City in the Sun

When I lived there for a while back in the 60’s, Miami Beach was starting to reinvent itself. It had been a resort area that catered to older people from the Northeast. Big mega hotels like the Fontainebleau and the Deauville flourished. It was like Las Vegas without the gambling. Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Junior were regular performers there.

If you drove away from the big hotels and headed south on Collins Avenue, you found smaller hotels and apartment buildings with elderly people playing shuffleboard and cards. Quiet neighborhoods, one or two blocks from beach that seemed to go on forever, blended into each other. The air was hot and still.

When Castro came into power, the Cubans began to leave their island. Not surprisingly they came to Miami, the nearest American city to their homeland. Immigrants from other islands were to follow over the years. The noise level on Collins Avenue began to pick up!

Many of the big hotels are gone now, and the beach area has been transformed. Sleepy South Beach is awake and hot! Latin and Caribbean music fills the air at all hours. Numerous boutique restaurants serve spicy, delicious cuisine. Young people with fun “attitudes” try to seduce tourists to their eateries. Segway motor less scooters zoom by the former Versace mansion. Harley Davidsons cruise the streets. There is a tremendous energy to the area that brings a smile to the face of the biggest curmudgeon.

If you get tired of Miami Beach, the city of Miami is just across Biscayne Bay, and Key West is three hours to the south. The Everglades, with their complex ecosystems are within driving distance.