Great Weekend

We had sunshine on Saturday and rain on Sunday here in Miami and so we spent our first day of the weekend at the beach. It was in the upper 70s and the water was about the same temperature so it felt quite refreshing to us at first. But after getting used to it, it felt great. We went to South Beach otherwise known as SoBe here and the beaches are broad - we think they paved it and put sand on top because it doesn't feel like a normal beach. We saw lots of planes flying over us with their advertising banners trailing behind and big cruise ships setting out to sea. All that added to the overt commercialization of what has become SoBe. I find this city to be a big hustle place; it is so fast paced and everyone is in a hurry to get somewhere. It's not my kind of place to live albeit great to visit in January!

I thought a lot about Mom all day since it was her birthday. I puzzled over why she would leave such a nice climate to head north into ice and snow. But then she hated living down here. Some folks describe the summer time as a bug-infested swamp and that's probably how she felt about living here. This time of year is not so bad but I imagine in the summer, the mosquitoes and gnats and crawly creatures are unbelieveable.

We got lots of rays and started to turn pink so we left the beach in search of refreshment. We found all the restaurants along Ocean Dr. are out to sway you with their people handing out advertising postcards. But they don't just hand it to you, they try to coerce you to come into their particular establishment with cheap drinks and then the food is way overpriced. You have to walk through all these restaurants because the tables are on either side of the sidewalk and so you are walking what amounts to inside each of the restaurants. We meandered along this walk for about twenty restaurants that all began to look like one another after awhile, except for the different colored umbrellas over their tables so we turned back to where we had started. We found a nice spot on the upstairs deck at Wet Willie's where we had a couple of drinks overlooking the entrance to the beach area. I could see kids playing volleyball in the sand and watched a policeman engage with several folks who looked like they'd already had more than their share of the cheap drinks along the restaurant walk. We met some stupid guys from Massachusetts who had just flown into town. Not our types so we paid our bill and headed back out to the beach. Kelly made a sand angel and we both went back in the water for a last swim of the day. We watched some more cruise ships sail out to sea and took pictures of people with their cameras. As the sun set, we both agreed we'd felt like we had been on vacation all day.

We woke up Sunday to dark clouds and forecast of rain so we headed out to Lincoln Road Mall which is an outside mall. We stopped for coffee but I got a fresh squeezed OJ and then we walked the mall twice and had a late breakfast of poached eggs on a portabella mushroom with slices of tomato and aspargus spears - the tomatoes here are like from our garden! And the OJ is like nothing else in the world - so delicious! The center of the mall has lots of palm trees - really high ones. It is a gathering spot for wild parrots. It's unreal to see tons of green birds flitting from tree to tree. Pretty neat.

Overall, it was a nice relaxing Weekend. Had to get back to work today. I cannot believe tomorrow is my last day here! I will not enjoy the return to the cold 30s!!!