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The bright lights of MiamiApr 18, 2007
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The Miami skyline in the distance
Entering the City Marina
The Bayside Restaurant and Shops complex surrounding the marina
Talk about culture shock. After 4 months of living life in the slow lane down in the Bahamas we landed in Miami. The skyline was visible from many miles away. One of the first things I noticed as we neared the City Marina was the smell of many different kinds of food! We had only eaten a few crackers with cheese on the way so the first thing we did was look for food. So many choices and none of them chicken and peas and rice with maccaroni!
We had called Homeland Security to announce our arrival but the next task once we had satisfied our hunger was to taxi over to the Port of Miami and check in personally where we were given the green light and welcomed to the U.S.A.
We wandered the streets of downtown Miami, a little intimidated by the bars and gates that are secured outside the storefronts at closing time which is early, around 5-6 p.m. in most cases. After the Bahamas where the only place we locked our boat was in Nassau it was a real eye opener.
We had breakfast at McDonalds and even there tokens are needed to enter the washroom, in order to keep the bums out. There were security guards in many of the stores.
We took advantage of free water, refreshing after the Bahamas, to wash the boat and fill our tanks. I mailed a few postcards, one of my obsessions and we were off, heading south towards Key Largo and a kinder, safer atmosphere.
