We enjoyed our first full day in Miami, Florida.
We are staying at the Four Seasons Hotel. This is the same Hotel that Crystal cruises will use for those guests arriving in Miami prior to the World Cruise. On the evening before the start of the World Cruise there will be a World Cruise Gala held for those guests taking the full world cruise. We will not be able to attend since we will already be on the ship.
We last stayed here in January, 2007. We enjoy the area and the fact that it is quite safe to walk around day or night. With less demand for travel the Hotel offered some very competitive rates at the time we made the booking.
What we did not learn until our drive here yesterday is that the Four Seasons hotel is in the tallest building in downtown Miami. Soon that will not be the case with a completion of another new building that will be even taller. This building not only contains the Hotel which occupies a portion of the floors, it also contains several floors of condominiums. The building does not seem too tall when you are here but when the driver pointed it out to us as he showed us the Miami sky line we would see that it was indeed tall.
Keith woke up quite early as he normally does but Anne Marie also was awake fairly early as we were looking forward to enjoying a nice day in Miami on New Years Eve. We had breakfast at the hotel. Today was a day to purchase some items that we needed for this voyage that we were unable to take with us on the plane. As we had a fair number of items to purchase and our legs as our transportation we made a few trips back and forth to the full service pharmacy and also to the food store. It was so nice to get out and about and the weather was gorgeous. It was in the 60's in the morning, with a high of almost 80 degrees this afternoon. This is a beautiful time to visit Southern Florida which is why this time of year is known as the season or when the snow birds arrive for a portion of the year from cooler climates up North.
In addition to running errands in the afternoon we also went on another very nice and long walk and had a wonderful time. For those of you familiar with Miami we walked over to the Intercontinental Hotel and then over to Bayside which has several restaurants and stores. There is also an outdoor area and this evening there will be fireworks. With a large celebration planned there were many outdoor vendors selling food and a band was already playing music.
Tomorrow we plan to again walk in that direction and then walk across the bridge over to the Miami Cruise Ship Terminal.
One item that we observed is that very few of the motorists yield to pedestrians. Even when the traffic light turns green and the sign is flashing with the pedestrian walking signal, those on foot must be very careful and be on the lookout for motorists who feel that they have the right of way at all times. We quickly learned to be very observant when crossing the street and not only looking both ways but doing it several times until we cross the street. We did observe on motorist who did yield the right of way to us and other pedestrians but it turned out that the vehicle had California rather than Florida license plates.
This evening we enjoyed a wonderful seafood dinner at the Oceanaire Seafood Room. Since it was located about 10 minutes from the Hotel we walked to and from the Hotel. Keith had made reservations for this evening a couple of weeks ago. As we are not late night people we had dinner reservations at 6:00 PM as we plan to watch the New Years Eve festivities from the television in our Hotel. We enjoyed a wonderful meal and on the way back to the Hotel we observed the beautiful blue moon.
We want to wish all of you a very safe, healthy and Happy New Year.
Tomorrow brings in not yet another new year but also a new decade.
As we reflect upon the year and the new year, it is a time when we think about all our friends and family. The friendships include those who we have known for quite some time along with our new friendships from our new community. This brings us to our thought of the day.
OUR THOUGHT FOR THE DAY....
"Remember, the greatest gift is not found in the store nor under a tree, but in the hearts of true friends."
Happy New Year
Keith and Anne Marie
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