View from on high

[muckefuck]

Although we returned to Singer Island this year, my sister and stepmother decided to try a different property. If you peer between the skyscrapers, you can see the terracotta-coloured roofs of where we stayed four years ago and another four years before that. It has the advantage of being larger and not on the main drag (the continuous traffic noise was reminiscent of when I lived near LSD). The units here had larger balconies and fancier showers, but were otherwise much the same.

We were surprised to have an open vista to the south like this. From what we were able to piece together, the hotel located here was torn down some years ago but part of it (visible in the lower right) became a massage parlour. That closed, too, and the property was bought up by a speculator who uses it to host parties. Out of frame to the left is a pavilion which I discovered was stacked with folding chairs and tables when I snuck in on our last morning there and had a peek.

It was refreshing to see a bit of greenery which wasn't manicured to within an inch of its life even if it's still far from natural. Obviously the line of palmettos is a relic of some earlier landscaping, but it seems likely that the trees are volunteers. The squatter ones are seagrapes, which I was familiar with from earlier visits (Marriott uses them to screen the pool areas from the beach) but I'm not used to seeing grow so large.

The spikier ones aren't actually conifers even if they are popularly known as "Australian pines". The species name is Casuarina equisetifolia, from the resemblance to both cassowaries and horsetails. They don't have needles at all; their leaves take the form of scales covering thin twigs and they're actually in the beech family. They are Australian, however, although endemic to South Florida, where they're considered invasive.

Unfortunately the weather conditions captured here were rather typical. Normally the Florida summer means thunderstorms which build over the course of the day, release a cloudburst around 4 o'clock or so, and dissipate. This trip we had rain into the evenings most nights, and often in the middle of the day as well. At points the winds were so strong the raindrops were driven upwards, giving them the appearance of snowflakes and making my sister doubt her eyes.