We left Portland's airport in the wee hours of Sunday morning February 15th to arrive in Miami in the early evening. We stayed at a hotel called the Dream on Collins Ave, it is a little boutique hotel from the 30's that has been refurbished and maintained the Art Deco features of the building.. Collins is one of the main streets in the South Beach area of Miami. Above I am pictured with a statue that was in the bamboo garden of our hotel. We were delighted to find the next morning that our hotel was located in front of Gianni Versace's mansion which is now a high end restaurant on Ocean Ave.
Ocean Ave is just that, it borders a huge park and the beach. It is such a beautiful white sand beach. Much different from what we are used to on the Oregon and Washington coast. We were out early on Monday morning and were delighted that the temperature was already in the low 60's.
Below, is the view across Ocean Ave from the park and beach side. You can see all the Art Deco architecture that has been preserved in spite of modernization of the interiors of the buildings.
We walked almost 10 miles on Monday the 16th. Below you see the view of downtown Miami from the South Beach Pier.
Here is a picture of Martin standing on the South Beach Pier. It was such a beautiful day in the low 80's and the beach was enjoyed by everyone.
One of the most poignant places we visited on our walk was the Miami Holocaust Memorial. From far away you see a hand reaching toward heaven, when you get closer you see that the arm is covered by the victims of the holocaust reaching up toward heaven.
There are tablets which list the names of those who were killed and a memorial flame to commemorate their loss of life. It was so touching, I cried as I realized we have learned nothing from this massacre as individuals continue to be murdered based solely on their religious beliefs.
Such a beautiful place to remember such a horrible event in our history.
A closer picture of the hand reaching toward God....
After our walk we ate at a fantastic Italian restaurant and talked about everything we had seen on our hike through South Beach. Even though the afternoon was waning the beach was as beautiful as can be....
The night brought out the art deco highlights on the buildings surrounding our hotel.
And Tuesday morning brought a glimpse of the cruise ships and where we were heading for Part 2 of our trip!
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