Happy to be home

I had the unpopular task of waking my family this morning at the crack of 4:30am.
As you can imagine, they loved me for it.
I won't go through all the gruesome details of how we finally ended up in our seats on the plane. Just know that by that time we were ready to go back to bed, and found the rising sun to be quite annoying. I took the above photo as the jets were lining up for take-off and the sunbeams were coming down through the clouds.
During the flight I had the chance to reflect on all the great friends I'd made and experiences I'd shared with the various gondola people in the Sunshine State. My thanks go out to Pierre and Mike with the gondola operation at Stork's Cafe, Bob and Roberto at Island Queen Cruises in Miami, and all the good people in Naples - Lisa, Donna, Kevin and Patty.
Sadly, I think I could have spent another four or five days visiting additional gondola operators in Florida. The place is amazing, with all of it's canals and waterways.
As we took off from Ft. Lauderdale, I aimed my big lens out the window and caught the image below of the beach and Intracoastal Waterway as it makes it's way south towards Miami.
With all the different waterways, canals, lakes and lagoons, it's no surprise that there have been so many gondola operations and other types of boat charter services throughout the state.
I look forward to the next time I'm in Florida, but today I'm just happy to be home.