A Mi11ion Dreams = 2018 - Proper Day 1 - Miami

[walt4it]

Welcome back and for those returning after reading the first two days, thank you for so many lovely comments and PM's too.



If you missed them the whole index of past and future days is just a click here


Our travel day adventure can be read here.


Without further ado -

Welcome to Proper Day One

Thursday 26th July 2018

I can only call it 'proper', as you are actually on holiday, I’m sure your body/mind or indeed inner soul is elsewhere. We woke in the USA for the first time and that was far more exciting than anything else!

The Boys slept well, and so they should after their 24 hour travel day escapades.


Alison and I slept at different times, I struggled to get to sleep, she didn’t, then when I woke at 12 , I suffered , can’t explain it, but just knew it was wrong and now had to get to sleep after that two hours worth of a refresher nap!

I managed eventually and have to admit I was possibly suffering from the childhood thing of a Christmas Eve sleep – it is the only thing I can compare it to, after so much mind space absorbed by work, each hour away simply opened up to a tinge of excitement as to what lay ahead.

Possibly the gradual unwrapping will bring great surprises but as I lay in bed that night – I was just so delighted we had arrived, without incident, and also intrigued as to what South Beach had to offer.

I then resisted any clock and knew at any time I woke up it was going to be too early.

We did well -turned over and shushed the boys, just once, around 6 and managed to get to 7-50.

That was not too bad, especially as we usually wake at silly o’clock on our first morning – that beach trip and late dinner had worked well last night!

We dressed and just readied ourselves to explore a bit on foot.

We were soon drawn by the thought of breakfast and despite all instincts telling you to avoid the tourist trap – we found little else and were in need of coffee – well let me rephrase that, the boys needed food and we needed a caffeine injection or even better if they had some cups!

We found a place to eat the was right next to a staircase that was in the film Scarface – I guess Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer did not get accosted at every eatery to ask if they wanted to see the menu and it was 20% off just for us.

That 20% was probably the enforced tip that was explained on every eatery menu.
On holiday just over 12 hours and complaining already! Or should that be CON plaining, as it simply was that and added nothing to the perceived opulence and grandeur that was South Beach
Apologies for rant I was thinking it was lack of caffeine intake!


Anyway the food was good - including the breakfast pastry offering , which included a pan au chocolate – this ended up being the most delightful chocolate fudge cake you would ever dare to eat. Especially at 9.30 in the morning amidst coffee, croissant, a bagel and a bit of toast.

Josh opted for the pancake option but ended up with some of the chocolate stuff as there was simply too much!

We all finished with a chocolate / sugar or caffine induced buzz that meant we could carry on!

Coming from a UK heatwave, we felt well prepared for the heat in the USA this year, well that lasted around a 20 minute walk with all of us glad to find the aircon of Walgreens, the Miami Beach one was on two levels, the prices however were sky high. Wow!

Comparing with home and from previous Florida spends, this place was off the planet.

We had only gone looking or some cream to sort out what looked like an eczema itch on the back of Joes ear, as much as we love him , that was not happening in that Walgreens!

We kept walking, we just enjoyed the sunshine but more particularly the Art Deco architecture.

Now I have to admit within all my trip writing days, I can’t think of a time when I have discussed architecture -I am rather fond of buildings, old ones, and those that strike a chord in history in particular.

No idea why they just resonate with me and I often wonder about the many people who have been involved in the design and indeed lived or worked in such places

Today was when even the boys made the link of those old, great days of film depicted in DHS and in Universal and recognised the link to the buildings we were looking at and also others we had seen in recent golfing trips- Birkdale in particular.

Also our local theatre – back home in Scarborough is a wonderful example and for anyone visiting our home town please do make sure you check what is on – a totally hidden gem of our home town.

Architecture featured so much here, you actually just soaked it up, you had to. We only wished we could have had a look into Versace's place too

Where we were we staying it was all around, and rather that becoming just another building, you sought out the differences in each one and then started asking the questions as to why it was different.

Each building looks different at night time and possibly the lighting adds a different feel, but in the day time the sheer wonderment of the architecture is something to behold and thankfully has been preserved.

As we sizzled we headed for a bit of shade in the Irish bar we found last night - a quick refresh with water and a pint and a discussion about dinner tonight followed.

We also needed to find something for Joe’s ear- A CVS visit later and the first use of the Revolut card too, just to check it worked. It showed on the app almost immediately and a tiny impression was made on the money we had put on the card at $1.415 to the £ way back in March. Oh how we wished we had put in more at that point instead of the pitiful $1.28 on offer on the market today (July 26th 2018)

We stocked up on those things that the mini bar in the hotel just wished you would buy – did they not know we are Dibbers – I even photographed the bloody thing on entry and exit just to ensure they did not charge for the vastly over inflated cost of everything.

Anyway walking bit done – we needed to beach it!
Not before a quick ice cream stop though!

As we returned from the hotel, changed and then got back to the foyer , the most wonderfully attentive concierge offered us a couple of body boards that had been left by previous guests. That was such a great bit of hotel excellence.

At this point we began to get the quality of this hotel, from this, free beach towels and then the free beach sunbeds that were very were attended by staff, you started to see the bigger picture, especially when non hotel guests tried to take up a piece of this bit of the beach.


The beach was exactly what we had been looking for, space – time – chill out – solitude, well maybe not that.
It was busy here and the extraordinary sight of a departing cruise simply showed up where we were at - the sheer size of the boat was incredible as it set out on a journey.

We soaked up as much sun as we felt comfortable (note to self – hat would have been a good idea!)

The boys loved the sea, although the body boards were not really needed as there were no waves to actually use them.

We made a move back to the hotel and stopped off a the hotel pool to drop off the body boards and to compare the facilities, the hotel has a small pool and often comes for trip advisor criticism – felt it worth checking it out and to be very honest , given the beach access to the hotel it was all that was needed. For us, it allowed the opportunity to ‘chill’ but just to rest in shade and enjoy the pool.
It was needed.

Already I felt the top of my head as I had not put suncream on- thankfully we had been sensible for everyone and every other place.


We showered, changed and once more headed out into the South Beach area – It was buzzing and I have to admit was a place that you felt compelled to become part of – stuff the breakfast touts and those touting for your evening meal custom. There is so much to soak up here and so many beautiful places too.

Latin/ Spanish places on Espanola Street in particular is in the memories as to a revisit. A true buzz and a some really good eateries.

Our walk, swim, pool , walk and possibly far too much sun day, meant we slunk into safe mode – pub grub at a place we had watched some lovely food being turned out last night and also where we had stopped for a pint earlier today.

A bit of homework completed I think.

We had a pint and trawled trip advisor as we all had thoughts of finding a quaint Italian restaurant, by the time we looked at the menu here – it satisfied every single one of us and to be honest meant we did not have to continue our walking quest.

The happy hour in the bar , obviously did not sway the decision and with food ordered we felt the day catch up with us.

Thank goodness for the artificial highs that 7 up gives to the kids and a few beers provides for those who have ID in America.

Lovely food, in fact really impressive food – they have a menu that seems to include far too much- they delivered, including a nice bottle of wine for the two adults! The lighting did not do justice to what was served in the photos though!

That previous happy hour, very quickly turned to sleepy hour.

As we all walked back to the hotel with the amazing sight of Art Deco buildings lit with accent colours to highlight the building and with the roads filled with cars and motorbikes that probably cost more than our own house, we admitted defeat and headed to bed

It was 10.20 - Given the poor spelling throughout my notes ( which I hopefully have corrected) I am sure I was much more tired than I thought when I typed all of this up. Either that it was the sun or indeed that bottle of wine that meant as I typed up all of the notes for today I was the only one awake.

As a holiday starter, this had been such a magnificent day -and it was a ‘Proper ‘ Day 1 on holiday.

See you soon for a great adventure to somewhere new on day 2, thanks for reading

You can read it by clicking here

[joanna23]

Fabulous photos of the buildings. A lovely day too.

Knew exactly what you meant about the heat as the same thought went through my mind that we’d be prepared. We did a spontaneous few hours on South Beach from our airport hotel and managed 5 minutes walking before wanting to collapse - that was at 10am.

Looking forward to following your adventures again.

[mick]

A lovely day and great photos must admit we loved the buildings on south beach on our visit to Miami


Joan

[Disneycraft]

Lovely photos

[Goldia]

I totally agree about Christmas Eve and the analogy to travel day. It's so exciting, I often struggle to sleep both nights, I'm definitely worse than the kids.

Now I'm a massive fan of the architecture, much more than the golf you're so fond of, so feel free to spoil us with more of those photos.

We too thought the heatwave here would help prepare us for Florida! Ha ha! No such luck it's all encompassing isn't it? On paper there may not be much difference in the temperates but there seems to be no escape in Florida, we still love it though.

Great green photos at the end of the day! I love the pizza in mid bite photo!

[Floridaagogo]

Great start with stunning photos x

[KittyBlackDog]

I love architecture too so please bombard us with photos and recommendations 😍

I always love reading your trippies (and your obvious great pre-trip planning that must go in prior to departure) as you always seem to get the right mix of activity which encourages others (especially us) to try the same. This bore fruit for us on our trip this year, for which I publicly THANK YOU ☺️ very loudly 😁

What a great first day (even with green lighting 😂 ), I hope your head recovered quickly!

TFS and you know we are all looking forward to reading more

[DISNEYLIZ]

Great photos - what wonderful architecture. Great first day

[walt4it]

Originally Posted by joanna23

Fabulous photos of the buildings. A lovely day too.

Knew exactly what you meant about the heat as the same thought went through my mind that we’d be prepared. We did a spontaneous few hours on South Beach from our airport hotel and managed 5 minutes walking before wanting to collapse - that was at 10am.

Looking forward to following your adventures again.

See more...

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday with your new addition to the family.
Good to have you aboard for the adventure that lies ahead

[Palm trees]

Fab first day, can't wait to read more, I love your enthusiasm and unabashed joy, it's wonderful