On December 6th we arrived at the Larry and Penny Thompson RV Park in Miami. It was the nicest RV Park we had found thus far. The County facility had a serpentine road from which eleven cul-de-sac-like pods branched. The RVs were radially arranged around the perimeter of the pods that were separated by large open areas dotted with Live Oaks. The weather was warm and sunny and we were in heaven. Our first order of business was to call Chris’ daughter, Jessica, since that was the reason we were in Miami.
Coordinating with Jessica’s schedule was a bit tricky as she was working 12-hour night shifts at the Coast Guard District 7 Command Headquarters from 6 p.m. until 6 a.m. On her days off she liked to conform her awake and sleep times to her work schedule so that her body clock would stay in sync. Fortunately we are relatively late sleepers and arranged to visit her in the afternoons and evenings on her days off and did our shopping, sightseeing and visiting on her work days during our five-week stay in the area.
Chris stayed a couple of days at Jessica’s condo and they spent a day at a monstrous mall doing their Christmas shopping. Chris had been searching online for some tall rubber boots to use when she photographed in marshy areas and had found a pair of red, Wellington, Hunter boots. To her surprise and delight the ladies shoe department at Nordstrom’s carried the boots – but not in red. So, she tried what they had on for size and ordered them in red. The rest of their shopping was fruitful and they got all their Christmas shopping done in time to wrap and mail the gifts.
No visit to Miami is complete without a stroll through South Beach. The broad sidewalks are lined with restaurants of every culinary cuisine. Many display a large, poster-sized copy of their menu and have sample dishes of the meals they offer immaculately arranged on an adjacent table. The hosts/hostesses are like vendors at a carnival, hawking sales pitches to all passing by as to why you need to eat there - they have the best food, food you won’t get anywhere else - you name it they’ve thought of every con possible to lure you into their lairs. The fact is they all seemed pretty much the same.
The infamous South Beach complete with palm trees.
Didn’t spend much time on it but here it is - Miami Beach!A stroll down a main shopping area in Miami Beach, Lincoln Road, was an interesting experience. A large portion of the road is for pedestrian traffic only and lined with restaurants, art galleries, clothing boutiques, shoe stores, high end candy shops, and just about any other kind of store you can think of. Chris and Jess stopped in dress and shoe shops just to see if they had any affordable, items for Jessica to wear when she went out on the town. Evidently the night scene in Miami is pretty upscale and she wants to at least make an effort to fit in. Mostly she finds name brand dresses online at a fraction of the cost at brick and mortars but it is always fun to look and laugh at the prices. Just an example of what we found in one store was a tiny – imagine postage stamp size- lime green skirt embellished with metallic gold and copper thread embroidery, sequins and beads. The skirt was so short and petite in circumference that a fraction of 1% of women would even be able to wear it. And a fraction of one percent of those women would be able to afford it at the – brace yourself - $1,200 price tag. Cute, but not that cute.
Miami Beach’s main shopping district on Lincoln Road.
No comments:
Post a Comment