Sonya's Blog - Day 197 - Exploring Miami

Sonya’s Blog - Day 197 - January 5th - Exploring Miami

We decided to go and visit Miami today. This is the closest we are going to get to it and we won’t stop when we are towing the trailer and visit on our way down to Marathon. So a day trip it is.

The trip was pretty uneventful and we finally made it to Miami. We decided to visit Little Havana as Blake had read that it was a nice place to walk around. Well, not sure that we went to the right part of Little Havana. It was really run down and lots of sketchy characters on the sidewalks. This one guy walked out in the middle of the road, right in front of the this poor woman’s car and started making rude gestures at her. Traffic was backed way up and she couldn’t get around him because he was right in front of her car. Did not inspire me to want to get out of my car in that neighbourhood or leave my car parked on the streets. We drove around for several blocks, but nowhere resembled the quaint, village type atmosphere that we were expecting. We just drove around and then left. Little Havana is just outside downtown Miami so we were downtown and stuck in traffic in minutes.

Downtown Miami is like a lot of other large cities, massive skyscrapers and jammed up streets with traffic. It took a long time to get through the streets and find the Bayside Marketplace and Bayfront Park. We were hoping this would be a nice place to walk around and find somewhere to have lunch that would allow us to have Kizmet with us. By the time we found parking and got over to the Marketplace we were all hungry and had to go to the bathroom. We stopped at the first restaurant that we found, Bubba Gumps. They would allow us to sit outside and have Kizmet on the patio and they had food and bathrooms, good enough. It was right beside a massive Banyan Tree (one of my favourite trees) and it reminded us of being in Hawaii (we LOVE Hawaii) and eating at Bubba Gumps in Lahaina, Maui. The food was decent, the bathrooms were clean and the service was prompt and courteous. What more can you ask for? Here is a picture:

After lunch we walked along the shoreline and into Bayfront Park. It was a nice little walk, we really liked this one corridor that had different art work displays on the wall. Picture:

We headed back when our parking meter had run out of time and drove over to Miami Beach. This is on an island and is connected to the mainland by a several causeways. There are several smaller islands along the way and these are all developed and have massive houses on them, most of them with a large yacht or boat parked out front on the water. They are like private little islands for the wealthy. I was surprised that the bridge to the island wasn’t a drawbridge and they could treat the water as their own moat. Then they could have their little island of wealthiness and exclusivity. I mean they already have that, but the drawbridge would really drive it home. I am sure they have a large guardhouse with gates once you get over the bridge. The Islands look a little too perfect as well, probably manmade for the wealthy so they didn’t have to hobnob with people of lesser importance than them. Okay, I am done now.

We parked along the road beside Lummus Park and got out to walk around. A lot of the hotels and buildings were in the Art Deco style, it must have been a theme or something. The park was nice, long and narrow. It was between the beach and the street we parked on. We went over to check out the beach, but Kizmet wasn’t allowed on this beach. I walked around the park area with her and Blake and the kids walked out to check out the beach. It was very windy by this time and you could see the rain clouds coming in (it is supposed to start raining tonight and continue all day tomorrow). The beach was nice, but they felt like they were being sandblasted by the blowing sand. They took a few pictures and got off. We then walked up and down the street to check it out. It was just a whole lot of hotels, restaurants and some shops. We decided it was getting pretty late so we got some drinks and headed out. Well it was 4:30 by this time and it was very busy on the roads. We followed the highway up the island for awhile to check it out some more, and it was very slow going. It was just more hotels. There was an area that looked like it would be a neat shopping district to walk around in, but we didn’t feel like stopping again.

It took 3 hours to get home. We finally managed to get on the Florida turnpike, which is a toll road, but far less busy. We had the Sunpass and were happy to pay the tolls if that got us moving. Sure enough, as soon as we were on it, things went much better. It took us over an hour to get on it though, so it was a long drive back. We got back at 7:30 and had a light supper and fed poor Kizmet. Blake then took her out for her walk and just in time too. They got back and the rain started. Blake and the kids watched another episode of The Flash, they are almost done season 1 now. I read a book. I am now reading Minding Frankie by Maeve Binchy. It is typical Maeve Binchy, not the greatest writing in the world, but easy to read.

Sonya