The Flik Family by York Flik
Key Biscayne has been part of my family’s story for longer than I can remember.
It all started with my maternal grandparents; Arthur and Irma Milligan. Arthur, an attorney and retired judge from Long Island, and Irma, a Cornell grad with a passion for travel, first set foot on Key Biscayne in the early 1950s. At the time, they were only planning to vacation here for a month, but as so many have discovered, Key Biscayne has a way of captivating hearts. That one-month stay turned into many, and by the early ‘60s, they had become regular snowbirds, spending much of their time under the Beach Club’s chickee huts with friends like the Vales, Harolds, Horowitzes, and others.
Mom, Julie, continued the tradition, visiting every year as a young woman. In 1965, she introduced my father, Ruediger (Rudi) Flik, to the island. They stayed in a house my grandparents rented on Woodcrest. My first visit to the Key came in 1968; I was just a baby at the time living in Massachusetts and later New York. Visits became an annual tradition and eventually my parents bought a vacation home on Glenridge, then Curtiswood, and later Mariner Drive. My dad called the place Schlupfwinkel am Kanal—“hiding place on the canal” and I lived there while studying at RSMAS and later UM LAW.
In ’92, while applying for law school, I worked at the Seaquarium. I was making minimum wage but, as they say, money can’t buy you love. There I met Trish, a Miami native, who was living her best life training sea lions at the Golden Aqua Dome. From the moment we met, something clicked. We shared a passion for music, travel, nature, and by January 1993, we were inseparable.
As I pursued my law degree, Mike O’Brien hired me as a lifeguard at the Beach Club, while Trish stepped away from the Seaquarium and returned to school to earn her bachelor’s degree from UM. After finishing law school, I bought my own little slice of Key Biscayne paradise; an apartment at Governors Lodge with a fleeting view of the ocean over the vacant Sheraton Hotel property.
In April 2000, Trish and I exchanged vows at Vizcaya and began a new chapter on the island as husband and wife. We welcomed our son, Kai, into the world in 2001. Shortly thereafter we sold our Sunrise apartment and moved across the street to the Sands. In 2003, we were blessed with the birth of our daughter, Thea. I think we were the only Sands residents at the time with young children. We felt like pioneers; always looking over our shoulders with the kids in the pool.
Both kids attended the K-8 Center then had the good fortune to be accepted into MAST Academy for Middle and High School. As our family grew, so did our need for space. In 2004, we found a new home on West Heather Drive, just in time for hurricanes Katrina and Wilma to test our resilience.
Throughout our KB journey we’ve been blessed by this extraordinary community, deep friendships, and endless adventure right at our doorstep. Key Biscayne isn’t just an address—it’s the backdrop to our love story, the sanctuary where our children have grown, and a place to protect at all costs.
