And so it’s back to the US for the second
time in 2 months. This time it was to Atlanta, to do a family road trip to
Miami with the in-laws. It seemed like a good idea in the planning stages but
the reality of a 15 hour drive (including stops) was slightly different.  |
| Uncle imparting words on wisdom on the rocking chairs outside Cracker Barrel |
Our
first stop was at Cracker Barrel, which I’d never been to before. The breakfast
menus were gigantic (true American style). From there, our next stop was Long
Beach to visit a family relative. And then finally, after hundreds of miles of
motorway and four petrol filling stops, we reached Key Biscayne; a picture
perfect island just off Miami. It looked like the kind of island where people
left their doors open and crime was minimal if at all. This was confirmed later
in the holiday when we spoke to some locals.
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| Strong husband |
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| Didn't quite work the other way around |
So, here we were, in Miami. The weather was
hot! Much hotter than I liked but thankfully there was a lot of cloud cover for
the first couple of days so that kind of eased us into things gently. We were
staying in a condo and cooking our own meals, hence my discovery of Winn Dixie.
We
spent a somewhat relaxing day on the beach, teaching the kids to fly the kite
we had brought them (and teaching ourselves as well for much of the process)
Our day tip to South Beach wasn’t as
organized as I would have liked, which can be one of the downfalls of
travelling with others not as militant as myself when it comes to planning and
organisation. We made it to the beach and managed a bus ride – bus circles the
area for 25p a ride. But unfortunately missed out on Little Havana, which was
the main area I wanted to see. Excuse to visit Miami on another occasion, me thinks!
The highlight of the holiday had to be the
Miami Heat NBA final. For years I’d been wanting to see a game and it doesn’t
get any better than this for a NBA first. The atmosphere was electric, the game
fast paced and crowd crazy about the game’s star player – LeBron James. The
chat ‘Let’s Go Heat’ followed me back to the condo that evening and stayed
embedded in my brain for days later. Needless to say, the Miami Heat beat
Indiana Pacers. Hubby thought it was the perfect birthday treat!
Key Biscayne was a lovely place to explore.
The streets were pristine and some lovely, unexpected, wildlife.
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| Ashes to ashes... |
I absolutely love engaging with locals when
away and had a few interesting conversations on this trip. The first was with
one of the security guards at the condo. Our nephews insisted on wanting a swim
one night, so we accompanied them down to the pool but as the water was too
cold, I let them swim while I kept watch. I got chatting to a security guard
called D Best who was attracted to my accent. Her reaction to finding out I was
from London was “Yah’ll really from London? There got black people in London? What
kind of jobs they give black people in London?” Her sincerity was somewhat
comical but thus is the reality for many Americans who have never left the
country and with no contacts in the wider world. We had a long chat about our
cultures. She explaining that to have a job in Miami you had to speak Spanish.
I hadn’t realised just how heavy the Latino influence was in Miami. That was
until I had visited a Walmart with one of the boys looking for a pair of
sunglasses and had spoken to no less than four members of staff who didn’t
speak English! I was amazed that someone could get a job working in customer
services, in America, without speaking English. D Best was similar surprised
that in the UK, black people had such high profile jobs as lawyers, doctors, MP’s
etc. The conversation continued by her asking how come we decided to stay on
Key Biscayne when it was so expensive compared to a hotel on South Beach then
in the same breath saying it was just as well because crime was quite high over
on South Beach compared to KB. The police cars we say each day as we drove into
KB were stationed there so they could effectively deal with any reported
breaches of law taking place in the village, before the perpretrator could
flee.
The second conversation was with some congregation members of a local church after Sunday. Many had come from various areas of the USA but all agreed, Key Biscayne was an amazing place to live.
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| Conquering my fear at top of the lighthouse |
No trip to America is complete without a
spot of shopping and seeing as there’s nothing else to do in Atlanta ;)… let’s
just say we made the most of those designer outlets. A little lug her to sat
that the Nationwide credit card, charging no interest on purchases may abroad,
is a great companion for shopping holidays.
