Miami

Day 19

By the time we got to Miami the day was almost over, so went for a walk to Lincoln Mall and found a nice restaurant for dinner. It's like hardware lane or Lygon St in Melbourne where people stand out the front trying to sell their menu to you. The thing you need to watch for is adding in tips and taxes.
We did find a really nice Italian restaurant and most places do a cocktail happy hour, which lasts for several hours. Food pretty good standard, and
The guy at the front desk of our hotel kindly booked us a trip to the everglades for the next day which should be good. Weather was hot & humid when we arrived so it really takes it out of you.

Day 20

Got on bus for Everglades tour, and are discovering that if you want a job in Miami you need to speak both Spanish and English. Along the way the bus driver (Mario) pointed out the island where Ricky Martin, and Shakira and almost every other latino stars have houses. Didn't take long to get to Everglades, and Mario got us our tickets for our airboat ride. Miami is going through quite a severe drought at the moment so the airboats cant take you far, but we got to see some gator's in the water and some baby ones on the river bank. Then we went for a walk around the park, and Jo got to hold a 1 metre long gator. We even tasted Gator, they have gator bites, which I would suggest taste more like pork than chicken. When we got back to the hotel the humidity got the best of us and we crashed out and watched the US Open golf on TV. By evening we got our energy back and headed back up to Lincoln Mall for dinner - and sampled another restaurant - again the food was good. Found Macy's department store and plenty of value here. Decided to book tour for Seaquarium for tomorrow.

Day 21

Same tour driver (Mario) picked us up for Seaquarium. After dropping off people for city and boat tours we were the only ones left on the bus going to Miami Seaquarium. We got to see all the dolphin/sealion/more dolphin and most impressive was the Killer Whale presentations. Well worth seeing!
If it was for all the school summer camps visiting we may have almost had that park to ourselves. We watched round 2 of US Open again seeing Rory tearing them up. Another hot & humid night.

Day 22

No real plans for today. Although Jo had a craving for a grilled calamari salad for lunch, so we set off in search for that, (without being harassed by a Maitre D trying to talk us into other cocktail happy hour). We found (of all places) a book store cafe which was brilliant, and would highly recommend it to anyone travelling to Miami - it's called Books and Books (and also in Lincoln Mall, South Beach). Jo also found Macy's again and found some more bargins. Washing and packing was on order for the night. Also found quality Japanese take away just down from hotel. Went down a treat. Prepare for Lexington Kentucky.