Miami Beach!

We are spending Christmas week in Miami Beach because flying to Miami Beach, staying for a few days and then catching a flight to Little Cayman that originates in Miami is way cheaper than flying straight there from home. Crazy, I know, but that is the truth. There is a long story about how much money I saved even after we got to spend the week on the beach, but… Anyway – here we are, enjoying a windy few days on the beach. We have a nice view from our room and at night we get some festive lights!

Day Time

The lifeguard stands along the beach are pretty cool, as are the kiosks for the beach chairs. 

Lifeguard stand

I like the antenna!

We are in the area called Middle Beach, which is (drum roll) between South Beach and North Beach. You really do get a different vibe as you stroll along, South Beach has clubs, lots of hotels and restaurants, a large shopping district, and the famous Art Deco Buildings. Middle Beach has some great buildings and hotels, seems a bit quieter and we found an awesome Cuban diner just across from the hotel – Tropical Beach Café if you ever make it down here. Of course, we ate there multiple times. On of our friends who works at the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Columbus used to work down here and he recommended it and several other places – Thanks Marius, all your advice was great!

I like the little shades

Lots of preservation of old buildings

We did not take many pictures, too busy admiring the buildings…

On our walks we have had awesome people watching, but also great people listening. The variety of languages and accents has been fun! We have heard some we think were Portuguese from Brazil, a few that sounded Scandinavian, German and New York! There are also a fair number of people with Southern Accents and Alabama gear. We think they might be here for the football game. On today’s walk, we were down where all of the stages are being set up for the Orange Bowl festivities and the ESPN College Game Day stage was up and the commentators were getting ready to go on air. Fun stuff! We do, however, count ourselves lucky that we will be long gone before the game.

On other walks we have seen some pretty interesting vehicles too. One hotel entrance had the following line up out front – a Rolls Royce, a Ferrari, a Porsche, a high end Cadillac, a BMW and several Suburban’s with uniformed drivers.  And then there are the boats parked in the river…

“There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.”
— Robert Louis Stevenson (The Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson, Fiction, Historical, Literary)