Florida

MIAMI
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Miami, Florida

	With its great location on 8th and Collins in South Beach, very affordable prices, and its self-described “Austin Powers-like” décor, the Whitelaw Hotel was a perfect choice for our first night in Miami.  Although the hotel is a block from the beach, in the heart of South Beach’s Historic (circa 1930s) Art Deco District, and while it certainly lives up to its motto “Hot Water, Clean Sheets, and Stiff Drinks” - free, stiff drinks are served during happy hour, which is from 7:00 to 8:00 pm every evening - the hotel lacks a certain something in the way of customer service.  By the way, so does most of South Beach!  We think it is because a 15 % tip is built into all service related bills, but who knows.  Customer service aside, you certainly cannot beat $75 a night for a hip hotel, especially given all of the aforementioned amenities.  

	As for South Beach, it is awesome.  If you have ever been there, you will have a much better insight into what makes Victor Seroussi (Ruthie’s brother) tick.  It is Los Angeles gone haywire, or not, depending on how you look at it.  Everyone is Hot! Hot! Hot! and rather cheesy, and since it never seems to get colder than 80 degrees (even during the hurricane), no one needs to where any clothes (well, hardly any).  Star, Hibiscus and Palm Islands are adjacent to South Beach, and are private gated island communities where, we have been told, lots of famous people live (J-Lo has her Miami house there).  

	We spent our first day in this “paradise” at the beach with Victor and a few of his friends from law school.  It was wonderful – the sand and sun were hot, and the water was at least 80 degrees.  This was the first beautiful day we had had in a very long time, and we soon found out it was going to be our last (for a while anyway), since Hurricane Jean was going to hit Southern Florida the following day.  Figuring we’d make the best of it, we stayed on the beach until the sun went down.  Then we met Mike Degnan, Jackie, and a few of their friends at perhaps one of the only dive bars in Miami Beach, Free Spirits, which is located on 21st and Collins.  We followed drinks with a late dinner at Michael Collins on Lincoln Ave (between Alton and Lenox), at which time Steve Bongini and his girlfriend joined us.  As an aside, Lincoln Ave is worth checking out if you get to South Beach. It has some cool shops, restaurants, bars, and salons, and is closed off like the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, Pearle Street in Boulder, the Ithaca Commons in Ithaca, etc.

	As for the hurricane, it did hit the next day, but the eye hit about two hours north of Miami, in West Palm Beach.  Where we were, it just poured with rain for about four days and big huge gusts of wind blew things around and down, but there was no serious destruction.  Even though the eye was hitting farther north, Miami issued a “mandatory evacuation” for all residents by 12:00 noon on Saturday.  Despite this “order,” most folks stayed and had hurricane parties instead (although 95% of businesses shut down Saturday morning, after they boarded up their windows).  Vic’s school was closed and evacuated by 7:00 a.m. Saturday morning, so he joined us, along with John Maryanoplis, who happened to be in town, as we rode out the hurricane at Mike and Jackie’s place in South Beach.  We actually spent an extra four days in Miami (two of them pretty much in Mike and Jackie’s apartment) because roads in central and northern Florida were flooded or closed in the wake of the hurricane.  But hey, there are worse places to get stuck, right?  Plus, Mike chose this opportune time to get a throat infection, so he was coincidentally able to lie on the couch and watch football all day and all night Saturday and Sunday.  Ruthie was a bit suspicious about this “throat infection,” particularly because it has cleared up now that we are back on the road.

	Our last day in Miami was spent exploring Key Biscayne.  Although not part of Biscayne National Park, there are some great beaches there, as well as a cool state park.  We also walked around Coconut Grove, and had dinner, and drove through Brickell, downtown Miami and Bayside, all of which are worth exploring if you get to Miami.  The next day, we began our 10-11 hour drive to Atlanta, which actually turned into a 13 hour drive with stops and all.  But, we did get to see Central Florida and quite a bit of hurricane damage – signs blown through and over, roofs ripped off, flooded farmland – as well as tons of skinny cows and white cranes with long necks hanging out together in palm tree lined and marshy looking fields.  And, we discovered that panthers live in central Florida.  Our only regret is that the hurricane prevented us from checking out Everglades National Park and Biscayne National Park, but it just gives us even more of an excuse to get back to Miami.
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