Hurricane Harbor: Back From Vacation in Miami.........Back in Raleigh Before Pine Pollen Pops and Good to be Home. Spring 1 Week Away (Officially on the Calendar) and Hurricane Season 81 Days Away

Yes, Miami is beautiful.

Sunlight on the water is awesome.

Palm fronds swaying in the tropical breeze.

It was a huge trip for many reasons.

And home now in Raleigh.

Red leaves unfurling on the Maple Tree.

Blue Skies.

The current freeze frost line today.

Honestly most of the Winter it's been like this.

Elevation and latitude dictated snowfall in the South.

I went to Miami for a wedding, again, and spent some time with the kids, grandkids and taking in the city I love but the city I left when I got remarried and moved to North Carolina. In between is the city of Savannah that I love with all my heart and soak it all up every time I get a chance. Raleigh is home now, one of my homes and I'm in tune with the flow of life here from season to season. it's common to long for winter in the middle of a horribly hot summer and as Spring begins to show we begin to debate what we will do for the summer.

In Miami the seasons are subtle and only noticeable to the locals. Mango Season is in full bloom and driving everyone mad. Many Miamians love mangoes and many hate them :( and as it was mentioned online they are related to poison ivy and some are outright allergic to their skin though not the fruit. In 1992 everyone was upset and weirded out as there were 3 separate mango blooms (why I don't know) but after Andrew slammed into Miami people began taking the 3 mango blooms as some sort of omen.

Football Season is over and Miami Dolphin Fans hold their breath on every news of a new trade and are already annoyed next year is being seen as a "rebuilding year" vs the "year we go to the Super Bowl" and yet everyone is happy to see Spring Breakers leave except for the bars and restaurant owners. I saw more crazy things on the highway there this trip than ever including a bright orange sports car going Northbound on I95 try to leave the Express Lane where they aren't supposed to and spin out 3 cars in front of all of us going 70 MPH and so the orange car took a hard right turn crossing 3 lanes of traffic and not hitting one car and after it stopped spinning it came to rest facing Southbound. Amazingly it did not cause a NASCAR sort of crash (Thank God) and as we drove past it fast I knew what every person who saw it was thinking "stupid Spring Break" and when I told the story to anyone they indeed said "stupid Spring Break" and yeah that happened. I saw I95 constantly cluttered with police vehicels taking people in .... and no I didn't go to South Beach but yes I went to Bal Habour and Surfside and enjoyed the incredibly tropical views.

I was in Coconut Grove for a Wedding. I love Coconut Grove. My husband and I walked a groom down the aisle to remarry his first wife in a beautiful historic synagogue that several of my sons attend. It was a very small ceremony, simple, beautiful, fast and then it was done. Yes we had Sushi afterwards with artisan bread and a bit of other dips.

And, I'm writing this the way I am today for a reason. It's subtle.

To everything there is a season under heaven. If you want you can say stars that's okay but that's not the way the song goes. And the saying is true and in parts of the USA ...there is such a thing as a time to worry and prepare for Hurricane Season. Inland concerns such as rivers flooding in North Carolina far from the coast and along the beautiful coastline in Florida that is especially prone to land falling tropical systems.

Lush, verdant, tropical Simpson Park.

5 blocks from my house growing up.

My cousin and I would go down and sneak in.

Just basically because we were told not to.

So this park not far from where I lived as a child is so Miami tropical, a paradise of local, native plants that have been there forever with time off for various hurricanes that ripped it apart and then as things do in Miami...........they grow back. This section explains how it grew back from the awful 1926 Great Miami Hurricane that hit Miami dead on not down in Kendall as Andrew did in 1992.

Note how close it is to the Bay.

In 1835 a massive, dangerous Hurricane with no real name.... slammed into the shoreline during one of the Seminole Wars when few people lived there - the land was used for plantations, farming and nothing more. The botanical records show that the storm surge went all the way into what is now Simpson Park but was then a mangrove and hardwood hammock tumbling down all the trees, vegetation and moving a bit further inland. Now that area is densely populated, the real estate is worth a fortune that any third word country would love to have and yet so far it's been lucky. In 1926 many of the trees fell down and as the above article says it was used as a dumping ground for trash and there was a lot of trash and debris. Ships were dumped far inland on the lawns of private homes built in the Roaring 20s for parties not a strong Category 4 Hurricane.

There is an empty lot near there, across the street waiting for a huge new skyscraper to be built later this year or next. The lot is used for food trucks and local joggers jog along the shade provided by Simpson Park because Miami. Most of the tourists don't care as long as they are not there when a hurricane hits. Most of the newbies from other places are clueless and usually the old timers know in any given year a Major Hurricane, even a Category 5, can happen.... history repeats.

Huge Banyon Trees and behind them...

...is Simpson Park.

98 years since a Major Hurricane slammed into it!

Below is the cute real plane food truck.

Because Miami is magical.....

There's an old fuselage of a plane on a flatbed truck.

A new level of food truck.

You enter, walk up the stairs.

Order and they bring it to you.

And you sit in the sunshine in a perfect world.

Or what seems like a perfect world.

And it's perfect cause its March.

And there is no hurricane........

......and Miami is not in a Cone

If you go to Miami.....and you should!

Try it out.

Enjoy.

You really gotta see it.

Just go before the Rainy Season.

And not Hot August day...

and definitely not Hurricane Season.

https://skycoffeebuenosaires.com/

To everything there is a season.

A time to travel to Miami for a wedding and a chance to see my kids and grandkids as well as the city I love and left. Winter time, still cool at night and hot during the day and that will soon change. If you have a chance go fast before the Monsoon Season which comes before the Hurricane Season.

This blog is moving into the Pre Hurricane Season when I attempt to show the importance of Hurricane Prep so that you know where you must go if you need to evacuate or how to hunker down and ride out the storm.

Long blog today. I'm under the weather healthwise as I'm fairly sure that several of the grandkids did not have an "allergy" and were sick with something that I caught and am working my way through getting better. I took the day off to rest, heal and work my way through a ton of to do lists.

But knowledge is power and before you prepare you have to know, realize and be aware that this could be the year Miami or Tampa or Jacksonville or New Orleans or Clearwater or Morehead City North Carolina or Beaufort South Carolina or up the road in Virgnia or the Del Marva........or out West near Houston Texas.

History repeats.

If it's happen before it can happen again.

Are you aware of what you need to do to prepare for the Hurricane and for the aftermath?