There's no beach in Miami? What?! . . . Miami Beach and Miami, Florida

Visited Feb. 10, 2021

 

By Janell

 

Who knew they were two separate cities? We just thought that Miami Beach was a beach in Miami.

Our second outing from West Palm Beach was a 2-hour drive (with traffic) to Miami Beach and Miami. And while we’re talking about driving and traffic . . . the traffic in Florida is ugly!

And on the freeway, especially the stretch of Florida’s Turnpike from West Palm Beach to Miami, it might as well be a video game. That’s how they drive! Marty said he felt as though he was in a Star Wars scene, where all the other spaceships are whizzing past us left and right! No joke – it’s worse than anything California has to offer!

The speed limit was 70 mph, we were doing 74, and the other cars were flying past us. One motorcycle was like a bullet: came out of nowhere and was gone from sight in a split second, at what had to have been 100mph! I didn’t even know he was there until he was past us!

One guy who had been jumping from lane to lane, anything to get there one car sooner, was behind a business truck in the slow lane. He couldn’t move to the left to pass the truck, so he went over onto the right shoulder to pass. This, all at 75+ mph! It was just pure craziness!

 

We brought our bikes and pedaled down the Miami Beach Boardwalk, about 5 miles round trip. It was kind of a classic beach scene with rollerbladers, muscle builders working out in the sand, etc. 

 

 

While we were on the South Pointe Park Pier, this mega yacht came in. Seeing the name, "Bravo Eugenia" on it, Marty looked it up to see who owns such a beauty: Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys. He paid $250 million for it, and it's longer than a football field!

Jerry's $250 million yacht

This pic doesn't do justice to the color of the water. It was a beautiful turquoise, and so clear!

 

 

Miami has an Art Deco Historic District with the largest concentration of Art Deco architecture in the nation -- over 800 historic buildings. We just saw a few of them along the beach boardwalk, but they were pretty cool.

 

 

After bicycling at the beach, we headed inland to The Wynwood Walls in Miami. Wynwood is a neighborhood that is being revitalized through art. It used to be a downtrodden warehouse area, much like South of Market in San Francisco before the dot com era and the Giants moved in. 

In 2009, Real Estate Developer, Tony Goldman (Goldman Properties) came up with the plan to revitalize the Wynwood neighborhood. Using graffiti and street art, a genre that he believed was under appreciated and not respected historically, he transformed the neighborhood into a place where people can explore and appreciate art. There is also a traditional style gallery, in the heart of it, but we didn’t venture there. There was so much to see on the street!

Since its inception, the Wynwood Walls program has seen over 50 artists representing 16 countries and have covered over 80,000 square feet of walls. That’s quite a feat! 

The murals shown here are just a fraction of how many we saw, and I had a hard time weeding any photos out! And I should mention that we couldn't even get around to see all of them. I hope you enjoy them as much as we did!

 

 

Kobe Bryant

I don't know why, but this is one of my favorites

Did this gal dress specifically to coordinate with this mural? We think so!

We noticed that there's a Goldman Properties sign on this building

 

 

 

There were a handful of telephone poles with these kinds of sculptures - so cool!

And you thought Marty was tall?!

This mural is at a brewery, of course

Seems a bit risqué for an office building

Even the garage is decorated. We parked in there, and from the inside you can see daylight through all of those zig-zags. It was pretty neat!

That's Tony Goldman in the middle of this mural