Today was going to be an extra special day....my husband and I had made plans to spend the day boating around Stiltsville which is located in Biscayne National Park - about a 30 minute boat ride from our house. When we were first married - we used to have a little 19' Mako and we'd take it to Stiltsville, dock at one of the empty houses...and swim and relax and make the day of it out in the water.
This was
our my favorite one - I loved it because it was a pretty pink and yellow.. (I was looking forward to seeing if it had survived after all these years)...
Back then, I worried that we would get in trouble... docking up to a house that did not belong to us - but my husband assured me that it was okay - that everyone did it ... which pretty much appeared to be true. This one looked abandoned, like it hadn't been used in years. We used to love going at low tide, you could get out and walk around, sometimes the water was only knee deep. Then Hurricane Andrew came in 1993 and things at Stiltsville weren't the same. We stopped going because most of the houses were destroyed and could not be re-built because the State of Florida was requiring that they be torn down by July 1, 1999.
So fast forward to today - and when my husband asked me what I wanted to do on my birthday, I said I would like to go back to Stiltsville and see how it looked 18 years later. We were so excited because it brought back so many wonderful memories for us...so off we went, and about half way there - the beautiful day turned to a dark, cloudy rainy day; we turned around and went home once we saw lightning. So today it was not meant to be. Here's some photos that I took along the way - even if it is cloudy and dark...the ocean is still so beautiful...
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| I loved the color of this little boat. We passed it going out the cut. |
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| This is at the end of the cut entering into the Ocean. Lots of people fishing today. |
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| The view from the back of our boat - just as we were entering the Ocean. |
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| Eden Roc ... The iconic landmark 1950's Miami Beach Hotel. |
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Oh Oh...the clouds are starting to roll in and it might be time to turn around.
This is the Art Deco District in South Beach. |
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Now we are on our way back home - I just took this because I loved
how this blue building is peeking out behind the other one. |
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| The Therapy IV - in the cut - heading back into the marina. |
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| The beach is now deserted as it has started to rain. |
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Bummed out that we had to come home.
Hoping to get back to Stiltsville before summer ends... I want to do a story on it's remarkable history and how it looks today.
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