My latest trip and what I observed

                                                                          Miami skyline

Hi everyone, as you may know or not know based on who is reading this, I have just come back home after spending ten days in the Miami, Florida area. It was a very fun vacation, and also a surprisingly a road trip between the places. I learned that the map does not tell the entire story of how this area is run. When we first planned the trip, with only planning on being in Miami and seeing the Keys south and seeing how close everything is, the farthest place we might visit would be 130 miles away in Key West, (which we actually didn't visit on the trip), I thought it would be a trip where we would stay at one spot and relax. But once we got there and drove around, I realized that wouldn't exactly be the case. We discovered that most of the freeways in the area are toll roads. And since toll roads are a no go, we took the city streets to go places. And the city streets are no joke. Doral, which is 13 miles west of Miami near the airport where we stayed at for 5 nights, took us 42 minutes to reach from Downtown Miami. Homestead, which the stopping point for the Everglades and the Florida Keys 30 miles south took 50 minutes to reach from Doral. And since we didn't stay in one place for the entire week, we mainly drove all around the area and every day usually involved being in the car for long periods of time. This was unexpected for an area that isn't all that large. 

                                                                  Driving on Miami streets

                                                      Map of the entire region we visiited

                                            Distance it takes from Downtown Miami to Doral

I was also surprised to learn how many malls operate in the area. I wasn't surprised because I knew about all the malls in the area as I know about all the malls in the US. But it felt more real about how large the mall culture is realizing the area we visited only has 6,000,000 people between Miami Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach (which we actually didn't visit) counties. And there are 19 traditional shopping malls in the area, 7 of which I saw first hand. And there are several additional shopping districts and streets to add along with those malls. And most of the malls in the area are still popular. Aventura Mall, Sawgrass Mills, Dolphin Mall, Bayside Marketplace, and even the traditional Pembroke Lakes Mall and Miami International Mall. Dadeland Mall, The Falls, Merrick Park, Town Center at Boca Raton, Mall at Wellington Green, and the Gardens Mall are popular as well, but we did not visit them. Broward Mall was the only dying mall I saw on the trip, even though Southland Mall in Cutler Bay and Boynton Beach Mall in Boynton Beach are dying as well, as what I have heard. I also saw The Galleria at Fort Lauderdale, which could be considered a dying mall with Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth having left the mall and the spaces being vacant and the entire mall being considered for redevelopment, but it still has plenty of decent higher end stores, so I would rate it more on the alive side. 

                                                     Aventura Mall in Aventura, Florida

                                                          Sawgrass Mills in Sunrise, Florida

                                                           Dolphin Mall in Doral, Florida

For downtowns and main streets, we spent time at Los Olas in Fort Lauderdale, Coconut Grove in Miami, Miracle Mile in Coral Gables, and Little Havana in Miami, which were all fun towns to walk around. The Wynnwood area of Miami and Miami Beach were fun areas to see, even though we didn't have the opportunity to walk in them. 

Domino Park, Little Havana

                                                                        Coconut Grove 

                                                                    Wynnwood Walls

                                                                    Hollywood Beach

                                                              Biltmore Hotel, Coral Gables

                                                             Miracle Mile, Coral Gables

                                 Sears at Coral Gables, Florida, one of 11 that are still operating

But the mall culture seems like it is just behind the New York and Los Angeles area and rivals the Chicago area, which has 9,000,000 people. Especially in the luxury retail market, with 4 Nordstrom stores (the same amount in Chicago), 5 Saks Fifth Avenue stores (only 1 in Chicago), 3 Neiman Marcus stores (the same in Chicago), 3 Bloomingdales stores (2 in Chicago), 7 Gucci stores (3 in Chicago), and 9 Apple stores (the same in Chicago) in the area. And on a special and nostalgic note, Miami-Dade County is the only county in the nation to still have both a Sears and Kmart store, which are in Coral Gables and Kendale Lakes respectively. The Miami area is also home to the headquarters of Office Depot, which is in Boca Raton.

                                                                        The Florida Keys

I was also surprised to learn about the geography of the area and how it is laid out. I learned that the best beaches are all located north of downtown Miami and center around Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach. And that the Keys don't have any major beaches, which was a major disappointment. The water around the keys and south Miami resemble more a bay than the ocean, even though I still thought the water and the landscape around them is plenty wonderful to look at. But, we only saw the beach three days of our ten day trip. But of the beaches I did see, I really enjoyed. Sunny Isles, Hollywood, Dania, Fort Lauderdale, Pompano, and Deerfield were all fun beaches to walk around, with tall condos in view while I am overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, which is in stark contrast to the Pacific Ocean beaches which usually overlook tall cliffs and a more natural setting. 

                                                       Scenic views of the oceanfront

Hanging out at the beach

My favorite experiences on the trip along with visiting the beaches and the malls were visiting the Everglades and taking an airboat ride seeing all the alligators, going to a Florida Panthers hockey game and seeing them win against the Calgary Flames, driving and walking among Miami amidst the tall buildings and all the bustling activity, trying Cuban food and Cuban coffee for the first time, and being able to stay a couple nights at a house that accesses one of the many Florida canals and being able to canoe in the canal.

                                                    Cruising in the Everglades on the airboat

                                                     Seeing an alligator on the boat ride

                                               A peacock in the Coconut Grove neighborhood

                                                  Florida Panthers vs Calgary Flames game

                                                      Downtown Miami and its skyscrapers

                                                   The canal next to the Airbnb we stayed at

I hope you enjoyed learning about my adventures and I hope you are inspired to take an adventure of your own. Maybe you have already taken an adventure like this and if you did, I am interested to hear what you thought of Miami and if it was similar. Thank you for reading and God bless!!

For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.                                                John 3:16