Art deco, flashy cars, beautiful beaches, beautiful people. We enjoyed two nights in Miami, South Beach, taking in the expanse of warmth and sand and sea and tourists. We arrived late the first evening and explored a little before finding a nearby hotel bar to have a bite to eat and a drink: magyu beef sliders and a cucumber martini. Life is good. At breakfast the restaurant was packed with families and older couples. Are we an older couple? Yikes! A very friendly, flamboyant gentleman sat down next to us, obviously very familiar with the staff, and ordered champagne. Before long we know Conor P.’s history and are invited to stay at his beachside condo in Miami or at his NYC apartment whenever we want, we’ve even exchanged phone numbers. He shared stories of his travels throughout the world, his restaurant business, his Irish upbringing, his mom and sister’s passing from cancer, his devotion to St. Jude Research Hospital. His advice “make love everyday and enjoy life”. Good advice! Now that you know him as well as we do, I ask: would you take him up on his offer to stay at his place?
We walked downtown (uptown?) past the Museum of Ice Cream and various iguanas to check out the Fountainebleu, the hotel made famous by the Rat Pack (Sinatra, Martin, Bishop, Davis Jr, etc.). It was newly renovated and certainly beautiful with an outstanding pool area. We spoke quite a while with a guest who was looking to valet his 1975 Trans Am. He had imported it from England and it had only 30,000 miles on it! Greg had a 77 Trans Am when I first met him; that was the car I learned to manual shift. I couldn’t push the clutch all the way to the floor ala Short Round in the Indiana Jones’ movie. Anyway, we returned to our hotel walking along the water; the beach is expansive and clean and the water is turquoise blue. After lunch we lounged and then enjoyed our last Miami dinner at Morena’s, a Havana-esque bistro/bar with excellent food and great music.
The next morning we took our first Uber ride back to the airport. Now our vacation really begins: St. Croix, here we come!
My new reality 