Vice City

We were sorry to say goodbye to the comfy disney resort room that we'd stayed for the last 6 nights, but it was time to carry on with our journey. It is hard to believe we are three weeks in already, and still five weeks to go. We had a few snacks left to collect from our disney dining package so we checked out of the resort and headed to Downtown Disney to get some famous pretzels that Amy and Sam had come across from Wetzel Pretzel. The pretzels are soft and bready with flavours like cheese, pepperoni and jalapeno. We also got sandwiches from Earl of Sandwich which is a highly regarded sandwich shop that makes amazing sandwiches and has been running for 250 years. Once we had all the snacks and coffee we needed we hit the road for Miami.

The journey itself was fairly uneventful with Amy and I having naps in the back of the car. Fraser's brother Gareth was expecting us in Miami that afternoon as we were staying with him in Miami Beach. As we were getting closer into Miami we saw the beautiful sight of the downtown Miami skyline, the blue waters of the harbours and the many bridges. It was on the motorways into Miami that it happened, the drivers around us got CRAZY....driving in Miami is like nothing that we've seen on our trip so far. Drivers weave in and out of lanes leaving inches between cars at 70 miles per hour, there is no indicating and many times a car would quickly cross three lanes in front of us to get their exit leaving just metres before they missed it.

We arrived at Miami beach with little fuss, got settled in, checked out the amazing view of the beach from the balcony, then Gareth took us for a tour of the area in his car.
All at the same time we saw just ahead of us a guy on a motorbike revving his engine, then trying to get up onto his backwheel. He gave it a few attempts before zooming off along the motorway on one wheel. It left us gasping at the outragousness, he wasn't wearing any protective gear or a helmet. We did realise a few seconds later that there was a car following him who was filming this stunt, so it was perhaps not a daily occurance on Miami streets.

We drove along Ocean Drive at South Beach, where Fraser and Sam commented that they felt that they had driven down many times because of the realistic graphics in the video game Grand Theft Auto. We also saw some of the infamous art deco architecture and went into downtown Miami, then we headed back to get ready to go out for dinner.

Dinner was at a place called Sushi Samba, which is world famous japanese, peruvian, and brazilian fusion food. We opted to go for a chef's recommendation special service and we shared dishes specially prepared for us by the chef. We ate dishes like fish tacos, sashimi, and beef skewers with delicious sauces. The food was stunning to say the least, along with the gorgeous cocktails.

The Miami crazy kept coming when we headed to a bar on South Beach for another drink. We sat at a table outside and ordered plate size glasses of cocktails. Watching the people go past was fascinating, we saw everything from a man with a pet capuchin with a nappy on it's bum to prostitutes, and a man who was suspiciously standing outside the bar near our table the whole night, we think he was selling drugs.

Finally on the cab ride home we noticed that we were driving through large puddles of water on the roads like the drains were flooded after heavy rain, however Gareth told us that it hadn't rained in days. We asked the cab driver what the water was from and he informed us that it was caused by the 'ice caps'. Gareth asked if he meant global warming, and he replied 'no, the ice caps'. We know that he meant he thought the sea level was rising causing the underground drains to flood to road level, but it was amusing to hear his simple view of the problem.

Beer of the Day:
Coors Light - Bottle - Weak and watery, hint of corny malt but not much to speak of. Having said that, it wasn't atrocious in any particular way. Definitely not made for people who like beer, maybe for people who like off-tasting, fizzy water.