You won’t see any sun in today’s photos:  because there wasn’t any!  It poured and poured until about 2pm when it lightened up a little but still kept on raining.  The rain stopped at 7pm when I finally gave up shooting.  There was a surprising amount of flooding everywhere for a state that deals with hurricanes all the time. 

I did manage to get a fair amount of photos for the website — though I have mentally noted that they will all need to be reshot in the sun some other time.  The dogs got exercise during temporary breaks in the downpours.  They had a little beach time in the morning.  We also checked out Pooch Pines in West Palm Beach and Bark Park in Fort Lauderdale.  The fencing was a little skimpy in spots and both places and Grem took off for a bit — but luckily came back.  I really feel like she thinks dog parks are a personal challenge to her – “you ain’t gonna keep me in no enclosure!  There must be something REALLY good on the other side.  That’s where the wild animals live and the trash is tasty.”  Grem can fit through just about any 4″ hole or gap.  I think she waits until I’m busy playing with somebody else and then sneaks off.  Sometimes I see her running off in the distance a football field away — a black speck on the horizon.  So much for “safe” fencing.

Since photo-taking was such a challenge and the driving was also pretty scary, I didn’t get many blog-worthy photos.  Just as well, as I’d love to get to bed by 11:30 tonight for a change.  I want to get up early to get down to Key West before the sun comes up so I don’t waste daylight time going both directions.  I have GOT to start moving up the left coast tomorrow (even though I have a number of Miami stops left).  I’m considering taking a couple extra days off work because I’d really like to continue doing a thorough job with the FL stuff.  Ideally, I would also like to get to some of the stuff from other states on the way home but it’s looking unlikely.  I think I foresee another Southern trip next March to finish things up.

I saw a few of these beautiful yellow flowering trees today which added some cheer to the greyness of it all.  Does anyone know what they are?

I also noticed this tree which must be a coconut palm?

Fort Lauderdale and Miami have incredible amounts of mid-century buildings.  I hope to return some day, in better weather and when I’m not in a rush, to do a much more through job of picture-taking.  I’d like to do a whole batch of just concrete and metal screens like these:

This building had nice metal screening and decorative brickwork as well:

Sorry to cut it short — but I have a big drive before dawn and am still ragged from staying up late last night to catch up with everything after my big night out.  Hopefully, sun tomorrow!