Miami (without Dexter)

To end our East Coast road trip we had a great hotel on South Beach (Sagamore). It was spacious, minimalist and full of art. We had adjoining rooms and with a free bottle of wine quickly got into a bit of a party mode. The beach area is huge and we largely had it to ourselves when we set off for a pre-dinner walk.

Miami claims to be the Art Deco centre of USA and the beach front has many good examples albeit very much a noisy strip. We settled for dinner at an Italian restaurant where a good guitarist helped the ambiance Unfortunately some of the time his efforts had to compete with the next door entertainment of someone crooning Frank Sinatra numbers. Initially, I thought is was a karaoke night, however I was wrong. Helen, is the first to admit she has never knowingly hit a note – this guy was not only worse but additionally did not recognise his inability. It was disappointing for us - but imagine working as a waiter and listening to that each night.

The pool area was too enticing even for Helen and we had a great half hour to ourselves after breakfast albeit the water was slightly more invigorating than originally anticipated.

We decided on a Hop on Hop off tour which involved two buses – one around the beach area and the second around the city. Boats and mansions abounded on the first bus with gated communities on islands accessed by their own bridges. If only we recognised some of the names that were flouted.

However, the high rise backdrop was never far away.

The city tour was perhaps the worst bus tour we have experienced with little to see while travelling at high speed. Mind you it was the first to travel along a freeway. What commentary was available was made inaudible due to the high speed generated wind. One exception was this camouflaged building, it would be nice to imagine it was the HQ of Greenpeace but was more probably a car park. Helen was particularly perturbed that despite her interest in Miami thanks to the TV series Dexter, he never rated a mention by anybody. Another dream dashed!

Back on the beach for the evening we decided on a Cuban restaurant and were recommended one on Lincoln Road. It was excellent, different but great food with the best service we had experienced all trip (he was Italian). An excellent last supper. 

The shops along the street were also of a high standard with some great Art Deco examples.

Some extraordinary specialty stores – anyone for earrings?

And a great ambiance. We did stumble across another Peter Lik gallery and this time Helen and I managed to part with some funds.

We returned back to the hotel and once more Robin could not help playing up (note the signage between him and Pam).

A wonderful road trip with special thanks to Pam for all her planning and Robin for his regular quips. As for the trip I have a few headline memories:

• Never being able to say thank you to a waiter without generating the response "Your welcome" - still at least its a change to the last visit's response of "perfect" which this time we never heard once!
• I have never seen or had so much lobster in my life.
• We never saw a Happy Hour that was actually 1 hour long.