FAMILY AND FRIENDS

Enjoyed Dining Last Evening With Good Friends At Perricone's  ✔

Slept Well ✔   Wonderful Weather  ✔ Enjoyed Final Hours At 

THE HOTEL  ✔ We Will Miss Our Family & And Friends   ✔


Last night began Chanukah also known as the festival of lights.  We send Happy Chanukah greetings to those celebrating this holiday.

Yesterday afternoon we spoke with both of our children Jennifer and Eric.  We love them so very much and we will miss seeing them along with Kara, Gui, and Grand Baby Andre over the next four months. We also enjoyed a nice conversation with our friend, Ricki and we will miss those frequent phone conversations.


We enjoyed dinner as well as the dinner conversation with good friends Bob and Glo and their Grand Daughter, Becky.  It was appropriate that we dined at Perricone's for our last night in Miami.  Earlier this year before we boarded the Crystal Serenity in Miami on January 4 all five of us had also dined here and the year before we dined here with our children and their spouses before the start of the January 4, 2010 cruise.

We have enjoyed our time in Miami since our arrival on December 15.  We have appreciated the friendliness of the locals who we have met at the hotel and restaurants and at other places we have visited during our stay.  Miami is a very vibrant city that is improving with each passing year since we first stayed here in 2007. While Florida tourism is very strong year-over-year, Miami tourism continues to grow.  Miami is a very cosmopolitan city and, as such, attracts many tourists visiting from other areas around the world, including a very strong following from South America, particularly Brazilians.


While we mainly got around by foot, there are many other forms of transportation available including taxi, bus, train or people mover.


Photo of People Mover

There is much to do and see in Miami in the way of sports, arts theatre and entertainment and of course other areas including beaches, restaurants, boating and fishing just to name a few activities.

If we offered a few suggestions for improvements in Miami to enhance the tourist experience for those who are walkers, such as ourselves, they would be in the following areas:


We find that during our walks some cities and motorists are more pedestrian friendly than others.  Miami is not one of those cities.  While it seems better now than a few years ago, we hope that in-time that Miami promotes some sort of campaign in this area as some motorists are just too aggressive not yielding to pedestrians.


There are a few areas where some bicyclists use the sidewalks in lieu of the streets.  We realize the challenge of cycling on the roadways but think it is safer for those walking for the cyclists to stay off the sidewalks.


These two items are minor in comparison to how much we have enjoyed our current stay and previous ones in Miami and we certainly look forward to returning to this city on future trips.


Later today we board the Crystal Serenity.  We look forward to being back on the ship and renewing friendships with fellow passengers and crew and also having the opportunity to make new friendships.  In many ways, each time we return to the ship it feels like a family reunion.

Due to some restrictions from the local authorities we may not be able to board the ship until closer to 3:00 PM later than the norm of 12:00 noon so we may not be able to have our traditional embarkation day luncheon Cobb salad accompanied by a flute of champagne to toast the start of the cruise.  If not we will have these items on the start of the next voyage.  

While we look forward to the start of this adventure with great anticipation, at the same time, we will miss our family and our friends while we are away.

Thank goodness for e-mail, the Internet, cell phones, and all of the other communication mediums available to us to keep up with family and friends.

We have several photos of the family, which we will hang on the walls of our room on the ship and we have also placed several photos on each of our computer screen savers and on our smart phones so we can see them each and everyday.  

We thought we would introduce our family members to you, all whom have sailed with us on Crystal Cruises, most recently in January of 2010, with the exception of Tobey and Kylie and Grand Baby Andre.


So without further ado,


Let's Meet The Family
================

From Left-To-Right

Son-In-Law Gui, Daughter Jennifer almost five months pregnant with Grand Baby Andre, Daughter-In-Law Kara, Son Eric, Anne Marie and Keith at Eric and Kara's wedding in May of 2011.

Next photo was taken during our January, 2010 Crystal Serenity Cruise.

From Left-To-Right

Daughter-In-Law Kara, Son Eric, Daughter Jennifer, and Son-In-Law Gui.

Photo of our Son Eric and our Daughter-In-Law Kara

New Born Grand Baby Andre 

Photo of Daughter Jennifer and Grand Baby Andre, taken on 12/18

Photo of Grand Baby Andre, Son-In-Law Gui, and Daughter Jennifer also taken on 12/18

Keith with Grand Baby Andre

Anne Marie holding Grand Baby Andre

Eric and Kara's Australian Shepherd Dog, Tobey

And the newest member of the family.  Eric and Kara are shortly adding another puppy to their family; Kylie a Golden Retriever.

The day before we left for this adventure, four of the regulars from one of the Spin Indoor Cycling Classes that Keith takes each week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings came by the house to give us a bon voyage sendoff. There is a lot of great camaraderie in these classes.  Without going into a lot of detail when one of them achieves an agreed upon calorie goal sometime during the class from time-to-time you can hear one of them saying"oink oink".  They made Keith an honorary member of their Oink Club and you may see one of the gifts they brought over for the bon voyage in a photo sometime during this adventure.

To our family and friends we send you lots of love and hugs.  We miss you already.


Our next post will likely be tomorrow on board the Crystal Serenity due to the later than normal embarkation.


It's time.  Let the adventure begin.


TODAY'S THOUGHT FOR THE DAY...........


"You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them." - Desmond Tutu  


Keith & Anne Marie