Two Days in Miami

As we approached Miami, we could not help but think of the Chicago. While we are prejudiced and think that there is no skyline as beautiful as Chicago’s, we did find Miami’s quite welcoming. After passing under the causeway to Dodge Island we entered the port of Miami. The first vessel we met was a working barge and it seemed so odd to see a working barge in Miami. It was wonderful to see the giant cruise ships lined up all in a row waiting to take guests to exotic ports of call.

Originally, it was not our intention to spend time in Miami. We thought that it would be too hard to get a slip and if a slip was available, that it would be too expensive.
As it turned out we were able to get a wonderful slip and of the three Miami marinas that we called, the city operated Miamarina was the most reasonable at $2.40 per foot plus tax which works out to just shy of $95.00 per night for the little Lolligag. This marina is located immediately downtown and was very conveniently located to public transportation and wonderful shopping.

Rather like Chicago’s Navy Pier, the Bayside Market is a nice shopping area with lots of restaurants linked to Miamarina. My sandals have been in the process of dying for the last couple of weeks and I dearly wanted to purchase a pair of Reef Sandals. I had tried on a pair last summer and just could not bring myself to purchase them at that time. Reef Sandals have the most wonderful support and are a delight to wear but they are expensive as far as sandals go. Well low and behold, the first store that we came to in the Bayside Market was a store that sold Reef Sandals. So not only did I get one pair, but I got two pair – a black pair and a brown pair. What makes the black pair special is that they have a bottle opener built into the sole – the salesman kept telling me what a great idea and how handy this would be and I kept looking at him like he was nuts…then Mark said “If you want to impress her, show her the sandals that have a corkscrew in the sole…”

Wanting to see the city, we hopped aboard the Miami Metromover on our first afternoon. This is exactly like being on the monorail at Disney World except there is no engineer. There are several routes and these cute little electric powered cars silently glide high above the downtown streets of Miami. Not only are they fun to ride, but they are free.

Each evening on the pier there was live music until 10p. It was nice to sit outside to enjoy the music and people watch.



We had a rather large vessel docked in front of us – do you think it was really them?

Captain Mark was in search of a chart book for the eastern US seacoast and I needed some yarn. This meant that we got to ride the Miami bus system. Again the bus stops were very conveniently located and the transit system was easy to navigate. We found West Marine and JoAnn Fabrics with no problem at all. Of course West Marine was in one area of the city and JoAnn’s in another but this was fine with us because we really do enjoy riding public transportation when we are in new cities. It is a wonderful way to really see the city as well as the people.

Hours on the water: 4
Nautical miles traveled: 28.5
Number of bridges need to be open for us: 0
Time spent waiting for bridge openings: 0
Next Destination: Hall of Fame Marina in Fort Lauderdale
What we're listening to: Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer
What we watched: Sights and sounds of Miami
Lesson for the day: Who ever heard of sandals with a beer opener
Obligatory knitting report: Baby Sweater for Maxwell