The weather seemed schizophrenic, changing from sunny to rainy every few minutes. Our original plan had been to find somewhere to hike, but given our late start (how unusual!) and the finicky weather, we opted instead to visit the Jupiter Lighthouse, about seven miles up the coast from West Palm Beach.

The docents at the museum forced us to watch a boring historical video about the lighthouse as they waited for other tourists to show up...I guess a tour of two was too private or something. Eventually, another group showed up and it was our turn to explore the lighthouse.

As you might expect, given the weather, it was really windy atop the lighthouse, with a steady breeze of 20-30 miles per hour. Towards the end of our visit, it clouded back over and it began to rain once more, making the trip back down the iron stairwell that much more interesting.

After the tour ended, we zoomed back down the highway to PBI, with an extra loop around the airport thrown in due to the mega-mess created by the conjunction of highway construction and airport expansion.

The airport was full of funky artwork. The first shown, Lyn Chadwick's Palm Beach Blue (1989), is a tall aluminum sculpture, shaped like a cubist hominoid figure. The next, Reuben Hale's Progression (1993) consisted of life-sized polyester resin casts of cloth-draped nudes...very eerie, and rather odd for an airport, if you ask me. "Where's my luggage?" they seem to be crying...

Although it didn't show up on our itinerary, Southwest snuck in an extra stop on the first leg of our flight home, sending us from PBI to Miami Beach to pick up more passengers, then on to MSY. At least we were treated to a nice sunset on our descent into Miami!

After taking off for New Orleans, we settled back to our travel tasks -- Ting to her book and Randy to the laptop. Roughly half-way through the flight, we caught this most excellent view of the brand new crescent moon, setting into the last glimmer of twilight. Unfortunately, the picture is quite grainy, as most digital pictures are in low light conditions. You'll just have to imagine how cool the actual view was!!

We didn't have time to stop and eat while transfering planes at MSY, but the hot dog stand was worth a quick picture. Given the proportion of the bun, that hotdog in real life would be the size of a toothpick. Mmmmmm, hot dog toothpick drenched in mustard!!  With the cost-saving measures implemented by vendors all over, toothpick-sized hotdogs might not be so far-fetched...

When we arrived at the airport, we could not order our old trustworthy Bayporter Express to take us home since Oakland Airport is so much smaller than SFO. Instead, we had the joy of being overcharged for having no choice in our airport transportation. Well, that can be easily remedied ... adjust the tip (especially when you guess the driver is the sole proprietor).

It was nice getting home. No matter how fun a vacation is, there is nothing that beats sleeping in your own bed, especially a bed with a feather mattress and with sheets that do not clash with the decorations!!!

Ahhhhh, the small joys of life!  :-)