On the Beach

When I was young, my Aunt Evelyn and my Grandma Bassett took the train every winter from their home in Springfield, Massachusetts to Miami Beach where they spent several days at the Fontainebleau Hotel. To my eight-year-old mind, this was the absolute height of sophistication. I looked at the pictures of hotel that they brought back, along with the souvenir matchbooks, and I wondered if I should ever do such exotic things. 

Years later, when I came to Miami Beach for the first time, I insisted that we go to the Fontainebleau. It was ... disappointing. Yet despite this, there still remains a sense of romantic adventure to being in Miami Beach. And I felt a bit of that when I woke up this morning and felt the warm Atlantic breezes blowing up Second Avenue. 

I looked down at the street below and saw the first of a number of unusual vehicles I would see today. 

Of course, I live in Southern Oregon where you can be arrested if you are not driving a Subaru.

John and I had breakfast at weird little tea room that is part of our hotel. It was not particularly good, but hey, it was included. After that, we walked down Collins Avenue to do a little shopping. This took us into the Art Deco District. John adores this stuff.

As we walked down the street, my eyes drank in the exoticness of it all. Even the buildings seemed to be wearing sunglasses.

After dropping into Walgreens to pick up a few items - it was difficult finding sunblock in Oregon in January- we went down to Ocean Avenue, home of the most famous Art Deco buildings.

Since we were at the beach, I figured we should spend some time on the beach. The city kept the art deco theme going with the lifeguard shacks.

We paid way too much to rent a couple chaise longues and an umbrella. But we both enjoyed falling asleep in the warm Florida sun. John would periodically wake up to look at someone interesting walking down the beach. 

In the late afternoon we saw the Norwegian Sun, our boat, start to pull into the harbor. We'll be on it tomorrow and our cruise adventure will begin.