All good things must come to a close, so on July 5, after finally being able to get our plane tickets from Miami to Venezuela, we took the train from Charleston to Miami. We had another great journey with Amtrak. Our mound of luggage in the Miami train station does not even include a box of books that we collected in Miami, but it's still pretty impressive. We got on a city bus with all this luggage to get to Miami Beach, where we stayed at a hostel/hotel (Lombardy Inn) on the North Beach.
We took buses around the city, down to South Beach, and in to downtown. We also went swimming every day, being only a block from the white sand and turquoise water of the beach.

From Raleigh, we took the Amtrak train to Charleston. We had a great trip on the train and much preferred it to flying. Charleston was all about seeing many friends and exploring old favorite haunts, including the Ashley Marina where we had our boat for almost five years. Since we didn't expect to stop, Charleston was a wonderful visit. The beach at Folly, the new bridge, downtown, Circular Church, and many other places beckoned.
The pastor at Circular joked with us that most folks would not visit Minnesota in March and then go to Charleston in June. It was warm and steamy, to get us ready for the tropics.

From Chicago, we flew to Raleigh, NC to visit our friends Bob and Judy Reuss. Here's Bob in his workshop, where he crafts works of art out of wood.
We saw some of the tourist sights in the Raleigh area too, including the Doris Duke Gardens on the university campus.