Highmoon's Ponderings

The non-stop rains of Wed and Thu gave way to a sunny Friday and a super awesome cold front on Saturday that has lingered around and brought nighttime temps in the Beach to high 40s. This morning I was originally going to join the monthly Bike Miami Ride but at 8:30 AM it was just way too early for this household, which went to bed at 3:30 AM after getting home from my father-in-law’s holiday party (oh man, such awesome food). So I rode my bike to synagogue as I always do, then checked out one of the waterfront promenades, this one in the area South of Fifth. From there I rode down to South Pointe Park and got to see the City of Miami right from the entrance to the port area.

My bike felt wobbly, and indeed it turned out I had two broken spokes in my rear wheel, so I dropped it at the Miami Beach Bicycle Center and walked home. Sans bike, we decided that the weather was too nice to not enjoy, so we went out to check out a couple of stores walking. Yes, we went walking in South Beach. It was fantastic.

We went to Sephora, where I got a new cologne (cause I can rarely find the other one I like and use, Azzaro Silver Black) then just went walking around, checking out stores, marveling at the beautiful blue skies, and chuckling at the SoBe trend-tribes. We are so uncool, we are beyond caring and enjoy it that way, so it’s funny to see those that are SO obsessed with appearances and the trends (and there’s loads of those in Miami, let alone SoBe).

We walked up to 13 St to have a pint at the Playwright Irish Pub, something we haven’t done in years. I love that pub; it’s spacious with great decor, they show soccer and other European sports (rugby!) and they actually know how to pull a pint of Guinness. Right when we arrived there I got a call that my bike was ready, so after a pint we walked down to 5th St again to get my bike. We walked back to the apt for a pit stop, then hit Publix for dinner (frozen pizzas we just threw in the oven).We plopped down on the couch to watch episodes of Pushing Daisies then played Rayman’s Raving Rabbid’s TV Party on the Wii.

Yes, it would have been cool to go out biking in this great weather, but walking around was just so good. We got incidental excercise, got to explore our new neighborhood and had a good time just the two of us.

More like this, please.

We’ve been looking for a new apartment to move into since late September. We’re frankly tired of the area where we live (Normandy Isle, North Beach) and given that leaving Miami is not a possibility at the moment, the next best thing was to move to a new area of Miami. Thus South Beach.

Now, when most people think of South Beach, they see this:

And granted, that’s part of South Beach, but not all of South Beach. This side of SoBe is a few streets east of where we’ll be. This is my South Beach:

Very different, no?

Between Washington Av and Alton Rd sits a veritable village made up mostly of apt buildings with a few single-family homes, all inhabited by people looking to live a normal life in South Beach. We’ll have Flamingo Park less than 2 blocks away, and pretty much everything we need within 10 blocks at most. The place is highly bikeable and getting more so every day, not to mention connected to a large number of public transport options and perfectly located should we decide to start doing more long-range bike commuting. I can literally foresee parking my car and not having to move it for days on end. And that’s if I keep it, but more on that later.

Trust me, I was as surprised to find this here as well, and we both fell in love with it.

I can’t wait to move (although I dislike the process of moving!) and see what life feels like in a place where we are far more connected to other people and the city around us. Expect to hear more about the moving odyssey; after 7 years in this place, it’s a bit like a hermit crab moving into a new shell.