Miami & South Beach

Our second full day in Miami was spent here in South Beach where we're staying (at Congress Hotel on Ocean Drive). We headed to the beach at 11 to try to combine nap time with beach time (she slept 12-13:30ish) and stayed until 3pm. It was very cloudy and at one point there was even rain drops but I still managed to get red even though I was using sunscreen and it was only sunny for 30-45 minutes out of the four hours. So no sun for me tomorrow!

This evening we checked out the shops in Lincoln Road, South Beach's "pedestrian mall" or "gågata" in Swedish, and ended up buying a few items at Banana Republic as well as Toms (shoes where for every pair you buy another pair gets donated) for Isolde and me and a pair of dressier sneakers for Peter at a shoe shop called Mixx. The street was well-designed but we thought it was going to have fancier stores as it's located near the posh hotels such as Delano. Where do the rich and famous shop in Miami?! Post-shopping we stopped by Jerry's Famous Deli for some dinner. It was approaching 8pm and Isolde was tired so we thought take-out was in order.

Yesterday, our first full day here, we drove out of Miami to the posh sticks; Coral Gables and Coconut Grove (though there are other much posher areas in Miami too!). We only drove through the latter but in Coral Gables we stopped at Biltmore Hotel where we had a really nice lunch by their super-sized pool, and toured (en voiture) the famous neighbourhoods planned and built by George Merrick in the 1920s, the first planned communities in the US, and had a quick peak at the neighbourhood's famous Venetian pool (which was overrated). Back in South Beach we stopped at Whole Foods supermarket for some baby food (and diapers, which didn't keep Isolde dry through the night so we'll try to return them - that has never happened before so it must be the diapers) and dinner from their deli and salad bar (our hotel room has a kitchenette so it's easy to heat up food or do easy cooking).

When we arrived from Key West on Wednesday it was 4pm already so our first evening here we just took a walk down to Joe's Stone Crab Restaurant where we discovered the waiting for a table was 1 1/2 hours but also that they have a deli/cafe next door where we could eat almost the same food in a more baby-friendly (but still designed and atmospheric) environment. Recommended!

Here are some pictures from the beach today (don't know how to insert pictures in the text where I'd really want them with the Blogger app?!):