Settling into Miami

 Marc was able to be in our apartment in Miami for a little while before I came. He set things up pretty nicely, so it was an easy move for me. I unpacked everything I brought in a couple hours.

 Marc added some shelves and a hanger bar in our closet. It isn't quite so empty now that I've unpacked.

 It seems English is not such a dominant language down here. Our ward is bilingual, so they switch off each song and prayer between English and then Spanish. The talks and lessons just depend on which language the presenter speaks the best. Luckily they have headset translators for everyone. The translator switches to translate into whichever language is not being spoken. I've started a little bit of Spanish studies. We'll see how far they go! 

 The landscaping is lovely all along the roads. You don't really notice all the houses because the trees are all that you really see. 

Thanks to the trees our balcony is pretty private. It's nice to just see trees instead of other apartments. When it rains we are not just secluded by the trees, but we are hidden behind a waterfall. This picture wasn't a very heavy rain, but you can kind of get the idea. We seem to get plenty of rain to keep all these plants green.

 These little lizards are EVERYWHERE!! That one is on our car. I am slowly getting used to them darting under my feet, but occasionally one will catch me off guard and make me jump a little bit.

 This is around our apartment complex. The area is pretty and has a few ponds around it. The trees are so weird how the branched grow up, but then have branches that seem to be growing down to the ground.

These guys took some getting used to as well. This is a whole flock of ducks following behind us. After having  the mean chickens in Brigham, I kept expecting them to start biting my heels! Luckily they seem tame and uninteresting in how my ankles taste. They have several ducklings around the ponds as well.

 All the roads seem to have tolls! Most of them we don't have to stop at since Marc got a SunPass for the car. However, this is apparently a private island and so they have their own toll. (Key Biscayne)

 We had a little extra time one evening, so we drove onto the Key Biscayne to look at the beaches there. Above is the skyline of Miami as we drove onto the Key.

 It was evening and the swimming at Crandon Park was closed, but you could still walk along the beach. It was really nice because there weren't a lot of people around. We just went for a nice stroll to end our day.

 We are able to do a little dancing and enjoy the quiet for some calm contemplation :)

 From far away, this bird looked like he was using his wings to call for batman. He kept his wings out the entire time it took us to walk all the way next to him. Eventually he flew away as we passed, but it was kind of odd.

 This is the skyline of Miami on our way back home as we drove off Biscayne.