Days 32 - 39 28/06 - 05/07

Well, time is marching on. We have been having a good look around Miami courtesy of Perry and Tracie. Yesterday Perry took us down to the southern tip of the famous South Miami Beach and we walked out onto a wonderful pedestrian facility which takes you out to the entrance of Government Cut where ships enter the port of Miami. While we were there a ship entered and it was fascinating to see it come through a relatively narrow passage attended by a tug. Lots of pleasure boats also entering and leaving. Great views of oceanside highrises housing very expensive apartments. The top floors where penthouses occupy whole floors of 10,000' or more, apparently go for 20 million dollars or more. Bentleys, Mercedes, etc are two a penny around here!
After that we drove to Wynwood a bit inland. This was a gritty down at heel light industrial area until quite recently but now many of the old warehouses have been restored and turned into cafes and funky shops. A feature is what they call graffiti, but which is in reality high quality art work which adorns most of the walls. Amazing to see. We decided to have lunch at a restaurant called American Diner, but it was a far cry from the stereotypical diner of old. Another old restored warehouse funkily decorated in a bare bones style. Great menu and Jim opted for Brussels Sprouts and a stuffed spud. And a locally brewed craft beer. Well, what a meal. The Brussels were the best he'd ever had. Grilled in an orange sauce with bits of orange and other veges, they were absolutely wonderful. And the spud - huge and full of sour cream, bacon bits and spring onions. Quite stonkered Jim at the end. Very unusual for him to have a vegetarian meal - could become an unlikely convert! Jean had an Avocado salad which she pronounced wonderful also. She also had fries with a delicious cheese sauce dribbled all over. This has quite altered our perception of American food and particularly eating out. If you can get food like this (and cheaper than the indifferent fish meal we had during our jetski outing), then perhaps America is not so bad in the food department.
Another highlight was a visit to a classic car showroom where they mostly had vintage Ferraris and the best of all - a vintage 1949 XK120 Jaguar complete with a leather strap over the bonnet! And right hand drive - maybe Jaguar only produced RH drive in those days. She was absolutely gorgeous with a British Racing Green exterior and tan leather interior. USD550,000 - a steal!! At times like this one really wishes one had won Lotto!
Speaking of which, we've just organised an account with Lotto and we see that the NZ version is now up to NZD40 million! Could buy the whole shop with that!
On last Monday night (the 4th. of July) Perry and Tracie invited Dana and Dana and their 4 children over for a BBQ and some fireworks. They are lovely neighbours - she is a midwife and he has a chain of optometry shops. They also have a Poodle cross called Rosie. Great BBQ and then letting off skyrockets from the edge of the deck over the canal. The kids were entranced and now appear to believe that this treat should exist every night! All around there were fireworks as Americans celebrated their Independence Day. Jim irreverently suggested that perhaps President Obama could give David Cameron a ring and offer him the US back as a consolation prize after Brexit! Then they wouldn't have to worry about Trump! Don't think the suggestion was very well received however, but think of the Common Market thus created and NZ would have access to the North American Market as well! TPPA wouldn't be relevant then at all.
We should have been politicians; we'd create more mayhem than 10 Trumps combined.
Well, gotta go as we leave here for Medellin in approx. 1 hour. All packed, hence writing this blog. And when we come back Perry and family will have moved into their new house. That'll be exciting. Jean has had a bit of a recurrence of the tummy bug but seems better now. Fingers crossed that this continues.
Next blog from Medellin!!
Cheers and lotsaluv from us............
Jim and Jean
Miami
Florida
USA

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com