Miami
Next stop is the beautiful and trendy city of South Beach in Miami! We woke up on a sunny Sunday morning and made our way to the world-famous south beach nicknamed SoBe. South Beach has been glamorized on TV shows and movies and rightly so. This beach city is a paradise filled with endless options for having fun. In addition to having an expansive picture perfect white-sandy beach, SoBe is known for its Art Deco architecture, endless rows of cafes & restaurants, and non-stop clubbing at night. The most happening area of SoBe is the 1 mile stretch of Ocean Drive that extends from 5th to 15th street and that is where our adventure began.
After parking our car on 10th street, we spent around 2 hours strolling on the sidewalk of Ocean Dr. Pro Tip: Finding parking on Ocean Dr is almost impossible, so try your luck on the side-streets. Since the day just started, the first thing of order was getting some coffee! We got really lucky when we ran into Pinocchio Italian Deli & Cafe. I highly recommend getting their refreshing iced cappuccino and a flaky chocolate croissant. The vibe of the cafe was really cool and laid back, and you could tell it was a popular spot for the locals.
We then started our walk on Ocean Dr. I recommend walking on both sides of Ocean Dr. to get the full experience. Walking on the West side gave us plenty of opportunity for people-watching and smelling the wonderful breakfast food people were having. Walking East of Ocean Dr. gave us fantastic views of all the spectacular Art Deco architecture. Most of the Art Deco style buildings were built in the 1920s -1940s and feature vibrant paint jobs, porthole windows, iron railings, and geometric patterns. To experience a whole different side of SoBe, come back after sunset and admiring all the buildings gleaming with colorful neon lights.
No visit to SoBe is complete without going to the white sandy stretch of beach that’s directly east of Ocean Dr. We spent about 2 hours soaking in the sun and playing around in the turquoise water.
Then it was time for a change in scenery and visit Miami’s Holocaust Memorial. Why make a Holocaust memorial in Miami you ask? Well, as it happens, south Florida has one of the highest population of Holocaust survivors in the United States. It took almost 6 years to build the memorial, and it opened in 1990. The memorial is really touching and conveys the whole story of oppression of Jews by the hands of Nazis. As you walk around the giant hand reaching for the sky, you’ll learn everything about the rise of Hitler and the crimes that he committed. The base of the giant hand has statues of Jews as they try to reach towards the sky for freedom.
The Holocaust memorial got us a little depressed, so it was time to liven up the mood again and head over to the Lincoln road mall. This giant outdoor mall had everything from restaurants and boutique shops to food vendors selling juices and Cuban food. We spent a good two hours strolling around, people-watching, and taking in all the sights and sounds of what I call an European style promenade.
Now it was time for dinner for which we checked out this phenomenal little restaurant called Visa-01 which crowns itself as “that famous hidden place.” The place was on the first floor of an apartment building and is a little hard to find. But once the girl at the outside door escorted us inside, we knew we were in for a great meal when the chef came and said hi and apologized for the 30 min wait time. Their specialty is wood fire pizza and boy do they know how to do it right. We ordered two 13″ pies of Star Michele which is a star shaped pizza topped with ricotta cheese, mozzarella, San Marzano sauce, grilled eggplant, zucchini, and roasted peppers. The thin crust and exquisite fillings mingled together to form a perfect bite every time. (Oddly enough, we forgot to take a picture of the Star Micheles, but we did capture one of the delicious margarita pizza that we also ordered.) They also had a bottle of spicy oil to put on the pizza that gave it an extra kick. If the pizza wasn’t enough, they saved the best for last when they brought complimentary house-made Nutella croissants.
To end the day, we headed to the Little Havana district. Since Cuba immigrants make up the majority of the Miami residents, we thought what better way to experience the culture than visiting the place where it all started. The main drag of Little Havana is located on a street called “Calle Ocho” or SW 8th street between 13th and 17th avenue. Our first stop was a neat little ice cream shop called Azucar Ice Cream Company that featured flavors like guava, plantain, and coconut. I highly suggest getting their signature flavor called Abuela Maria that contains vanilla ice cream mixed with bright jewels of ruby red guava, rich cream cheese, and crispy sweet biscuits. After stuffing our faces, we went for a walk on Calle Ocho and came across the Maximo Gomez Domino Park. It was neat to see and hear the wonderful sound of dominoes clanking together as groups of people engaged in this long-standing Cuban pass-time.
