Christmas in Miami

Jessica had not intended to get a Christmas tree since she lived alone in her condo but after a few days she decided otherwise and we found an adorable little tabletop tree. She dragged out the boxes of Christmas decorations and Jay joined us to spend an evening decorating it and her condo. On the tree we used the hand-made fan coral and seashell ornaments created during our family’s year-long sailing cruise through the Caribbean Islands in the early 90s. Chris, Jessica and Kevin had collected scraps of fan coral and small shells along the beaches they visited. They tore the coral into various shapes, glued tiny shells to them, and then hung them with colorful embroidery floss. It brought back some very fond memories of our wonderful experience on the boat as we decorated the tree.

George Johnson, a former Coast guard buddy of Jay’s, and his wife Caroline, invited us, and Jessica, to their family Christmas dinner. Chris concocted a dish to share and off we went. Caroline had been cooking for a couple of days and we enjoyed a truly a sumptuous feast with all the trimmings, seasonal decorations, candles, fine china, silver and lace tablecloth in, of course, the formal dining room; just like Chris’s Mom used to do. We were right at home and enjoyed seeing them and meeting more of their family and friends.

Fortunately they served the meal in the early afternoon and Jessica could attend before she had to leave for her night shift at Headquarters. She came in civilian attire and brought her uniform expecting to change when she got to work. Caroline would have nothing of it and insisted Jessica change there so that she could see her in uniform. Caroline ooohed and aaaahed and told her how wonderful she looked and how she loved to see a young person in uniform.

The next night we had our own Christmas celebration at Jessica’s condo. We fixed a simple, but tasty dinner, opened gifts and relaxed in front of the TV viewing a cute movie. The night of the 27^th, she insisted that we see the new movie, Avatar. We had no knowledge of its existence but agreed to go and had no regrets despite our late start to catch the 10:45 p.m. movie. The entire 3-D film is chocked full of special effects that are pure eye candy and we really enjoyed it despite its somewhat predictable storyline. We found the theme to be very spiritual in nature which is in line with a lot of the books that Chris has been studying over the last 13 years.

Experiencing Miami

On December 6^th 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.