Wynwood Art District, Miami

Photo’s are at: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Cu8K_YO5foBdNqKil2cfAv5Z6lXKyrtU?usp=sharing

Geoff got to play boring ol’ IT training stuff for a few days in North Beach, Miami whilst I got to play on the beach 🙂

Managed to successfully fritter my time between getting free sand pedicures, watching sunrise and sunset from the sun lounger on the balcony, reading something innocuous and relaxing that I normally wouldn’t have the time to read ;-), and dipping my toes in the pool etc etc…

I wasn’t 100% idle for the whole time though – I did take advantage of my proximity to South Beach to reacquaint myself with how the beautiful, idle rich live; to wander the streets of Ocean Drive and Collins Ave enjoying the Art Deco architecture …. and, of course,  to marvel at the usual fascinating human sights on offer in Southpointe Park and Lummus Park 😉

Any trip to Miami is completely pointless to me without a re-visit to the coolest place in the city – Wynwood Arts District – wall to wall (literally) street art (NOT graffiti !!) and art galleries ….. there is also a rather excellent bakery for lunch (extra brownie points!!)…. maybe a loft apartment here wouldn’t be so bad … ?? 🙂

Whilst Geoff continued to slave over a hot desk I continued to ponder the possibility of upping sticks from the Gulf Coast and moving east to one of the rather flash condos on the beach but …. no ….. I managed to talk myself out of it (as always) – the heat, overcrowding and nightmarish traffic coming effortlessly to mind….and to quash any lingering desire to move, the extreme humidity (the likes of which we just don’t get to suffer in Sarasota, thank goodness!) and, unforgivably, the appalling things that does to my hair 😦

Obviously, that was the final nail in the coffin 😉

For the finale to my east coast excursion (Geoff being otherwise engaged for 95% of it!) I stopped off briefly in Key Biscayne having been wooed by the travel brochures and various googling’s.

Ummm …. I have no idea what the fuss is all about – there was next to nothing to recommend the “town” (I shouldn’t have gone with visions of cuteness à la Captiva Island) I suspect. The allegedly multi-million $$$$$ apartments brought to mind 1970’s inner-city tenement blocks. Was I missing something?

To cap it all the Bill Baggs Cape State Park (the crowning jewel of the Key) was, without doubt, the least appealing beach I have set foot on in decades. The murky water was full of seaweed, there were battered tin-can trash receptacles every 10′ along the beach, chairs and umbrellas strewn about for rent and the sand itself was knee-deep in seaweed, trash and plastic bags. The pièce de résistance was a pair of men’s soggy underpants lapping in the grime against the shoreline.

How the State Park system has the gall to charge $8 to enter this particular filthy, unattractive piece of real estate I cannot imagine. I shall never set foot there again…… how pleased I am that I didn’t drag Geoff along for the experience … he may have fired me from my coveted role of travel planner and researcher 😉 ;-(

The one redeeming feature of having dragged myself over to Key Biscayne is that the views over downtown Miami from the bridge on the way out of the Key are excellent. Should have just driven over the bridge and turned round again 😉