South Beach Visit

A friend of mine back home wants to get a humidor for some cigars he bought in Cuba. Sitting in his fridge, they're apparently decaying. The humidor should change all of that. I went to a neat store in a very industrial part of Miami. It was called Cuban Crafters Cigars. Here, on behalf of my friend, I took several closeup photos of the humidor he's interested in.

After that I drove over to Miami Beach. I hadn't been there in a while and it was nice to get back. As I always do now, I used my little "trick" of parking near 12th Street & Alton Road on the north side of the track at Flamingo Park. There's no time-limit free parking there and almost always lots of spaces. I prefer parking there rather than driving around for 30+ minutes looking for a closer space.

I walked up Alton Road toward Lincoln Road, seeing some interesting architecture along the way.

Lincoln Road is the same thing as 17th Street (like Broadway and 9th Avenue in Vancouver). I turned right and strolled East along this wonderful pedestrian mall. It's one of my favourite places in all of Miami, offering countless outdoor restaurants and people-watching opportunities par excellence!



I stopped in at a Cuban deli and picked up a steak sandwich. Not bad. Finally I reached the main attraction, South Beach!




Some say that South Beach (or "SoBe" for short) is too commercialized. Perhaps in part it is. But if you plant yourself down by the water, there's plenty of nature to get immersed in.


The wind was pretty strong today. I had a long conversation with a lifeguard about this and he explained to me that under these circumstances there are some really strong rip tides, which can pull a swimmer way out into the ocean.

If you'd like to see the full set of photos, just click here.

P.S. Turns out this is my 900th post on this blog. Woo Hoo! Not sure of the significance of that. Some might say I have too much time on my hands. I don't think so. And considering I don't own a TV perhaps this is just my more interactive form of "entertainment".

The Distinctive Shapes & Colours of South Beach

Miami's South Beach is world famous and for good reason. Oh sure, it probably is too glitzy and too crowded and full of plastic people. But it is also very distinctive and has a definite beauty, even if it is overly kitschy!

Life's A Beach!

Today was the final day before mi amigo, Adrian, headed back to Buenos Aires. So we decided to head over to Miami Beach, as he hadn't been down there yet. Actually, neither had I on this trip. It was quite marvelous, as you can see from these photos:




Okay, I'll fess up that this photo was staged. While Adrian was swimming I called my mom to describe the magnificent scene around me. Note: No gloating was involved!


This panorama consists of 6 separate photos. It's often difficult for the "stitching" software to match up photos that don't have distinctive shapes, like buildings, but it did a very good job with these.