Aventura Nights - Hanna Stationary & Ike Lurks

This is a view of Sunny Isles from Aventura looking east across Biscayne Bay. It is truly breathtaking. Miami Beach shimmers in the Tropical Night while stars in a cloudless sky play peek a boo through palm fronds fluttering in the balmy breeze. The lights of the city, the mall and the other tall buildings make the city look like Manhattan South.

Tonight's article is not about how Hanna is stationary playing around near Club Med in the Bahamas or hanging too close to Haiti while waiting for her ticket north. Her Gulf stream chariot awaits and all the models are neatly clustered for her to skim her way along the Florida coastline towards the Carolina or points beyond. Barring any last minute changes in her path. Tropical storm force conditions may prevail across the area on Thursday night but... you know that!

Tonight's article is not about Ike who I thought on a lot while lying in the pool below and staring around at the brand new beautiful luxury loft that are landscaped so tropically and wondered what the palm trees would look like and where they would go when they fly off the roof in a hurricane. No... I don't want to think on Ike tonight before I go to bed. There is plenty of time tomorrow and the day after tomorrow and the day after Hanna has moved away to think on Ike.

Josephine is but a glimmer in my eye, a fairy tale in my head. Miles away, days away, not for me to worry on tonight.

Tonight the water was warm and the breeze was like velvet against my skin and the night sky was spectacular as was the City of Aventura looking picture perfect below my rooftop pool perch in the sky.

This is what I want to covey today the reason why we stay and live in such a beautiful place at the water's edge while every year hurricanes and tropical storms flirt with us and usually swirl away. Not always. Memories of Jeanne and Frances remain in my brain while Wilma and Rita still seem like they just happened yesterday. And, everyone asks is Ike moving west towards Miami like Andrew and I smile and shrug my shoulders a bit and say we have to wait and see...

The truth is that you have to get out and enjoy life when you can and that means going to the beach, going to the boardwalk, going to a friend's pool and lying motionless, floating up and looking at the stars. It means watching your favorite movie or going out to dinner. It means enjoying the world before it gets blown away by some storm named Josephine or Ike.

You can't let it drive you crazy. I wonder how many people will have heart attacks tomorrow worrying over Hanna that isn't even moving or Ike who may swerve north or south and miss their home in Miami or Pt. St. Lucie.

The tropics being alive and wild can either make you nervous and nuts or it can make you appreciate what you have and hope it is not blown away.

That's what I want to say tonight. Tomorrow I may wax poetic on watches and warnings or Hanna pulling together and sling shot style racing up the Gulf Stream just a day or two ahead of a Ike that is forecasted to be a Major Hurricane on a collision course with Florida.

Enjoy the night. Hold someone you love and hold them tight! Put on your favorite song. Go outside and stare up at the stars. Wake up early and watch the sunrise. Be thankful you are not in Louisiana cleaning up after Gustav. Give thanks for what you have and all you have and enjoy the night... wherever you are it is nicer tonight than it will be in the dead of winter or at the height of a hurricane.

Aventura was beautiful tonight, like it always is when you are several floors above the city staring out from a balcony or in a pool or a Jacuzzi rather than fighting the traffic on Biscayne Blvd.

Even from my front porch in North Miami Beach I can look over to the east, straight down the street almost and see the triangular condo Mr. Trump built that juts out like it's daring the Tropics to hit it with it's best shot on the edge of white sands at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean.

I turned the TV off, I turned the weather radio off. I am charging the sidekick and going to bed.

In the words of Scarlett a true Southern girl who knew how to enjoy a beautiful Southern night... I'll think about Hanna and Ike and Josephine tomorrow.

Sweet Tropical Dreams,

Bobbi