Miami - Part 1

This is the wonderful city of Miami.

For Marguerite's birthday, Marguerite and Jude took themselves off there for a nice 4 day trip.











Here is Marguerite shortly after arriving. Sure she's full of the joys of spring.












And here is the Conrad Hotel in downtown Miami where Jude and Marguerite stayed.
















Marguerite found these very large marbles on the table in reception!!!!












First stop was Bubba Gump's Shrimp restaurant for a quick bite to eat. It sells other things besides shrimp mind you, like fish, fish and more fish. 'Eh, I think we'll have some fish and chips then squire', Jude said to the waiter.









Marguerite found this cool t-shirt and she couldn't resist trying it on for size.












Marguerite at the 'Torch of friendship' monument in Miami.












'I hope you brought good flat walking shoes Marguerite, you're going to need them, I say your going to need them', said Jude as they made their way back to the hotel.










Before you could say 'it's a beautiful day', Marguerite had parked herself into one of those bench/chair/lounger thingy-ma-doofers at the hotel's swimming pool.










And yer man, sure he did the same but he used one of the floaters. Here he is enjoying a wee welcome to Miami beer. Notice how he is hogging the right hand side of the pool and how the last dreggs of sunshine are creeping over that way, hehehehe, what a wally!!!








Talking of wallies, check out this rare bit here, not Jude, the other fella. Talk about sun worship!!!!












Jude's been tango-ed!!!!!!!!!!













'Sure this is magic', says Marguerite.













Here's Jude swimming away like a champion in what was the warmest pool ever.













Oh no, now he's only trying his 'dive onto the rubber bed thingy' routine.











Meanwhile Marguerite is a picture of calm and tranquility as she floats about the pool on her colour co-ordinated bed.











Later that night and it's out to a local restuarant for dinner and a few mojitos.....yum.












On the next day Marguerite and Jude took to the streets to see Miami. Here's a cool pic of one of those old American Diners, simply called 'diner'.











The date of this visit to South Beach, on this very special day, was captured here on this big calender / temperature gauge do-ans.

Why soooo special?????????

Well that's because today is Marguerite's birthday. Marguerite doesn't look a day over..............eh......well actually she's........eh..........hold on a cottin pickin minute here........ye're not really meant to divulge a lady's age. So let's just say she can't get into the 21-30 summer clubs any more, but hey, nor is she getting a free bus pass. She's somewhere in between folks.

Wha?




This is the house once owned by yer man Versace, the one who was stabbed by his boyfriend, right on those steps there actually.











Downtown Miami through a tour bus windy.













In little Havana Jude sampled the speciality coffee. The greedy git had two cups but insisted they were lucky he didn't down them all, like they were hardly family sized portions where they?










This auld fella here is as auld as the hills. Not the Indian, the dude with the hat on who looks like he's chewing a wasp. He is the face of a very popular brand of Havana Cigars that are made in Havana in Cuba and right here in Miami too.









And here he is, the very same auld lad on the cigar boxes.








Marguerite likes a puff but these blighters were out of her league altogether.








Little Havana certainly was a cool wee spot.












This thing here is great. You'll remember seeing this in the Atlanta post (Feb 2010). It's local parks where folk go to to play draughts, chess, and in this case dominoes. That's just magic. Simple entertainment in a public park, but brilliant at the same time.









Eh????

















Hey it's not just the Falls and the Shankill that has their murals. The people of Little Havana are as proud of their American Citizenship as they are of their Cuban roots.










Marguerite soaking up the atmosphere in Little Havana.


















This spot was class too, it was a wee (quite big actually) beach style park built right in the middle of the Coral Gables area of Miami. Nice!!











This cheeky wee number is the Metro-rail which transports folk through the streets of downtown Miami. It's free. Transport in American cities is just pure brill. When Jude and Marguerite go home that is definitely one of the simple things they will miss from the American experience, the brilliance of the public transport systems, they are just fantastic everywhere in this country.






The Bayside village was a cracker wee spot to visit. It ever-looked the harbour area and was full of action, restaurants, bars, shops and the like.











'Happy birthday to you, you were born in the zoo, happy birthday dear Marguerite, happy birthday to you.'











Here is Marguerite boarding the 'cruise' boat which would take her on her choice of birthday activity, a wee 'cruise' around the Miami islands which house many rich and famous stars of the entertainment world.








This brought back memories of Marguerite Snr /Mandy's visit to Boston (Sep 2010) when Marguerite Jnr informed them they would be going on a wee cruise. So Mandy told all and sundry at home they were going on some big cruise 'to Miami, Bermuda, the Caribbean or some place', only to discover that it was a 2 hour 'sunset cruise' of Boston Harbour they were going on.

Wha?




Marguerite and Jude finally get someone to take a pic of them together. Jude is always stopping folk and saying, 'here squire will ye take our pic here', only to turn around and see that Marguerite has done a runner.' Fortunately on this occasion she had nowhere to run to.








Oh yeah, it's Marguerite's birthday and Jude chose this 'super romantic' moment to give her her birthday cards.

This one's from from her brother Kevin........










............this one's from her sister Emma..........

















........and this one's from her Mum and Dad. When Marguerite was reading the first verse she was grand but by the time she got mid way through the second verse she came over all emotional and all, like her eyes were filling up and all that lark, really funny!!!!








And here she is reading her card from Jude. This very nearly tipped her over the edge. Jude wrote those verses while parked on the plane going to Miami. It helped that because they booked the flights the day before they traveled so it meant Marguerite was actually parked 5 rows ahead of him, so he had peace to draft it!!







Marguerite has regained her composure after the near emotional drama of moments before.







Maybe not!!!













So here the boat shifts out of the port. In the background there is the round white stadium where the Miami Heat basketball team play. Folk at home will know Liverpool FC (obviously) well a Miami player called Le Bron James, well he owns 2% of that football club.









Jude has a moment to himself.













The views from the 'cruise' boat were spectacular.











Marguerite could have picked 100's of things to do today, but this was her choice, seeing the homes of the rich and famous.












Eh....................there goes Mandy's cruise ship!!!












Oh yeah, the houses, well this one is owned by former eighties rock star Gloria Estefan.












Guess who owns this one.

'Addrriiiiaanannnn!!!! Addrrriiaannannn!!!! I won, I won Adddrriiianannnn!!!!

Who? Barry McGuigan? Eh...........no!

It was of course.......Rocky himself......Sylvester Stallone.





This house.........actually I've no idea who owned this house, oh yeah I've just remembered....it belongs to Puff Daddy, or P Diddy, or Diddy or whatever he's called now.










Marguerite loves this bag here. She can't get enough of it. Don't get me wrong though, Jude enjoyed it too, but Marguerite, she's mad about it.











Here is a class pic Jude reckons he could fit into his 'I could sell that pic as a postcard' collection.

It's the Miami skyline from the other side of a bunch of palm trees. Pretty cool indeed.










Jude reckons that if he ever wins the lottery he and Marguerite will buy this one right here.











Folk (rich folk that is) in Miami really have the best of life. Wee islands like this one are just full of fun-filled activities to entertain the natives.











As the cruise winds down Marguerite takes a wee break from the excitement of it all.










Who lives in those houses?














This one's good but not just perfect enough to get into the aforementioned postcard pic collection!!!











Back on dry ground and here is the wee 'cruise' boat that Marguerite and Jude have just dis-embarked.











'I'm starving, let's hit Chili's', said Marguerite.













'Now........this is nice, a glass of Rose........and sitting looking out at...............












...........this nice wee view', said Marguerite.

Miami had that Monte Carlo look to it's harbour area, a real cool wee spot altogether.










After dinner, and Marguerite hogs the free internet access this retail outlet offers it's customers. 'Eh.........it's only for customers Marguerite, I think you're meant to buy something to be considered a customer', said Jude. 'Wise up Jude', was the response.








'Welcome to the Hotel California......'

The evening was spent at this open air Rock concert (actually I've no idea who they were but they were bloody good all the same). Here is the singer on top of the railings there.








And here is Marguerite enjoying the action. Miami was cool in different wee ways, for example Marguerite and Jude were able to have a beer at this street concert, and for smokers they were allowed to smoke in outdoor seating areas of restaurants, which of course made Marguerite happy. That ended the first coupe of days of Marguerite and Jude's cool trip to Miami.






This is a view of the swimming pool from room 2024 of the Conrad Miami...........nice!!!!!