We planned to meet the kids at the Einstein Bagel shop at 8 a.m. We got there at 7;30 and bought some coffee to drink while we waited outside. The man sitting in the background in this picture was panhandling.  I realized we were in the fancy neighborhood when I listened to him. Every time a person came out of the bagel shop or the Starbucks, he would ask the if they could give him $50.

He moved around to the sidewalk next to the building, very close to us. Many of the customers handed the man money.  Andy noted that a good number of them were $5 bills. After half an hour, Andy figured the man had taken in $50.  That was $100 per hour. Certainly a lot better than minimum wage.

I took pictures of Owen and Cam while Mama and Papa were inside buying breakfast.

There were some dark clouds passing by, some of them dumping rain on us. When the sun went away, Cam pulled down his sunglasses and folded both ears down in the process.  He didn’t seem to notice.

We were walking to the vehicles when Owen noticed the tree growing on top of a building and asked me to take a picture of it.

Before they came to Coral Gables, the kids went to the Kennedy Space Center.  Owen wore his new space clothes today and told me he is an astronaut in training.

Then I took a few pictures of him in the palm fronds.

The outing today was to the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden.

We took the guided trolley tour through the park.  The tour guide got out to talk about the Baobob tree and invited the children to get off the trolley to feel the tree.

I loved the statue/sculpture of Marjorie Stoneman Douglas, author of “River of Grass” and was the force behind getting the Everglades protected rather that filled in and developed.

Cam was struggling to carry an umbrella so Andy held the tip and the strap to help him.  It was funny when Cam got distracted and walked out from under the umbrella as Andy continued carrying it.

We ate lunch in the cafe overlooking the butterfly enclosure. This is Son-in-Law George’s brother JD.  Cam enjoyed sitting on Uncle JDs lap.

This tree was in front of the cafe.  It started raining while Owen was posing in front of it and we made a dash to the building overhang to stay dry.

This is a Cannonball Tree from the rain forests of Central and South America.  The stem with the cannonballs came right out of the trunk.

Andy and I decided that we will make another trip to Fairchild and spend a day walking around and taking pictures of the plants.  It is a beautiful place.

We headed back to Marathon from the garden and traffic was horrific heading back into the keys.  It took us almost two more hours to get home than it should have.