Don't get me wrong - there are a lot of nice places in Miami - Coconut Grove, Vizcaya, Old Cutler Road, Miami Beach, they are all great. But when you get off the TriRail to take the light rail train downtown, the views are usually like in the photograph on the left. And when you get there, although Bayside and Biscayne Boulevard are nice, the actual downtown is kind of depressing. When I visited Miami last November one Saturday morning, instead of hanging out downtown, I immediately headed to Coconut Grove, where I spent a few hours walking around that very trendy neighborhood. I also visited - and thoroughly enjoyed - The Barnacle Historic State Park, right in the heart of Coconut Grove. In the afternoon, I decided to head to Miami Beach to check out the Art Deco architecture and Ocean Drive.
I took the bus to Miami Beach from downtown, and enjoyed walking Ocean Drive and checking out the scene. However, if you walk a few blocks to the west, the place seems a bit seedy, which is where I had dinner at a Burger King. I decided to stay until after dusk to take photographs of the neon lite Art Deco hotels. My camera was giving me fits, and so I wound up taking photographs with my cell phone, which I promptly forgot about until just a few weeks ago. The photograph on the right is of The Clevelander, a popular Miami Beach hot spot. The lights were pretty, but the music was loud and the crowd even louder. After just a few minutes of watching all that, I just wanted to head back to my condo in Stuart, Florida and rest. However, in going home, I found I had missed the 7:00 P.M. train, and that the next rain wasn't until 9:10. And after finally getting to the station in West Palm Beach, I still had to drive another 45 minutes to Stuart. It was nearly midnight when I arrived home, about the same time I arrived home the last time I was in Miami, when I drove and got into a horrible traffic jam, the main reason I took the train this time. Am I beginning to whine here? Good. I don't care.
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