So Miami: The Beach

Most of my "So Miami" posts end up being quirky things about living an a ethnically diverse city, so this one may be applicable to any city near a beach.  Earlier this week, some friends invited us to join them at the beach.  My friend wanted to go to the lighthouse on Key Biscayne (Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park).  I haven't been there in more than 5 years, but I knew what I was getting into, so with trepidation, I bit the bullet and we went.

And what I want to highlight is the tendency to live "so close to the beach" and never go to the beach.  That is because getting there is exasperating.

Bill Baggs, as the crow flies, is 13 miles from our house, but - being on an island accessible by only one bridge, it is 24 miles away.  On the way there, we traveled on average 18 miles an hour.  Still, when we crossed onto the Rickenbacker Causeway and the bay glittered up to us in perfect blue, I was ok with that.

Natalie took this - actually she took about 75 pictures just like this.

And the kids had an amazing time...

Look at those shades of blue!  It makes me want to paint it! (FYI - SPF 50, she didn't even have lines from her swimsuit!)

The weather was perfect, but too chilly to really swim, so I didn't have to be quite as much of a hawk and could relax.

But promptly at 2pm, I packed the kids up and we headed home "to beat the traffic" - which I'm sure we beat some of it, but we made about 12 miles per hour going home.

So in the end, we spent 30 minutes more driving than we spent at the beach.  And still - it was kind of worth it.  If for nothing else, to remind us that is is there and that we have to make the effort to go sometimes.  Fortunately, we live 5 minutes from the marina and 20 minutes from Matheson Hammock - both as fun for little kids and almost as fun for big ones.  Caleb definitely liked the "real" beach better.