May 1 - 12, 2002

Wednesday, May 1, 2002                                                   Sunny Isles Beach, FL

We got an early start to the airport this morning for our flight down to Fort Lauderdale.  Ken and Luma are joining us for a five-day stay at my parents’ condo in the North Miami Beach area.  We picked up our rental car and were in the condo by early afternoon.

Ken and Luma both lived in various locations around Miami for several years over the past two decades.  So they took on roles as tour guides for us during this visit.  Ken & Luma also have some friends down here, particularly a Thai family that has several restaurants in the area.  After enjoying some immediate pool/beach time at the condo we cleaned up for dinner and drove up the road to the Hollywood area.  The business district here is in a recent phase of rejuvenation.  We ate at Sushi Jazz, owned by Mum and Freeman, of the Thai friends that I mentioned.  I have never been a big fan of sushi, and can only count on one hand the number of times I’ve tried it, but tonight I had a sushi awakening.  Mum was working as the sushi chef tonight, and she presented us with roll after roll of amazing sushi.  It helped that I didn’t have to try and choose things off of a menu that meant little to me.  I worried not at all about what I was eating, and focused instead on just enjoying the great flavors that filled my mouth.  We were treated to eel, crab, tuna, salmon, and more.  I now consider myself a fan of good sushi.

We all drove down to Little Havana for Christine and Luma to get manicures and pedicures, and Ken got his haircut.  This is a regular event for Ken and Luma when in Miami.  The Little Havana area is concentrated with Cuban settlers.  After the personal grooming was completed we all went to a Cuban diner for lunch.  Sergio’s was packed with the local lunch crowd.  We had tasty Cubano sandwiches and enjoyed watching the crowd.  English is a foreign language in these parts of Miami.

After lunch Ken drove us through Coral Gables, a well-planned affluent community west and south of downtown Miami.  We stopped at the recently restored Biltmore Hotel to gawk at the Moor-influenced design and the monster pool.  It was a beautiful day to be taking in the sights.  Next, we left Coral Gables and cruised around Coconut Grove for a while.

We headed back to the condo for a few hours of pool/beach time before cleaning up for dinner downtown in the Bayside area.  We approached downtown and were surprised to have our path blocked by the running of a foot race.  There were tens of thousands of people competing in a 5K charity race.  We parked nearby and merged our way through the runners as we crossed over toward the Bayside development.  We had a reservation at Los Ranchos, a Nicaraguan steakhouse.  We feasted on a great meal of tenderloins covered in varying sauces as we watched the runners cross back and forth over the bay bridges outside.  Our meal was wonderful.

After dinner we walked around the Bayside complex waiting to take an evening boat cruise of the Bay.  We were treated to some live music from the Bayside bandstand while we waited.  We were surprised to find out that our tour boat ride was a dance cruise at this hour.  This means that there are only occasional tourist tidbits announced over the PA system.  The rest of the time the boat is bombarded with dance music and bright lights as the tourists dance about on the open deck.  It was different and fun.  The boat took us out the main channel and around Star and Hibiscus Islands before returning to Bayside.  We had a dozen homes pointed out to us on Star Island that were owned by various celebrities like Rosie O’Donnell, Sylvester Stallone, Julio Iglesias and Gloria Estefan.  It was really a fun evening.  We even danced a bit, except for Ken.

1) The Biltmore Hotel. 2) Joe and Christine at Bayside.

We took in a Miami Beach tradition today by eating at Wolfie Cohen’s Rascal House.  The original Wolfies deli in South Beach is being renovated, but the Rascal House is nearly as old, and as interesting.  They do such a good job of catering to the senior crowd, that they have a shuttle service from their parking lot to the front door.  Christine and Ken were too proud to enlist the shuttle service for the short walk, but it didn’t keep Luma and me from enjoying the short lift.

After lunch we drove up to Fort Lauderdale to walk along Las Olas Blvd.  This shopping district aspires to be like Rodeo Drive in L.A.  It was a great day to walk around and do some window-shopping.  We even found some Mackinaw Island ice cream that pleased us all.  We headed back to the condo and got in our requisite afternoon pool/beach time.

We cleaned up and went down to the Art Deco district of South Beach for a late dinner and a little sightseeing.  We walked around the shops and clubs and did some people watching before going to Ruen Thai on Washington Avenue.  This restaurant is owned by Sanglaim, Mum’s mother.  Sanglaim treats Luma like her daughter, and the rest of us got the family treatment by association.  The dinner of Beef Ginger, Chicken Curry and Pad Thai was outstanding.   All the ingredients tasted so fresh.

1) This is the view from the condo's patio.  2) Sun worshipers.

We hung around the condo most of the day enjoying yet another nice day of sunshine.  We reached my parents friends, Bob and Renee, by phone and invited them to come over for lunch.  They are in town visiting their daughter, Sarah.  Bob, Renee and Sarah arrived early enough to enjoy some pool time with us before we walked down to the condo’s beachside Tahiti Bar for lunch.  It was a very enjoyable visit.

Later we cleaned up and headed back out for some tourist activities.  We drove down to MacArthur Causeway and parked across the channel from the cruise ship terminal.  Most of the Miami-based cruise ships terminate their cruises here on Saturday morning and are re-loaded with people and supplies for another weeklong cruise by late afternoon.  So we got there in time to watch the cruise ships departing.  Christine had mixed up a pitcher of margaritas and Luma rounded up some snacks so that we could just kick back and watch all the excited cruisers wave to us on their way out to sea. 

We then drove around gawking at the exclusive homes on Palm, Hibiscus and Star Islands.  These islands all have gated access, but will let sightseers in for a harmless look around.  It was fun to know whose houses we were driving by, thanks to the boat tour we took on Thursday night.

We finally found ourselves on South Beach and stopped at the Jewish Holocaust Memorial there.  The late afternoon light magnified the impact of this amazing exhibit.  We took our time and read the encapsulated history of the events surrounding the holocaust.  The experience was quite sobering for us, and timely with respect to the zealous manner in which Israel is currently defending itself from terror attacks.  I never look forward to exhibits that bring me down, but I’m almost always glad that I made the effort afterwards.

We walked around the Lincoln Road pedestrian mall and did some window-shopping as we searched out a restaurant for dinner.  The choices are numerous, but we settled on the Van Dyke Hotel for a satisfying meal of pizza.  In observance of Kentucky Derby day, we ordered a mint julep for the four of us to share.  None of us had ever had one before so it was a bit of a surprise to me that the drink was so strong.

These are both of the Holocaust Memorial.  If you look close at the second picture you can see the number stamped on the arm and those are people clinging to it.  The Memorial was very informative and moving.

We spent our final day relaxing in the condo and preparing to leave.  We finished our cleaning and laundry and headed back up to the Fort Lauderdale Airport.  We got in the airport early enough to eat dinner there.  We all ordered margaritas to celebrate Cinco de Mayo day, though none of us really knew what the Mexican holiday is supposed to mark.  We returned to Charlotte and sunk into our bed at Ken and Luma’s house after a great trip.

We cannot leave Florida without talking about what a great job Joe's parents have done decorating the condo.  Joe's Mom picked great colors for the walls and she spent time making the condo walls very unique.  Marilyn is extremely talented as proven by the murals on the walls in the pictures above.  She painted all of these murals in the entryway of the condo.

Christine and I busied ourselves around the house for a while.  I drove down to South Carolina to pick up some freshly picked strawberries that Christine used to make a cold strawberry pie for dessert tonight.  We met with our accountant and finished filing our taxes for last year.  We are pleased to be getting a real refund. 

We drove up to the north side of Lake Norman to spend the evening with a former colleague of mine, Mike and his wife, Sharon.  We had a great evening looking out over Lake Norman from their deck.  Mike grilled up some pork tenderloins for dinner and we kept the conversation going until late into the evening.

We got a very slow start as we relaxed over coffee with Mike for a couple hours before heading back to Charlotte.  We knocked off a few errands before finding ourselves back at home base.  I left Christine behind and took the RV down to visit my close friend, Dave in South Carolina.  I got to Dave’s house at 5:00 and we immediately hopped into The Bullet, his 1963 MGB convertible for a spin through the mountains.  It was a perfect evening for a cruise on the twisty roads.  We ended up back in Greer for a good meal of Mexican food. Dave and I stayed up late talking about developments in our lives.

After a quiet morning we drove up to Caesar’s Head State Park in Dave’s jeep with his border collie, Comet and went on a great 5-mile hike in the mountains.  There was nobody else on the trail we hiked, so our outing was very quiet and peaceful.  The trail ran along streams most of the way, providing the sights and sounds of small waterfalls and cascades.

We were pretty hungry by the time we finished our walk.  We ate a late lunch and returned to Dave’s house for a short nap before heading back out.  We hooked up with his friend, Beth and all went to see the movie: “Murder By Numbers.” 

I returned to Charlotte by mid morning with the RV.  We packed it up with our clothes for another weekend on the beach.  Ken and Luma, and Christine and I drove down to Myrtle Beach to visit our old neighbors, Wick and Nancy.  We had such a great visit with them last year that we were really looking forward to hanging out again with our retired friends.  We arrived around 4:00 in the RV and settled in for an evening at their home.  Dinner included beer brats on the grill and peanut butter/chocolate cake for dessert.

We started the day with a couple hours kicking back on the beach.  Ken and Christine even went swimming in the surprisingly warm water.  After we all had plenty of sun we came back to the house and cleaned up.  We altered our plans to go out for cocktails when an intense storm came through in the late afternoon.  We stayed in for drinks and appetizers waiting for the storm to pass.  We then went out for a fun casual dinner at Duffy’s on the beach.  We stayed up late playing cribbage and Scrabble while watching TV.

1) Good luck on finding any stressed looks in this picture.  2) The gang at Duffy's.

We awoke to more intense storms passing through the area that kept us closed in by the rain until afternoon.  We relaxed around the house busying ourselves with various projects.  After the skies cleared we drove down to an art fair in Myrtle Beach and then enjoyed some beers at a microbrewery at Broadway by the Beach.  The entire Grand Strand was ramping up for the annual Bike Week gathering here that kicks off this weekend and builds all the way through next weekend.  There were plenty of flashy motorcycles and loud exhaust pipes announcing the start of the weeklong party.

We returned to the house to clean up for dinner.  We had reservations at the same tiny Italian restaurant that we enjoyed so much last year.  Benny Rama’s Restaurant impressed us again with finely prepared inspired dishes.  We were joined by some of Wick and Nancy’s Wisconsin friends: Audrey, Frank and Jane.  It was really a great outing.

1) Broadway at the Beach.  2) The whole group at Benny's, Wick, Nancy, Luma, Ken, Frank, Jane, Audrey, and Christine.

We spent the morning punching out a few projects for Wick and Nancy before packing up and hitting the road back to Charlotte.  It was an easy drive and we began planning our stops for when we finally leave Charlotte.

Nancy is not only an amazing hostess, she is also a wonderful artist.  This comes natural to her after spending her life as an Art teacher.  When we were neighbors, I helped her with a sewing project and in return she said she would make me a piece of stained glass.  This is the completed piece, which I look forward to putting up in my next home.