Back from Miami

Okay, I just noticed that I misspelled "spring" in my last title. Lame.  "Sping" does have kind of cute ring to it, though. Hmm.

Well, as you most know, Jeff and I just returned from a week (+2 days) in Miami Beach, Florida. Actually, most of our free time was spent in South Beach, that being where we did all our sleeping and eating and a majority of our walking. So here is the low down.

We took the red-eye to Miami, which I absolutely hate. Hate is a strong word, but it is not strong enough to fully describe just how much I detest that flight. We even had decent seats (thanks to Jeff's MVP status on Alaska, which he is so very proud of :-) but no matter how much leg room, the fact that fully reclining your seat results in a 90 degree angle REALLY makes me cranky! That on top of the fact that I can't sleep sitting up due to the fact that my jaw won't stay closed and tend to drool all over myself tends to make me a not very nice traveling companion. Anywho....we did arrive and it was a beautiful day in Florida.

 We landed, found our luggage and a taxi and were in front of our "hotel" within an hour. I use the word "hotel", but I have come to think of our usual domain on South Beach as more of a hostel of sorts.  Having only stayed in two of the rooms, they are all very different though based on the same layout. Just an efficiency room with a small kitchenette right next to the bed, a bathroom and a closet. I believe that many of the rooms are actually owned privately, as in a condo. This is what we rent when we are there. Our room is privately owned, so we don't get hotel-type ammenities, such as towel service. Of course, upon our arrival, we didn't care, we just wanted to LAY DOWN!  Unfortunately, the new person at the desk was unfamiliar with our situation and we had to wait until the next shift started when there would be a lady who could help us. Sigh. Luckily it was only an hour or so spent on the lobby couch (uh, yeah, I guess it could be called that).  When Mel finally arrived, it was only to inform us that the room wasn't ready for us. UGH! She did allow us to go up and dump off our suitcases, at which time we changed into our bathing suits, grabbed the beach chairs and headed to the nearest Walgreens for towels and sunscreen and proceeded to spend the next few hours passed out on the beach.

I swear, we probably looked like homeless people as at that hour, we pretty much were the only ones on the beach and sleeping in our clothes at that (it was still a little coolish for bathing suits).  Quite honestly, I don't remember much more of that day. We eventually went back to the room and took a shower, only to find that the shower consisted of an anemic dribble that if you held the shower head up with one hand, and splashed the stream with the other hand onto your body, you might get wet.  Not happy.  Oh yeah, that is what we did the rest of that day, we searched up and down South Beach for a pair of pliers. Finally had to resort to asking the guy at the front desk for a pair and then carefully avoid telling him exactly what we wanted it for.

My husband is amazing.  He basically removed what we believe must have been an attempt at a water saving device and tightened the shower head and we were able to enjoy a REAL shower the rest of the week. You would have thought we were staying at the Ritz!

The next day was a dream! We woke to sunny skies and a great breakfast at our favorite breakfast place, David's Cafe.

And then we hit the boardwalk! Jeff found this promenade the last time he was here on his own and it was a wonderful start to the day. Basically, it starts out as a sidewalk along the beach, then winds its way between the beach front hotels and the shore. Eventually it turns into an honest to goodness boardwalk constructed of wood and elevated off of the beach.  The hotels are actually quite pretty at that end and the foot, bicycle traffic makes for excellent people watching!



I was actually quite facinated by the number of women completely clothed in black with either terry cloth turbans covering their heads, or some other head covering. Most wore long skirts with black tights and fancy tennis shoes as they walked, pushed strollers, or just sat and visited with others of thier kind.  Jeff said they were Jewish women and in fact I did see some of them reading from their prayer books in Hebrew. I don't know whether they lived nearby or were all on vacation, or just actually kept residences in the hotels there on the beach. The few that I heard speaking sounded straight from New York, however. This picture of the three people walking, really touched me. A man and his wife (on the left) and his daughter (on the right).

We followed them for quite a ways before we passed them. It was such a nice view.