USA D15: New Orleans to Miami Beach

After one final walk in the French Quarter to find breakfast, it was time for that tedious and slightly anxious activity: repacking. For the last few days we had been a bit more lax with this as we could just pile things into the car – today we were jumping back on a plane.

With bag seams only at mild risk of splitting we checked out and caught a cab to the airport, noting the sign informing that the killing of taxicab drivers may be first degree murder in the State of Louisiana, punishable by death. Thankfully the journey passed without event.

The flight to Miami was 1 hour 45 and clocks went forward an hour along the way. For amusement I looked at the shopping catalogue. These are some of the more noteworthy creations:

We touched down to a wet grey day – not what we expected of Miami Beach! The next surprise was over at the Avis depot where we joined a queue with about 50 people ahead of us. Crazy.

Eventually we made it out into the carpark to greet our anonymous navy sedan, casting a jealous eye over at those settling into their Camaros and Mustangs. The plain jane had a decent amount of go though and got us to South Beach without problems. Thanks to all the faffing it was now around 5pm but the rain had stopped. Though we’d be here for three nights, we wouldn’t be around all that much so we checked in quickly and took off for a walk.

To the beach first of all.

Nice, but that wasn’t the main priority. Art Deco is the prevalent style in Miami Beach and I wanted to see this, being interested in how it might compare to the city of Napier back home. Along Ocean Drive there were plenty of Art Deco hotels to look at – and at the bottom of them, a long strip of noisy flashy bars. It seemed to be a funny mixture; locals in the bars, tourists across the road looking at the hotels, and homeless loitering in pockets along the wide verge between street and beach.

Mike had a mission with the local Apple store so we went in search of that, a few blocks away in the very busy Lincoln Rd shopping and restaurant precinct. Here we also had a fabulous al fresco meal and drinks at a Cuban restaurant.

On the way back we went to see how much neon there was along Ocean Drive. Quite a bit, it turns out, though the lights were competing with music noise for loudness.

Daily stats:

• Capacity remaining in bags for further shopping: 1.3kg
• Shops selling miniature dogs: 1
• Awesome iPhone cases purchased for a model I don’t currently own: 1