SoBe It

A couple weeks ago, I received a little email at work from frequent Long Cut commenter and long-time sister Janie...

...and then this week, I get this at my home email account...

... and I can no longer take all this harassment, so I'm giving in to it.

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It has been about a month since the missus and I had our South Beach trip - our first trip ever without the kids. We originally planned on going back to the Bahamas, where we had gone before the kids even showed up, but we weren't crazy what Paradise Island had turned into since we had last been there. It looked a little too family-friendly for a kid-free getaway. Plus we could save some cash by staying stateside, so we changed our destination to Florida. We thought about Key West, but that meant flying into Miami and driving or flying out to the Keys, so why not save a little more cash and just stay in Miami? I am one cheap bastard of a traveler.

South Beach promised sunshine and nightlife and historic architecture, so we booked a room at the Park Central, a little hotel right on Ocean Drive. The Park Central was one of the first historic SoBe hotels to be restored back to its original Art Deco roots, and came highly recommended by commenters on both TripAdvisor and Expedia (where we booked our trip). And at a very good price, too (see "Bastard, Cheap").

Okay, so, the trip: we were warned by a few people (including that harassing emailer up there) that the Miami airport sucked, and they were right. It's outdated, dirty, and poorly laid-out. Their taxi stands are a joke. It took us forever - and what felt like a four-mile walk - to get a cab. Be sure to ask the missus how much she enjoyed that.

Luckily, the airport was really the only really bad part of the trip. We went into our vacation just looking for some relaxation and sunshine. The weather forecast called for thunderstorms all four days, but we ended up with quite a bit of sunshine, including a couple very hot mornings. The Park Central was a cool little hotel with old black-and-white SoBe photos all the place. They did a good job rehabbing the place but they seemed to have forgotten the hallways, which were dark and dingy. But they had a pool! And it was a nice little pool to hang out around, especially on those ultra-hot mornings.

South Beach itself was nice. It was too windy to stay out on the beach and the water was still too cold to even dip our toes into, so we didn't hit the beach too often. Ocean Drive is just restaurant after restaurant after restaurant. There's a few cheaper places (and a TGI Fridays - who the hell goes to Fridays while they're on vacation? And in a restaurant district - with really real restaurants?), but most of the places were nicer (but still casual) places. And yet, cheap or expensive, fancy or plain, all of them had hostesses pestering you to come in. We had menus shoved in our face and had to look at not-at-all-appetizing sample plates of what were on those menus. Oh, so thats what surf and turf looks like... when it's left out in the sun for a few hours. It was like running the gauntlet. It got to point where we would walk on the beach side of Ocean Drive and decide where we were going to eat from afar.

But the food was pretty good, and the mojitos were even better. Mojitos were the extent of our nightlife, other than the free rooftop showing of Forrest Gump back at the Park Central (which we stayed for about the first ten minutes - god, I hate that movie). It was cool seeing so much Art Deco, especially for an architecture nut like myself, but not many of the building were real spectacular. Quite of few looked like on-the-cheap rehab jobs. And for an area that's known for a certain architecture style, there were a surprising number of buildings that weren't done in Art Deco. There were also a few too many vacant buildings. Not a ton of them, but this was the main drag of a vacation spot known for its main drag - shouldn't it be prime real estate?

So we got our sunshine and we got our relaxation (and the boys seemed to like being spoiled by the babysitter for four days and three nights) but I doubt we ever would go back to Miami again. We could have gotten our sun and fun at plenty of places and Miami Beach just didn't wow us beyond that. The Jersey Shore has more memorable towns. South Beach just doesn't seem like it has been able to accommodate its trendy reputation. They look like they're working on it, but people down there are already saying that North Beach is the new South Beach. SoBe might have missed their opportunity for long-term hipness.

I took a whole bunch of photos while we were down there and whittled them down to a couple dozen for our photo album and a twenty-four more for my Flickr site.
 

Comments

[Donna]

hmmm...Janie never emails ME about my trip....

Is it true you got a souvenier pair of rainbow boxer shorts?

[Janie]

You forgot to mention how I tried to warn you that Miami had the nastiest road rage problem of any major U.S. city.

I believe I TOLD you not to do Miami. You should have sprung for Key West. You would have loved the architecture, beaches and night life there. It was well worth the drive from the Miami airport. I'll let you know what I think of Siesta Key (near Sarasota) next spring when I go.

SO Donna, how was your trip to Europe THREE YEARS AGO!?

[terry]

One day ask Keith about his day on Ocean Drive and the guy who followed him for two blocks after asking if he would like to go to a "party" with him. And the cop who did not seem to care that some wacko was inviting my 16 year old son to a "party".

[Tony]

Wow, that is a great set of photos! And I like the post title, too. :-)

[Donna]

Janie..how nice of you to finally ask! I'll gather up the photo albums and head over.

[jill]

wait...first of all...Aunt Donna...where di you go? Youve never mention (or shown 9879 pictures) of any trip.

Second, I comiserate...when we had a layover in Miami on the way to aruba it was a 35 minute walk (they actually post that information) and absolute mayheim. I suggest next vacation forgo to states and go to Aruba. very very worth it!