Recent studies have definitively shown that happiness is independent of wealth, fame and even health. People are happiest when we love and are loved, and when we enjoy what we are doing. No surprise then, that we’re happy. 🙂
0148 Gumbo Limbo
Yesterday we went with Bob and Georgia to a sweet little park named Gumbo Limbo after a tree featured there, and toured aquaria and conservation exhibits including sea turtle rehabilitation. They also feature a walkway through the mangrove forest with this tower providing a quiet view to the sea. That was a happy day.
1461 Plenty
Today they drove us to the Boca airport and we flew to Key West while they had a visit with the most precious great-grandsons you can imagine. We of course have hundreds of pix from the flight, and much of the Keys looks quite like the Bahamas. Similar land and water forms. But the mansions here are more grand. This one looks like plenty of home, and the sort of place that spells Happy for many people at first glance. I wonder if the people living here could possibly be happier than we.
1456 Spacious
Or this ample place. I hope they are at least as happy as we, who flew quietly past in our magic carpet that has made all of this continent our home.
1471 Marathon
This was literally a Marathon flight, because after flying over Key West we headed back up the Keys to land at Marathon. We went to the recommended Island Fish Co. restaurant for lunch while Tripp got some refreshing cool fuel and a rest.
1474 Silent Frenzy
Right from our table on the shaded deck we could throw rice and beans to the fish and initiate a silent frenzy. Those are fish along the bottom to the right corner and when they’d come up for the food some birds would swoop down only to see the fish instantly dart out of reach. Some even flashed their silver bellies at the birds as if to taunt them. Being so relaxed, at first I didn’t see the “L” in this name of a fishing charter company.
1488 Angler Management
Back at the airport Anne rearranged some things in Tripp while I did a ten minute tour of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) chapter 1241 aviation museum. Avery proudly showed their prize plane, this 1930s twin very like the one I snapped when we waited for takeoff Tuesday.
1498 EAA Prize
Then we flew back for another night with Bob & Georgia, snapping out both windows the whole way. Another mansion on a grand estate stood out to me. It even seems to have its own grounded freighter to protect it from the storms. Are these people happy?
1549 Happiness?
I can tell you that we’ve been very happy nearly every minute of this marvelous “Islander Adventure” and most of that is within and between us. Yet somehow it is augmented by scenes and contemplations as we drift by glimpses of other lives.
When we landed again it was minutes ahead of an approaching thunderstorm at Palm County (KLNA) where Tripp has a cozy but less expensive spot to rest. It’s right next to Lake Worth which was once home to some of my ancestors, so taking a taxi through downtown was a bit magical. Tomorrow we’ll take the train into Miami, which we passed not long before that landing this evening.
1555 Miami
John & Anne Wiley 
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