Andy and Shola Shop Miami

After a hectic year in which we both started new jobs, relocated to Cambridge and put the house up for sale, we decided we needed a holiday. After hmmming and ahhing we finally chose Miami for its good weather and the cheap deals. Shola found a great deal on a hotel for $40 per night and we also got great prices for the flights (£225 each - flying on christmas day). As we were flying from Heathrow we booked a night in a hotel to take advantage of the parking which came with it and so we headed off from Cambridge on Christmas eve. This meant opening all our christmas presents a day early :-)

In spite of flying American Airlines via New York the journey was uneventful and we arrived safely. At the airport we turned down the generous offer of car hire at $500 per week (plus insurance, plus taxes) and took a taxi to the hotel.

Downtown Miami

At first sight the hotel seemed ok if a little down market but for $40 per night could we complain? The drinks machine didn't accept dollar bills and the ice machine didn't work. The air conditioning worked well but it was sooooo noisy we had to turn it off. It was then that we realised how noisy it was outside. Oh well... When the morning came and neither of us had had much sleep because of the noise (which turned out to be the highway at the front of the hotel) we began to wonder. The hotel was a little way out of downtown Miami and supposedly in the heart of the shopping district. When this turned out to mean that we were across the road from a mall we decided that, great price or not, we were going to switch hotels.

First things first, we hired a car, eventually paying $270 per week after turning down a couple of more expensive ones. We then drove around looking for hotels, acclimatising and finding our way around. As with most American cities it is built on a grid system of Avenues and Streets and once you get used to the one way system in the centre it wasn't too bad to navigate around.We booked in at the Best Western Marina Park. This turned out to be a great move and we never looked back from this point.

The new hotel was at Bayside: walking distance from several restaurants, bars, lots of shops, the marina, and the American Airlines Arena where we were due to watch Miami Heat play basketball the following day.

The home of "your" Miami Heat!

The basketball was a fantastic experience, exciting, slick and well... very professionally presented. Americans excel at this kind of entertainment and the only disappointment was not being allowed to take a camera in to the game. :-( Miami Heat are having a bad time of it and lost the game without ever looking like they meant business. Alonzo Mourning stood out as easily their best player but one man doesn't make a team.

The weather in Miami although much warmer than back home in the UK was officially cold! It was somewhere in the 60s rather than the expected 70s. Still no need for coats though, although the locals were wearing fleeces, hats and gloves! :-) This made us feel a little better about spending time in the many shopping malls around Miami. Not that we needed any excuses as we had already agreed that the trip would be used to stock up on clothes while we had the chance to buy at American prices. The bargains were there if you looked, though the exchange rate was not as good as when I was in Boston. Shola did us proud shopping for Britain and I didn't do too badly either being only outshopped by a ratio of roughly two to one! One thing that brought a smile to my face was my friend Dave Taylor who it turns out is now a clothes designer in the States - at least he has his own label!

Wherever there are shops there is a food court and the choice was great. Anything from Asian to Burgers/Hot Dogs/Pizza was on offer as well as healthier salads and sandwiches if you looked hard enough. Portions are massive and the price is low so any diets went out the window.

At the weekend the weather picked up so we explored Miami Beach attempting to find the Art Deco district. Despite being well signed we didn't really see much of the Maimi Vice type buildings. We did find a couple of nice beaches though. The sand was clean and white and not too crowded either.

Next event was the (American) Football and I am pleased that this time they allowed us to take the camera in. I took lots of pictures as I was really looking forward to this. We headed up to the Pro Player Stadium early in order to get parked up. At least we thought we had. When we arrived there were already thousands and thousands of people there having 'tailgate parties'. This involves taking everything including the kitchen sink and sitting out in the shade of an awning eating BBQ-ed everything with cool bottles of beer :-) Nice!

Pre Match Warm Up

Everything was set up perfectly for an exciting game: Miami had been playing well but had lost the previous game to the New England Patriots (the team I follow) and so needed to win to qualify for the play-offs. Atlanta Falcons opened the scoring to go 7-0 ahead following a mistake from Miami. The Dolphins had a couple of unlucky decisions given against them and it was beginning to look like it would not be their day when a turnover gifted them a touch down. With clever use of time outs Maimi made good use of possession to score a second touch down at the end of the first half. From this point they got stronger and scored again to go 21-7 ahead. The Falcons scored a touch down to make it 21-14 and really pressured the Dolphins' defence who began to look a bit shaky. In the final minutes Miami kept out Atlanta superbly to hold on and win. The game itself was brilliant and easily as well put on as the basketball but this time Miami got the result too. I was surprised that the game was not a sell out though you could hardly say it was badly attended with almost 74,000 spectators.

Hut hut!

The New Year was celebrated outside the hotel watching a firework display and drinking champagne courtesy of one of the guests who was generous enough to buy champagne all round!

On new year's day we booked a one day cruise to the Bahamas for the Friday. In the meantime we did some more shopping, hit the beaches again, watched a couple of movies and visited the largest tropical garden in mainland USA - Fairchild Tropical Garden. As far as tropical gardens go this was spectacular, containing several large lakes and different areas representing plants, trees and shrubs from various different tropical regions. We took a 45 minute guided bus tour which was free (once you had paid $8 to get in).

A Critter Chilling (or rather warming)!

One thing I had been looking forward to doing was driving down the Florida Keys. The scenary was amazing and the bridges have to be seen to be believed. Seven-Mile Bridge is actually seven miles long! :-) At Key West we parked up and hit the beach

View From A Bridge...

On the Friday, the day of the cruise,we got up at 4-45 ready to be collected at 5-30. We were ready on time, which is more than could be said for one bloke who kept us hanging around for half an hour. The result was that we headed up to Fort Lauderdale at speeds that did not feel safe in a mini-bus. %-( We got to the cruise liner in plenty of time though and headed straight into breakfast. This was my first experience of a cruise and I think it was a cruise on the cheap. Everyone was crammed in and the food was not much good. Added to that the weather was pretty dull and windy and the sea very choppy so it was no surprise when an hour or so into the journey we both began to feel ill. Ralph soon visited and made it clear he was not going away so thanks to Shola's insistence we got a cabin (a great move) where we both crashed out. Once we reached the Bahamas it was freezing although sunny. We jumped in a minibus with eight others and payed $5 each (which was a bit steep but at least it was a return)for a 10 min journey to a cheesy/touristy shopping centre. There are no speed limits apparently and this guy seemed determined to prove it! I was surprised to find that they drive on the same side as the UK (most of the time at least!).

Beach in the Bahamas ...

The beach we found looked lovely as did the hotel nearby - despite the temperatures there were a few people (probably Brits) who were determined to get a tan. At the bar we tried a couple of Daiquiries in an attempt to numb the thoughts of the return journey and the bouts of sea-sickness we had to look forward to! The drinks went down really well and were the highlight of the day. On the return ride to the liner we were charged another $5! All in all it was not such a good idea with the weather as it was. If it had been calm and warm it would have made a much nicer day out.

After recovering from our voyages overseas and in an attempt to be cultured we took a trip to the Museum of Science and Space travel. We spent an entertaining few hours here, watching a presentation on astronomy in the observatory as well as trying out a few of the hands-on demonstrations.

Next on the agenda was meeting up with some internet-friends Paula and Alan. I had been e-mailing Paula for almost four years but even so it was a little nerve-wracking meeting them both for the first time. We needn't have worried though as they were both great company and it was a good way to finish the holiday.

Paula & Alan

First off we showed them around Bayside, called in Hooters(!) for some very expensive drinks and ended up in the Hard Rock cafe. The next day we drove out to the Everglades National Park to do some Alligator hunting (with the camera only!).

Watch Out!

I was really pleased that we managed to see a few alligators in the park though fortunately they were all dozing. By now the weather was becoming much warmer and it was great to be outdoors.

15 Minutes Of Fame?

I was impressed to find Taylor Slough (pronounced slew) while we were in the Everglades: a slow moving river of sludge. In the park food is a bit thin on the ground (for us humans at least) so we had to drive quite some way to find a restaurant. In fact we drove 38 miles to Flamingo park - and possibly saw some flamingos while we were there, though we couldn't be sure as they were so far away.

In the evening we went to Bubba Gumps - a shrimp restaurant based around Forrest Gump! Quite a good meal in a friendly atmosphere.

On our last full day we headed back to Miami beach and the Art Deco district. I forgot my hat and frazzled my forehead walking along the beach. D'oh! Sazzar frazzar! I knocked up a bit of a sandcastle just to show the Americans that the Brits can do things bigger too...

OK So Maybe Americans Do Do It Bigger, Sometimes... :-)

In the evening we showed Paula and Alan round Aventura mall and we ate in the food court there. Afterwards they treated us to a movie - thanks! :-)

Shola Giving Us a Reminder That The Weather Could Be Worse

On the final day we checked out and did some last minute shopping. I still hadn't found any new trainers for the gym but had to make do with a Spider-man T-Shirt instead :-D We dropped the car off and got a lift to the airport but we weren't allowed to do any Duty Free shopping until New York!! :-) Well, some Smirnoff Black Label always goes down well - specially when Shola is buying! ;-)

Cheers!

PS On returning home we found out the house in Littleborough was sold! :-D