The Schiffers: Day 2 – 11am

We all awoke to cacophony of little girl screams to what I thought was around 2am in the morning. It was however actually 8am. The day prior the hotel happily received over 150 young girls celebrating their Quinceanera. I was told they were on a three week party all over Florida. What great time those girls will have!! All of us closed our eyes hoping to get just a few more minutes of rest.

My eyes peeled open a little after 11am. WOW! I sat up straight in bed happy but somewhat aggravated that I slept in that long. Everyone was still asleep except Olivia was missing. She had awoke apparently a bit earlier and left the rest of the clan sleeping. I texted her and she quickly responded saying whe was walking on the beach. She was hoping to meet us downstairs for breakfast. I agreed and woke LT knowing he would join promptly. I woke Anna and told her our plans.

The breakfast, now lunch was okay. Olivia, LT and I ordered some grub and figured Mom would be joining us very shortly. Anna did join us about ten minutes later and proceeded to tear up some well needed fuel to start the day. While we were in the restaurant the skies were bowling some amazing strikes. One even was so close it literally scaried all of us because it shook the entire place.

Since it was raining, we decided to go to the Philip and Patricia Frost Science Museum. The museum is like Discovery Place back in Charlotte, only that it has a big concentration of marine life – duh – it’s it Miami. The building was pretty neat as the main traffic is all handled outside. The inner core of the building is a large aquatic tank, with smaller tanks flanking it. We hung around and visited all the floors for about 2 hours before heading back towards South Beach.

Inside the bubble of the tank at the Frost Science Museum

Since we drove my car, we dropped the ladies off back at the hotel and LT and I drove off to see if we could hook up to a Peacock Bass. Thomas has had a personal goal to catch one of these beautiful creatures. They are common in the Miami and Fort Lauderdale area, but do are not to common outside of that area. They were brought in from the Brazilian Amazon accidentally and released in the Florida waterways. Now they are permanent resident with very few predators. They are a very prized fish for the vibrant colors and patterns. A true aquatic masterpiece.

A swirl of bait fish at the bottom of the giant tank at the Frost Science Museum

LT and I drove to a few spots only to be encountered with fencing and poor access to canals. Finally we drove to Robert King park and found an old railroad track where the gate was cracked open. LT and I decided this was the place. After a few casts near a trestle bridge, LT hooked up and screamed with excitement. We were both jazzed as this was the first Peacock Bass any of us had laid into. Not but five minutes later, LT hooked into another Peacock, but this time it was a male. I asked how he knew and he indicated it was by the hump on the top of its head. We walked around a little bit more before driving to one more spot where once again the Fish Master was able to hook up with one more Peacock Bass. Unfortunately, Big Poppy came up short today.

First Peacock Bass ever caught.

What a serious young man!

On our way back to the hotel we call the girls and decided to pick them up on Ocean Drive. They had taken an Uber to Ocean Drive and walked the beach and hit a few of the restaurants and bars. Needless to say since it was around 8pm the strip was packed and bustling with Players!!

Lion Fish at the Frost Science Museum - such magnificent but deadly creatures

We eventually made back to our place and decided to eat at the Cuban restaurant across the street. Pretty good grub and before long most of us were upstairs in bed checking our eyelids for holes.