain laden forecasts.

We drove the 100 plus miles of the keys, past calm waterways, over bridges, past multi million dollar mansions, smaller more modest homes, fleets of fishing boats, modest pleasure craft and millionaires ocean going yachts.

In many places there were old bridges left for fishing, many with little space between them and power lines so all along there were lines caught over the power lines. There remain long sections of the original rail bridges now made inaccessible by the removal of long sections all quietly rusting in the sea. There were many lobster pots set but nothing like on the scale we saw on the way out to Dry Tortugas.

The street names were interesting, Pirates way and cutthroat way competing with more traditional St names, one medical centre was called the pirates wellness centre lol. We saw brown pelicans, shags, egrets and sea eagles. At one point we were dive bombed by 100's of kamikaze swallows chasing bugs. We saw a large iguana just sitting by the road.

We passed the naval Air Force base and again Pete was disappointed to still have only seen a lone C17 a few days ago in nthn Florida.

We stopped off and bought some souvenir T shirts, a couple of pairs of sandals for me, thongs for both of us and a classic magnet for Kristen.

We stopped briefly at the memorial for those lost in the 1935 hurricane many of whom were veterans from WW1 working to build the railroad.

Back on the main land we entered Miami Dade County and both removed our sunnies briefly to pay homage to Horatio lmao

We took the scenic route through Miami Beach passing all the lovely old Art Deco buildings, along streets peopled with muscle boys and beach babes.

We travelled alongside billionaires row, massive expensive boats and huge mansions, all very Miami vice lol it's all a bit like the Gold Coast but on steroids!

Were finding the Miami drivers far more aggressive than we've encountered up til now.

Finally got to the hotel about 6pm, settled in (awesome room!) and registered for the MACNA conference. On the way to registering we ran into Wade and Brett from tanked who gave us a big hello, very cool lol

We realised a couple of days ago we'd not brought a good shirt for Pete to wear with his suit for the formal dinner so we shot out and got one for that then back to the hotel and headed for a late dinner in the grill and sports bar. (about 10pm by the time we got there) On the way to the bar we again ran into the tanked guys who once again said hi how you going. Think we are both a little star struck lol

We ran into Heath in the restaurant who stopped by our table for a chat. The portions at dinner were huge and neither of us finished our meals, not even Pete!!

It's been a big day with a 9am kick off tomorrow with the welcome from Tony Vargas so we are going to try for an earlyish night.