Miami

This vacation schedule is starting to make the days all blurry.  Do you know that I got up this morning thinking that I needed to write a H54F post?  And then when I realized it was only Thursday, I crawled right back in bed and went to sleep for 2 more EST hours.  Oh, we're going to have such a hard time getting back into regular schedules...

Yesterday, we reluctantly left beautiful Clearwater and made our way across this giant bridge...

Have I mentioned that I'm not a huge fan of bridges?  Well, I'm not.  None of them.  Not overpasses.  Not beautiful little footbridges over scenic rivers.  Not covered ones at the golf course that are made of wood and sound like they're going to fall apart under the weight of my swiftly walking feet.  And especially not the ones that are many miles long and cross over water??  I have a completely unreasonable fear of the bridge collapsing and the vehicle that I'm in plummeting into the water.  It was worse when there were three carseats in my vehicle.  Ugh...when did I get to be such a neurotic worrier??  One of the benefits of this trip, though, is that I've had to face my fears and close my eyes and get on those bridges. 

This one, the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, is particularly scary impressive.  It towers 19 stories above Tampa Bay and it is 15.1 miles long connecting St. Petersburg to Bradenton.  It is the longest precast concrete span in the western hemisphere!  (I'm sure you can understand my delight in knowing this little bit of information BEFORE we crossed the bridge.)   

Well, you'll be happy to know that we made it safely and successfully over the bridge.  This was my favorite part...the downhill half where we could SEE the rest of the bridge in front of us...and that it was completely in tact. 

We passed a super long fishing pier, too, that was filled with fishermen.  

And then, after several long hours of inland driving, we ended up here...

We're in downtown Miami for a couple of days.  It's so super upscale and posh here, we're all feeling slightly out of place.  Everyone looks like Gucci and Michael Kors, and we look more like Old Navy.   It's like walking around a scene from CSI Miami...good thing we rented that super sexy, black Yukon!  

I love waking up in the morning entirely surrounded by water...