Cruising the Strip

As the big freeze set in across the northern hemisphere, it seemed time to set off to warmer climes again. I headed south to the city of Miami and was delighted to meet up with my parents, who I hadn't seen since saying farewell to them at Manchester Airport a year ago. It was lovely to see them and we spent almost two and a half weeks together.

We met up at the Angler's Resort Hotel in Miami South Beach, which had been recommended by my good friend Dave, who works for Trailfinders in Dublin. We were not disappointed by the boutique-style hotel and enjoyed its location just set back from the main strip of Miami Beach's front.

Despite one day of torrential rain, we really enjoyed Miami and its summer-fun atmosphere. I particularly loved the art deco architecture that abounds. We also had an interesting tour of the city and saw many homes of the rich and famous such as Madonna, Elizabeth Taylor and Ricky Martin. We also came across the cemetery used to film Michael Jackson's 'Thriller'...I had an strange feeling I'd seen it before when we looked through the gates.




One highlight for all of us was dinner at Joe's Stone Crab restaurant. The restaurant has been open almost 100 years and we enjoyed a truly terrific meal in this busy Miami institution. We also had dinner at Gloria Estefan's beachfront Cuban restaurant, Lario's, as well as a great breakfast at the popular News Cafe, where we watched the interesting sights of bikini-clad roller-bladers and body-builders go by.

After three days acclimatizing, we headed north to Fort Lauderdale, where we joined our cruise ship, the Silver Spirit. Compared to many of the cruise ships we saw, she was quite titchy but she was a very lovely and luxurious home for two weeks. We gorged ourselves on the delicious food and enjoyed the amenities, particularly our favourite 'clams' at the back of the ship.

Our voyage took in a number of the Caribbean islands including Grand Turk (Turks & Caicos), St Lucia, Antigua, Bequia (St Vincent & the Grenadines), Barbados, St. Kitts, Tortola (British Virgin Islands) and Key West (Florida). We had a couple of days sailing on catamarans which we all enjoyed and seeing turtles swim in their natural habitat was great. Rough seas meant a few changes to the itinerary and the 'bad facelift brigade' as we nicknamed them were up in arms that we couldn't dock in St Barts for them to go designer shopping! Ho hum!



We had a great time overall and, as this video shows, my dad even let loose on the dancefloor, possibly as a result of the rum he'd consumed on the distillery tour earlier in the day?? (stick with this to the end - it's worth it, I promise!):

Disco Dad from Becky Smith on Vimeo.

Sadly, my parents returned home to the UK to find an awful mess awaiting them. As a result of burst pipes and an imploded water tank, their house has been flooded from top to bottom. We are all very grateful to our friends, Rose and Chris, as well as our neighbours, who did a superb job rescuing what they could and bringing in plumbers and driers. It will be a big job to sort it all out but we are thankful to our friends for lessening the damage.

I am now back in snowy Toronto. It's a bit of a contrast to the sunny south but, nevertheless, pretty in its own way. I was highly amused yesterday as I saw the firefighters at the fire station next door having a barbecue...in minus 15 degree temperatures!!

Happy New Year all!