Are we locals yet?

It must be a sign that we already look like locals that we are constantly being approached by tourists asking for help with directions. Or maybe tourists are just so lost that they grab onto anything they feel might be sober. As to whether we look like locals, I’m sure that’s not the case as 70% of the guys look like they spend most of their days at the gym and are building muscles even on their gums. The women look like they are on their way to Victoria’s Secret photo-shoot or at least they must be on some different type of South Beach Diet than ours, nevertheless, I’m sure we’d look more than locals in other parts of Miami but not in SoBe.

We live on the western side of the island and our street is a mostly residential (read high-rise condos) neighborhood, so we are somewhat isolated from the hoards of weekend tourists that congregate mostly on Ocean Dr and Collins Ave a few blocks away. But on our daily walk, almost everyday we get at least one stranded tourist looking desperately for “the beach”, “the Versace house”, or “Collins Ave”. If they are asking for a Starbuck, you can almost point them in any direction, and they’ll find one sooner or later, but for the more specific landmarks it’s a little more involved, since you need to know which streets go all the way through to Ocean or dead end along the way. There is also the need to know which way some of the One Way streets point and which streets are for pedestrians-only. Amazingly enough, all the walking must be paying of as we are becoming quite familiar with all the short-cuts and ways to get to the different parts of SoBe, the rest of Miami will have to wait.

In today’s paper I read that someone was describing Miami as not being very pedestrian-friendly. They did point out that this was true for Miami but not for Miami Beach. When we were originally looking for our next home, we looked at several condos near downtown but we noticed that once you get down from the building, there was nowhere to go without a car. Since being able to walk to places was one of our deciding criteria, we chose to be on this side of the bay. Now I’m sure that the best way of moving around in SoBe is definitely walking or bicycling. Of course, that doesn’t stop those that have the extra cash from “investing” the equivalent of most countries GNP on a vehicle, so we share our parking deck with quite a number of Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Bentleys and Mercedes Benz and of course, our two cruiser AARP bicycles. At least our vehicles run on Cuban bread so I think I have them beat.

Note: Yes, Rosie, Gloria and several others live on Star Island which is the island right in front of us. So we could almost say that they are our neighbors from across the street. Shaq once resided on the island but I'm not sure if the property is still his. Maybe he was renting.

Condo Living

OK so two weeks living in a condo does not an expert in condo living make. But at least the memories of living between our own private 4 walls are still fresh in my mind to make some comparisons. I’m sure I’ll be sharing more as things come up.

Time definitely does not run at the same rate as everywhere else. Even if you forgot your glasses in the car, it takes some thinking before you head out to the elevator, wait for it to arrive, maybe make a stop along the way, walk to the parking deck and finally reach the car just to turn around and do it all over again. And hopefully when you get to the car, you hadn’t forgotten the car keys. Definitely something that requires some getting used to.

One thing that could be thought of as a huge negative is the heavy traffic and lack of parking spaces in South Beach. However this is turning out to be a blessing in disguise. I wrote earlier that I didn’t see myself bicycling to the Post Office as I did in Emerald Isle. Well I was wrong. I don’t see myself going to the Post Office in something other than a bicycle. The one day that I attempted to drive to it, I went around the block so many times looking for a parking space, that I ended up parking at a parking deck which was as far from the post office as if I had walked from home. Now, I just get on my bicycle, or hop on the bus, and the trip is 100% more enjoyable and just as quick. South Beach is definitely a bicycle-friendly kind of town, and now I can see why.

Living in the building has been quite enjoyable thus far. We haven’t even taken advantage of the pools, gyms, valet parking and other amenities, but dealing with the helpful staff has been quite refreshing. Managing a building of this size must be almost like running a cruise ship, except that the staff gets to go home in the evenings just in time for the second shift to take over.

However the highlight of living on the 31^st floor is definitely the views that we get every moment of the day. You can almost stay glued to the windows all day just watching what goes on below. The weather changes; the huge cruise ship maneuvering at the distance; the smaller boats and jet skies zipping about in the Biscayne Bay; watching from above the pelicans and other birds fly on their way somewhere; waiting for Gloria Estefan or Rosie O’Donnell to step out onto their backyards; watching the traffic on the Macarthur Causeway driving to/from the mainland; the loading or unloading of the container ships at the port of Miami; tour boats of all kinds and sizes waiting for Gloria or Rosie to step out; and in between some of the natural world, such as dolphins and manatees, that are still visible in the midst of all this confusion. The show it’s definitely worth the price of admission.

As we sit back at the end of another day, we look at the calendar and realize that those that gave us only two weeks of honeymoon with SoBe, were dead wrong. The jury is still out on two months, but so far so good.

1st Anniversary of my AARP membership

As if South Beach knew that Sunday was the 1st anniversary of my full AARP membership, it threw out a massive celebratory party as if there was no tomorrow. Or maybe that’s the way every weekend goes on around these parts. Regardless, I took it as a sign that the city really celebrates it’s AARP members, especially if it happens to be yet another new Cuban in town.

Sunday morning greeted us with the sights of the 100s of bicycles riding over the causeway in front of our condo as they looped around to complete the bicycle and running part of the Nautical South Beach Triathlon. B and I walked down to join in and celebrate the passersby. I felt almost as if I was doing the triathlon myself, but that feeling ended quickly when I was walking back with a loaf of Cuban bread, tomatoes, sandwich meats and a plastic container full of fresh ceviche from the market. I imagine this must have been the inspiration for the famous "South Beach Diet", and we’ll be seeing the outcome of this new diet in a few months, I’m sure.

The highlight of my day was tickets to see finals of the 2008 season opener of the AVP beach volley ball tournament which began here on Friday. The games were held as they were meant to be, on the beach. The weather was perfect for beach volley ball but given that the whole thing lasted for almost 7 hours, we did get a refreshing rain shower a few minutes before the final few games. I was a faithful fan as I stayed on my seat under the hot mid-day sun, the afternoon rain shower and later on with the cool breeze over the wet clothes. I made it home hungry and thirsty but the best part was that I didn’t have to deal with traffic or parking since it was just about 7 blocks from home.

The games included some of the all time favorites such as Dalhausser and Rogers on the men’s side and Misty May and Kerry Walsh on the women’s side. I’m not a huge professional sports follower, but amazingly enough these were names that even I was familiar with from years of following them in the summer Olympic games and the professional VBall tours. The guys, --and the gals--, made me feel even more AARP than I am as it was difficult to say whether they were under the influence of the same gravitational forces as the rest of us humans tend to normally be under. It made for a fun afternoon and the closing of another page in my first year of being part of the (gulp) “over 50” demographics.

South Beach still felt as if it wasn't doing enough celebration because when I was sitting watching the VBall games, I heard the roar of the engines of a boat race that was going right behind me . I tell you what, this town really knows just how to make you feel welcome!

At home we are putting the final few touches on the paint, replacing the flooring and arranging the furniture and decoration to make us feel more at home. We now have Florida driver’s license and Florida tags in our car, so little by little we’re getting our act together and ready to start tackling the big steps that we have ahead. It’s starting to feel just like home.

Creating a new AARP routine

After New Year’s Day I wrote about my predictions for the year based on what happened to me that day. Well, apparently I missed seeing all the walls that surrounded me at the time and didn’t even think that walls, and especially the paint on them, was going to be such an important part of my life this year. Yes, paint, the mundane stuff that goes on walls, trim and doors in any building is quickly becoming my reason for living and clearly it should have been more prominent in my forecasts for 2008.

Today we celebrated our first week living in South Beach, and as it was our routine in Emerald Isle, we started the day promptly with a brisk 1.5 hrs walk. South Beach, which is the southernmost tip of Miami Beach, is definitely a walker’s paradise. Everyday we have been experimenting with different routes to see which one turns out to be more interesting. Already we have different walk “themes” according to the types of sights and sounds we want to experience. There is the peaceful waterfront bay walk which starts on the waterfront right below our building and ends up on the beach. Then there is the everyday businesses route via Alston Ave. where we see the ACE hardware store, Whole Foods, and numerous restaurants and fast-food establishments catering mostly to the local more permanent community. The touristy route which is just about everywhere else but becomes more concentrated on Ocean Dr., Lincoln Mall and Collins Ave. The sandy walk with its variations: the boardwalk, the hard sand or the soft sand by the water. And then there is the sleazy walk with all the business catering to partygoers and those with alternate lifestyles; during the daytime it’s pretty lame, except for the window displays, but I’m sure it’d be the place to be if we were walking past midnight any night.

One of the concerns I had about moving to South Beach was that it was not Cuban enough for what I wanted. One thing that I thought was missing was my fresh Cuban bread, something that I have always fantasized of having walking distance from home. I thought for sure it would be something that I was going to find only when I drove to the mainland (Miami) across the I-395 causeway, but I was pleasantly surprised to find several spots along our walk where I can find this coveted delicacy. So to commemorate our one week anniversary at our new home, at the end of our walk I picked up some bread, tomatoes and cheese to fix myself a basic staple of life. I’ll worry about painting and unpacking after I’m done enjoying my sandwich; there will plenty of time for that later.

Transitions

Blogging took a backseat to packing, loading, driving and finally unloading our stuff in our new location in Miami Beach, Florida. After 6 months in Emerald Isle, we are planning for this to be home at least for the next two years. The jury is still out on how long the honeymoon with our new town will last --some have predicted 2 weeks, others 2 months--, but we’re burning the ships and are committed to giving this a try.

For us it is hard to grasp that in the previous 12-month period we have moved from Chapel Hill, our home for 20+ years, to a Durham apartment, then to our Emerald Isle beach house and now to Miami.

All the moves came loaded with a lot of life lessons for us. First, learning to live in a one bedroom/one bath apartment. At least this change was relatively mild since we only changed our four walls. The Emerald Isle move included getting used to living fairly secluded although at a fairly large house. This one offered somewhat new surroundings but a fairly tame change in comparison. Now, a new city with few personal contacts and our own personal introduction to the concept of "high-density living". Somehow I don’t think biking to the Post Office will continue to be part of my daily routine. Who knows what will take its place.

It feels good to start unpacking and finally getting rid of the boxes. We finally get to see some stuff that we haven’t seen in almost a year. And now the challenge is going to be to fit all the kitchen utensils, plate sets, glasses, pots and pans in a kitchen about a fourth the size of what we had in Chapel Hill. I see some more lessons in my future!

I hope my 2+ readers appreciate seeing some of the pictures from our new setting and my future entries which will certainty contrast life in our previous settings, to our new beach town with just a few more tens of thousands of people of all kinds. It’s going to be a ride!

Let's see how long we can do this...