Miami Trip Day 1: South Beach

After Calle 8 we went to South Beach. We drove along Oceanway a little while and looked around until we found a parking garage on 13th Street. I must say that was the parking place we ended up using the whole weekend. It was about a block from the beach and you can pay by the hour - it was only a buck an hour. We did learn the hard way that on Saturday/Sunday nights (weekends) after 9pm even if you are there for like 45 minutes it is a flat rate of $15. You can't find parking for cheaper than $15 on weekend evenings on South Beach. A lot of people later told us that it is better to take a taxi to Southbeach because they are pretty reasonably priced and you don't have to worry about parking and driving around there. I think it worked out very nicely for us to drive ourselves though.

South Beach

The water was just incredible - not hot not cold, perfect! I don't think I have felt such amazing beach water before

Relaxing on South Beach



The other side of South Beach

 We spent time relaxing at South Beach and playing the water. We were there when the hottest part of the day was gone so I wasn't as worried about getting burned. After that we rinsed off at the public shower outside. There were so many people waiting for it. We rinsed really quickly. This lady that her kids were playing in the water when we got there took it after us and started literally washing her kids hair and bodies like it was their shower. All the people in line were getting so mad that the lady and the crowd started fighting. It was pretty crazy. After we put our beach stuff in the car and put some regular clothes over our swimsuits we went walking around Oceanway to find a place to eat.

We think this was a gay bar and that this might have been a transvestite. There are all sorts of people in South Beach. This guy (?) did a split like I have never seen was crazy!

There are people walking everywhere and you can see that most people stopped to watch the show

This was probably my favorite meal of the weekend. So delicious. It was before I ended up getting sick too. I had this mahi mahi fish with a pineapple sauce, sweet plantains and asparagus.

Our view was of the street so we could people watch

The moon was incredible at South Beach

It was probably about 11pm when we headed back to the hotel, we had walked miles. We went to the pool which was still crowded and then went to bed. That night I got sick. I have never had something like this before. My temperature must have been so high. I had shivers that shook my body all night and I chattered my teeth all night, but was sweating like crazy. I would wake up about every 30 minutes, and basically didn't sleep all night. In the morning my lymph nodes on the side of my neck were so huge it hurt to swallow my own saliva. My legs were achy and I felt horrible. But alas, we had only been in Miami one day and I wasn't about to let this sickness keep my from enjoying it.