Miami and the Keys!

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New Orleans - Miami

Saturday 4th October (Day 40)

We got up in the morning and had one last stroll past the restaurants and tourists shops. I bought a few items for people back home and Vaughan bought a white t-shirt, as he was finding it too hot with all the black-coloured shirts he had brought with him. New Orleans was so sunny and really vibrant - it was full of bright colours and action and music. We didn’t want to go, but unfortunately it was time to get sorted out to make it to the airport. Miami was calling, and we had plans for the evening there already. We made it back to the hotel to check out and called a taxi to take us to the airport. The flight was fine and for once, we didn’t have to go through Atlanta. We arrived in Miami a little late and waited outside the terminal for a bus to our car rental place. All the car rental companies were off the actual airport site. Some companies had buses that came by every 5 minutes. We waited for ours for over an hour which was a bit hot and frustrating, especially as we still had to actually pick up the car itself, drive to South Beach, check in to our hotel, get something to eat and then drive for about 1 ½ hours north in time to make it to a concert Vaughan had bought tickets for - one of my favourite bands, Counting Crows.

We eventually made it onboard a bus and managed to pick up our car. After heading out on to the freeway in the wrong direction, we managed to get back on track and headed for South Beach. Miami freeways seemed very complicated compared to other cities we have visited, and they were everywhere. We headed over one of the causeways from the mainland (Miami itself) to South Beach (part of the larger Miami Beach area), which was pretty impressive - there are about 4 or 5 causeways that take you from the Miami mainland area over to the beaches. The beach goes for miles north, but South Beach seemed to be a popular location for both the young and rich, and the old and bored. As you go over the causeways, you can see hundreds of rich homes with their own boat jetties, on small islands in the middle. Each island has its own mini-causeway and security guard - basically each island is its own gated-community. The homes were so nice, and it was interesting to see all the islands and rich homes on one side, and the passenger port area, where about 5 gigantic cruise ships were berthed, on the other side. It started absolutely hosing down, and I’m talking torrential rain with thunder and lightning - it was full on. We couldn’t even remotely see where we were driving and traffic had pretty much stopped moving altogether. We managed to make it off the causeway, so at least we were in South Beach itself, however, all the traffic lights had stopped working, and many of the intersections were flooded. People were wading through the water that was well over knee deep on the footpath. Loads of things were floating in the water (like plastic rubbish bins) and a car was even stuck in the middle of one intersection, with water up to its door handles. Traffic was moving incredibly slowly, trying to avoid the deepest water, and there seemed to be people and cars (and water) everywhere. Many people were dressed up for their night out drinking and clubbing, but they were all now saturated to the bone.

We made it to our hotel with minimal time to spare, only to find out that we had been moved to a different hotel due to renovations, so we headed back out in the rain and traffic again, and finally made it to our hotel. We were running about an hour late and were both stressing that we wouldn’t make it to the concert in time. We basically just checked in to get our key & then headed out again - no time to stop for food, just straight out onto the freeway north. The drive was meant to take about 1 ½ hours, but it was raining torrentially the whole way and the traffic was quite slow. For about 40 minutes of the journey it was raining so hard that neither of us could see anything at all - I've never been in rain like it before. I don’t even know how Vaughan stayed on the road in all honesty and he did a great job. Traffic was moving faster around us and I really didn’t understand how they didn't crash. The only way you could tell where the lane was, was by staying close enough to the vehicle in front that you could see its rear lights (although if they stopped in a hurry you would run into the back of them). It was getting pretty dark by now and everything seemed like complete madness and it was pretty stressful. I don’t even really know how we got there - there were a million toll booths on the way as well. I was relieved when we arrived - better late than never! Luckily the venue was good and parking was easy (and close). The rain had pretty much stopped and we made it inside, only missing the first song. The venue was a small outdoor arena with the front section having allocated seating and a roof, and the rear section just a grassy hill. We had booked seats under cover (which I had suggested because of the likelihood of tropical thunder storms - smart, eh!?) and after getting sorted (we had to get an usher to kick some people out of our seats), we sat down to watch the Counting Crows with an awesome view. The venue wasn’t that big and we happened to be in the front row of a slightly elevated section, so we could see perfectly - it was pretty cool! The concert was good, and it was the last night of their tour, so they had a lot of energy. It was awesome for me as I have wanted to see Counting Crows for ages and I missed them in London, although Vaughan got to go. Afterwards both Vaughan and I bought a Counting Crows t-shirt and we jumped in the car and stopped off at a McDonalds just down the road for a late dinner, as we were starving and hadn’t had a chance to eat yet after our mad rush to the concert. It had stopped raining but we could see a few drops starting to fall again now, so we headed back for South Beach, this time with much better visibility. We were able to suss out a route that avoided some of the tolls as well, and finally made it back to our hotel at about midnight. It was still incredibly hot and humid even at that time of the night, so we wandered up the road to the local Walgreens (like a large 24-hour pharmacy and convenience store) where we got a cold drink each, and wandered around with all the other people who were out and about. It was quite busy on the streets with people still out drinking and walking between clubs, and we saw heaps of limos and luxury vehicles around the place. Eventually we went back to the hotel as it was so muggy outside and we had had a big day. We certainly could have done without the stress but everything had turned out fine and we had still had a fantastic night. Miami was proving to be wet and crazy, and we were looking forward to tomorrow.


Sunday 5th October (Day 41)

We woke up in the morning after a restless night - it was incredibly hot, and the air conditioning was loud and inefficient. Vaughan wasn’t feeling very well (he seems to feel faint a lot when it’s humid) so I went down to the breakfast room and brought him back lots of breakfast things to munch on. After a while he was ready to go out, and we headed down to Walgreens to stock up on water, most of which we put in the car so that we always had water while we were driving around. We started off by heading back over the causeway to see if we could get over to some of the islands where all the rich houses were. We passed four massive cruise ships now berthed at the port, drove over the mini-causeway and approached the gated-community we had picked at random, and to our surprise, the guard let us in so that we could drive around for a look, although we weren’t allowed to stop anywhere. After half an hour of looking around the nicer areas we headed back over to South Beach and had a look around the neighbourhoods that were a little closer to where we were staying. Some of them were also gated-communities, but the houses were much older (very average). It was interesting to note that 10 or 15 years ago those homes were probably part of the ‘rich’ neighbourhoods at that time. We stopped off to buy some alcohol, and settled on premixed cocktails and a bag of ice, since we were in a tropical location! We dropped everything off back at the hotel (putting the drinks on ice in the bathroom sink), before heading down to the Ocean Beach Park area (the very south of South Beach). It was surrounded by loads of massive high rise apartments where all the old people lived. Other parts of South Beach had amazing Art Deco architecture, and some of it was in fantastic condition, with many buildings brightly coloured and completely renovated. Even our hotel was an old Art Deco building, although it wasn’t in such good shape. It was really interesting to see all the different architectural styles around the place - the Art Deco buildings seemed to be a part of South Beach’s rich history, and we both really enjoyed seeing all the palms trees and happy people wandering around the Ocean Beach Park area. Luckily, as it wasn’t mid-Summer, the beach was pretty quiet, although getting a park was still difficult (the hotel didn’t have any parking). I think I appreciated the air conditioning the most though, as the humidity really sapped your strength even after just a few minutes. We parked back near the hotel in the afternoon and walked down the beach, just taking our time wandering along the smooth white sand and paddling in the water. There were very few people around at all, and most of the sections of beach usually covered in deck chairs, were completely packed up for the season. There were still a few lifeguards around, but on the whole it was pretty quiet, which was really pleasant and relaxing. There were loads of lifeguard towers and they were all a different design, as well as different crazy colours. The water was incredibly warm, but still a nice relief along with the coastal breeze, which managed to take the overwhelming humidity away for a short time. As we were coming back from the beach it started to rain again, and suddenly the heavens opened completely and we were in the midst of another tropical downpour. We raced back to the hotel before we got too saturated and hid out there for a couple of hours, in the air conditioning. I was finding Miami far too hot and humid for my liking, although the coastline and many other things about it were certainly beautiful.

Vaughan had a nap while I did some washing and wrote some postcards. It had stopped raining so we ventured out again to Walgreens for another cold drink (very useful), and then down to the Lincoln Rd Mall. We had heard that there was a market here on Sundays, although we only saw a group of about 5 stalls - I’m not sure if we had missed it or not. Lincoln Rd Mall was basically just a pedestrianised street with loads of high street style chain stores (mostly clothing stores) as well as cafes and restaurants. It was quite nice and there were a lot of people sitting at outdoor tables with their drinks and food, but we were mostly there just to look around. We went into a few shops and milled around in general, but even though there were quite a few people around, nothing much seemed to really be happening so we wandered off again - I’d preferred the quiet beach with the warm water, soft white sand and beautiful (although very urban) coastline. Despite the fact that the day was drawing to a close, I could swear it was still getting more hot and humid by the minute. It started pouring with rain again so we tore back to the hotel. The streets had seen so much rain in the last 24 hours and some of the drains were still blocked, causing many roads to flood again very quickly. We ripped our shoes off and ran back through knee deep water, dodging cars and squealing like children. It was too far to avoid getting saturated, and we were getting more soaked by trying to run through the deeper sections anyway. We gave up and slowed to a walk, finally arriving back and leaving a huge water trail behind us all through the lobby and into the elevator - whoops!

We sat around watching TV and trying the cocktails we had bought from the bottle store earlier. The ice didn’t do its job very well and the drinks needed to be colder, but they were quite nice, very cheap, and good for something different. After another hour or so, the rain had stopped and we were dry and ready to head back out for some dinner. We decided to risk it and walk (at least if you got wet you didn’t get cold, even at night), so we headed back out, as it was starting to get a little darker. We walked about 4 blocks (which felt really far as it was still so hot) and we were glad when we arrived at the 11th Street Diner, which we had picked at random from something we had read. It was an old-school diner set up in a caravan type thing. There was meant to be Cuban food on the menu, but we didn’t really see anything other than the usual American burgers and the like. Vaughan ordered ribs - I think these were his favourite of the whole trip, so he was very impressed. I had a Greek burger, which was nice for something different, even if it was still a burger. The place was pretty quiet and the staff were quite interested in talking to us, especially as one guy had been to Australia and travelled quite a bit around the rest of the world. It was easy to pass the time with them and we ended up getting desert as well for a change. Eventually we decided to go for a bit of a walk around to work off all the food we had just eaten, but the unpredictable weather looked like it was turning nasty again. People were scurrying around to get home, so we stopped off at (you guess it) Walgreens for some quick tourist items before heading back for a couple more cocktails at the hotel, and a decent sleep. Sweet as!


Monday 6th October (Day 42)

Today Vaughan jumped up and grabbed me some breakfast from the breakfast room, and came back so we could eat it in the room together. I was feeling incredibly exhausted as our air conditioning unit had broken down in the middle of the night and we had both had a very hot and restless night. We both had cold showers before heading out for another hot day in Miami. Of course, I started the day by walking up to Walgreens (it was becoming a bit of a competition to see how many times we could stop off there), where I stocked up on more cold drinks for the car trip. Vaughan had grabbed the car from its parking spot and he met me outside, where I jumped in with our stash of goodies. We started off by heading back down towards the south end of South Beach, to the Ocean Beach Park area, where I bought a map that illustrates the architectural areas of Miami Beach, especially the significant Art Deco and Mi-Mo (Miami Modern) places in the area. We drove around the Art Deco Historic District and stopped a few time to take photos. Luckily this specific area cannot be sold for redevelopment (it would mostly end up as more timeshare apartments, or apartments for retirees) and I really enjoyed learning about the difference between the types of architecture and the history of the area. All the buildings were so bright and colourful, and I was reminded of the beach area in my home town of Nelson, many years ago - most of the buildings near the beach back then were also a similar Art Deco style. We parked back near the hotel and jumped out for a swim - there were even less people on the beach than the day before, because it was a weekday, and we mucked around in the water for ages. There wasn’t any surf but it was so warm and relaxing! There was a bit of rubbish on the beach but it was all natural stuff like seaweed and seed pods, however, the water was pretty clear in general and a really nice colour. Vaughan and I threw seed pods at each other for a while and watched the cruise ships head out to see: first one, closely followed by another, and later followed by numbers three and four - all the cruise ships we had seen the previous day were now gone, chugging towards the horizon. After a while we went back to our hotel and got changed, before heading out of the Miami Beach area, across the causeway again. We headed for downtown Miami itself and it seemed in some sense like any other large city, with its high street stores, cafes and commercial buildings. However, Miami also seemed fairly functional, and there were quite a few shops in the downtown area that you could wander around if you just felt like shopping or looking around in general. We were quite close to the waterfront where the huge yacht marinas were located, but we kept getting stuck on one-way streets and going around in circles, so in the end we gave up and headed over to Little Havana (the Cuban part of town). It was really fascinating and there were loads of small, family-owned stores, parks and markets. There were bright colours and local art everywhere - it was a very vibrant part of town, and driving down Calle Ocho (the main street) there were Cuban shops and cafes for miles, mainly selling Cuban and Mexican food. We parked the car up and walked around for a short time - we barely heard a word of English spoken the whole time we were walking, although we drew a few looks for being random tourists, but we didn’t feel unsafe at any point, and I enjoyed looking around in an area that clearly had such ethnic pride - the melody of the music, the smell of the food, the sound of the language - I was really glad we had come out of our way to spend a bit of time in Little Havana. If I had been able to speak more Spanish I would have liked to have spent a lot more time there.

We got back in the car and decided it was time to mission over to the Florida Keys. We hadn’t been able to decide if we had wanted to go there or not, and if we were to drive to the end it would take a least one full day, so we had kind of put it off. However, we had decided we would drive out to the first one, so after about an hour of driving down very tourist-orientated highways (advertising glass-bottom boat rides, jet skis, scuba trips, etc), we started to see the swampy everglades on both sides, and headed out over more causeways, finally reaching the official start of the Overseas Highway. There were signs warning us to watch for crocodiles, and heaps of native water birds were flying overhead (and sitting on the water). It was pretty cool driving over the long causeways, with water on both sides. We made it to the first key on the highway (Key Largo) stopped off at the John Pennekamp Coral Reef National Park for a short stop, although it was getting to be quite late in the afternoon and we wanted to keep looking around before it got dark. Up the road were a few small restaurants and some water sports hire shops. I had really wanted to go on a waverunner or jet ski but we didn’t really have time - I got to stop and take heaps of photos though, so I was happy. We drove up to Rock Harbour and saw heaps more places for jet skiing - we stopped of at a tourist office (the lady thought we wanted to go scuba diving for some reason) and got a local map. It showed us the location of a couple of nice restaurants where we could sit to watch the sunset, so we headed towards them, finally picking one but then leaving to go to one next door as it had a much bigger outdoor area. We decided that we would get dinner on the way back, so we just bought a drink from the bar, walked through the restaurant and sat down at the outdoor tables, next to the water. While the sunset wasn’t overly colourful, it was still a spectacular view, and with very few people around, it was very tranquil there. We sat out there until it was almost completely dark before heading back towards the mainland in the car. Once we got back on the mainland, (about halfway back on our journey) we decided to stop off at a buffet restaurant where Vaughan had seen ribs advertised on the way out (trust him to remember). The restaurant was actually pretty good and fairly cheap - I was able to get some salad and vegetables, which I had been craving for ages, and Vaughan finally had his all-you-can-eat ribs. Unfortunately, he managed to break the tooth that had just been fixed for him in the UK (the apparently permanent fix, after his face-falling accident in Santorini). I was really cross that it had only been about 4 or 5 weeks and it was already broken, although there wasn’t much we could do about it. We were both a bit grumpy on the way back to South Beach, as Miami had been so hot and we hadn’t slept well, so although we had enjoyed ourselves (and took some awesome photos), we were looking forward to our journey north the next day.

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