Superbowl, Miami Beach, NBA game, Alligators and Key West all crammed into one wild, wild week!

Miami; take 2(February 2nd-7th): Upon our arrival at terminal 5 at the cruise pier in Miami Feb. 2nd, having survived the Jamaica earthquake and luckily no following tsunami wave, Inigo picked us up and we went to pick up our car for the coming week, a smooth Ford Camaro convertible!

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Superbowl Feb. 2nd 2020 @ Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens, FL; Kansas City chiefs vs San Francisco 49ers:

Well, needless to tell you, Erik of course wasn’t really going to settle for watching the Superbowl on TV: No, he was IN Miami, on the ACTUAL day of Superbowl, anything other than watching the game from the BLEACHERS @ Hard Rock Stadium was NOT an option, or at least that was until he found the ticket price starting at 4000 USD a piece… At this instant the old Seinfeld episode came to (my) mind: “When you’re on an airplane sitting in coach, they always have the stewardess close that stupid first class curtain, you know? They give you a look like: Maybe if you had worked a little harder..I wouldn’t have to do this…“

So, we ended up seeing the game on TV, invited to Marian and Nicks friends Os&Kathryns house. And it was superb! I mean, what’s there not to like? Friends getting together to watch the game, delicious food and beer and cookiecake, the coolest half time show with Shakira and Jennifer Lopez – and some of us even got to go out and celebrate into the early hours at the nightclub @ Hard Rock Hotel! The youngsters brought old Mama (me) out on the town, Mare&Lex served twerking that was up there with Shakiras&Jennifers – it was a blast!!!! And of course we had to swing by the casino @Hard Rock hotel before leaving for home@4am…

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Feb. 3rd: Miami South beach and followed by an NBA game:

Miami South Beach – well, you need to go there and see for yourself! I mean, people are walking around with hardly any clothes on, or just see-through pants & tops, superluxurycars are the rule, the regular cars the exception, and you bump into celebrities here, there and everywhere on the Miami strip(we oldies, E and I, didn’t really know the ones we saw, but Inigo could fill us in).

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Miami Heat vs Philadelphia 76ers in 14th row seats-our first NBA game ever! Rush-hour in Miami is not like rush-hour getting from Oslo to Eiksmarka… But in America they are blessed with valet parking everywhere, including American Airlines stadium downtown Miami, which meant we had time to get through the official Miami Heat store to get Heat-shirts, foamfingers, put on facepaint and get hotdogs, popcorn&sodas/beer in time for the pre-game performance with the dancers. Marian hooked hair extensions on Mille in the car on the way to the game (Mille biggest wish was to get the same length hair as Marian, which was then accomplished)! With all 6 satisfied with game-effects, food and drinks, all we had to do was cheer like mad – and so we did! Noah did such a good cheering job that he actually got on the big arena screens and national TV twice!!! So cool! And Miami heat won the basketball game by mind-blowing 137 to 106! What a blast!

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“Alligator, alligator – eat´em up, eat ´em up!” – Everglades was about a 1,5 hr drive from Ft.Lauderdale, and on the way there we ended up in the middle of a FBI search due to a grotesque murdercase in the area. It was really creepy with 10 folds of policecars by the side of the roads for miles and miles with FBI agents, Sheriffs and police officers in bulletproof vests searching the brush and channels on the roadside with sticks (in case of encounters with Alligators or python snakes). Reaching Wootens Everglade airboat tours spot, we spotted an alligator in the channel right next to us. (only later, at the alligator show following the airboat tour, were we told that the gators can jump 5 ft out of the water and up…). Carl, the airboat guide loaded a bunch of about 12 of us on the boat. The airboat has no keel, its bottom is completely flat, and the way it`s pushed forward is by a giant fan on the back that doesn’t touch the water. That way it`s not harmfull to any of the animals in the swamps, but it was really noisy, so wearing headphones were a must. Carl took us full speed sliding through the swamps with its twists and turns(and to those of you who know boats and are already thinking, well, what if the boat flips when he does a sudden 90 degree turn and hits a sandbank? we thought about that too…). Luckily that did not happen, Carl the gator guide got us safely though somewhat wet around the swamps and showed us the big gators and told us lots about the area.

When I thought about the swamps before we got there, I thought of big open areas with muddy waters and grasslands. When we got there, and were taken around in the swamps, we were driving around in muddy waters but were surrounded by red mangroves! When the huge highways were built years ago, they channeled the freshwater into dikes alongside the roads, and this led to drainage of the freshwater that used to be in the swamp area, in the grasslands of the Everglades. In the high tide season, saltwater would come and mix with the freshwater – making it brackish. However, when the freshwater was led away, the saltwater took over, red mangrove seeds were taken inn by the tide, and settled and started taking over the grasslands. And mangroves are protected by law, so you cannot take them down. With the mangroves the habitat has completely changed, because they make the water even salter due to their inbuilt filter function(the mangroves filter the salt out of the water that they drink, and the remains of the salt that comes into the tree it filters out through a few of their leaves that they simply drop to get rid of the salt). The grass of the grasslands can’t survive these salty waters, the Alligators need some freshwater to drink, so the ecosystem has dramatically changed and the grass is almost gone (except for a small area that you can see in the panoramic picture). Mangroves are protected by law, and for a good reason in most places. The mangroves in Everglades (and everywhere else) also had a really important function during the hurricanes because they do block the huge waves somewhat, and without them the area would be completely wiped out. Funny how nature can be so diverse and difficult and at the same time save us! In Bonaire, the mangroves serves as the nursery for the baby fish, turtles and so on, and also as a protection against tsunami waves and storms, whilst in the Everglades the mangroves have taken over and are not really wanted. So what they are going to do now is to try to channel the freshwater back to the swamps to restore the ecosystem as it was. The other interesting thing Carl told us, was that the Alligators – due to human interference – now have a competitor for food: The python snake! The python is introduced by humans into the the swamps (people who have had them at home and then released them into the wild), it didn’t use to be there. And the snakes are reproducing so fast, that there is a handful of people including Carl, who have hunting licenses for these, and kill them. Pretty awesome to think about being killed by either a python og an Alligator when you`re in a boat without a keel going full speed and doing 90 degree turns and the boat flips…. We made it safely back to the dock, swamped in swamp water, and a little wiser in respect of the Everglades and its diversity.

Need – to – know – facts upon an unexpected encounter with an Alligator:

It can run at a speed of 10-15miles/hr, swim at a speed of 10-12miles pr hour and your best bet to survive if chased by one is climb a tree or something other tall. And don’t run in a zigzag pattern, cause the gators eyes are on the side of the head, so he will then be able to see you and outrun you, but if you run in a straight line he might not see you and you might make it up into a tree! The alligator bite has a pressure of about 1,5 tons…. so there’s hardly any chance to wiggle your way out of their bite…. AND they can hold their breath for 2 hrs under water and their epiglottis shuts, so they easily drown their pray without drowning themselves… Mille and Noah got to hold a baby alligator, and when at that size, they are actually cute – ish.

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Key West: Key lime pie&conch fritters, Hemingways house, Southernmost point feb 5th-6th:The drive down to Key West from Miami took a good 4 hrs, but my, it was worth it! In less than 24hrs we rushed through what we thought was worth seeing in those hrs; the sunset with all the jugglers @ Mallory square where the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean meet. We had conch fritters and Key Lime pie @ Turtle Kraals by the marina, ate breakfast in a small French bakery in old town in one of the old wood houses, travelled down Duvall street to take in all the houses and sights, went to the southernmost point and saw the southernmost house and of course we stopped by Hemingways house. It is now home to appx 40-50 polydactyl (six toed) cats, one of which you can see in the pictures below. Hemingway was given a white six-toed cat by a ships captain, and some of the cats that live here now are descendants of that original cat named Snow White. The cats are taken care of by a trust, and live and wander around on the premises. Hemingway also installed the first private swimming pool in Key West. But Key West has so much more to offer, we definitely will have to come back here.. Had someone offered me a house in the old town, I´d move here in a heartbeat.

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Thank you ever so much, aunt Marian and uncle Inigo for the best week ever staying with you – we loved every second of it, thank you for all of it, you’re the best! And as you well know, Mille and Noah were more than prepared to exchange living with us to come live with the two of you instead – their new Hero and Heroinne!

We love you – hope to see you very soon in Norway!