Late afternoon on Hallandale Beach, north of Miami. A quick walk before dinner.
Things on the beach. The beach was littered with Portuguese man o’ wars. I would not want to come close to one of these in the water. They are known to have a painful sting.
Tile on the walkway and hibiscus near the parking lot.
Big boats are common along the inter-coastal waterway.
Heading home before crossing Alligator Alley.
Some parting shots from our quick trip to south Florida to visit Brett’s relatives.
More pictures from my trip to the Fruit and Spice Park in south Miami. Lots of different things growing there. I did learn that you could tell the difference between edible and non-edible banana plants by the bloom. If the bloom is growing up, the bananas are not edible and are just ornamental. Has anyone else ever heard that before?
More pictures from my trip to Wynwood Walls district in Miami.
A few funky sculptures in the district.
Riding in the backseat, I snapped this with my phone as we were getting on the highway heading out of Miami and back to Hollywood beach. A little cloudy but at least it wasn’t hot yet in mid-February.
These are all murals at Wynwood Walls in Miami. They are only a fraction of the murals that are painted on the building in this old warehouse district. Back in 2009 someone had the idea to turn an old deserted part of town into the cool place to hang out. The old buildings are now all painted and the area has an eclectic mix of stores and restaurants. On a recent trip to south Florida to visit Brett’s relatives, we spent a morning walking around looking at all of the buildings. I brought my wide-angle lens so that I could stand on the sidewalk and get the entire wall in. It was early enough that were wasn’t a lot of people there to get in my pictures. I took a ton of pictures. Every corner we turned we were like “Oh, look at that cool wall” so more to follow.
Bright colors I found on my recent trip to Miami. Always a colorful place!
We headed down to the Miami area for a long weekend in early March to visit relatives. On a cool cloudy day, we headed to a small craft show and farmer’s market in Coral Gables. Lots of old building on the street were the farmer’s market was.
After running around Miami for the day, we came back to Hallandale Beach where Brett’s relatives live for a quick walk on the beach before dinner.
The beach on the Atlantic side is very different from the gulf side of Florida. The water is greener but rougher and more waves. The sand is not as white as the gulf side. The entire stretch of beach in Hallandale is full of tall buildings. It wasn’t a nice day out but at least it was cool out. We were one of the few people out on the beach.
Brett’s aunt and uncle live on the intercoastal waterway. The boat traffic through here is usually busy but the clouds and wind must have kept most people at home.
We try to get down to south Florida at least once each winter. It’s any easy drive down from Tampa and very different from where we live. So many different places to eat and they have the best dim sum which is Brett’s favorite thing to eat. Dim Sum with the cousins before leaving on Sunday afternoon is our routine.
A side view of Vizcaya in South Miami. The gardens were beautiful. While the house was old and interesting, the gardens were more impressive. (Plus, you could not take pictures inside the house.) Vizcaya was built by James Deering between 1914 and 1916. It was his winter home until his heirs donated it to Dade county.
Outside the back door, there was a concrete ship which looked like it was a place to hang out and party. There must have been a bridge leading to it at some point.
Around the concrete ship, you can barely see downtown Miami off in the distance.
Standing outside in the back of the house, I closed my eyes and thought of what it would have been like to live here back then. What, no tv or laptop? Forget it. It was so beautiful and peaceful standing there staring up at the sky. The day we visited was absolutely gorgeous.
One section of the gardens was an orchid garden. So many pretty flowers.
Orchids are so hard to grow. They had them growing outside, mostly in the shade.
If you are ever in south Miami, it’s a great way to spend a few hours.
Check out more sky pictures at Skywatch Friday 