Welcome to Miami! We arrived late afternoon and caught the bus straight out to South Beach.

The area of South Beach encompasses only 23 blocks of the greater Miami Beach, so most everything is within walking distance. The place is full of clubs, restaurants, expensive boats, palm trees, and tourists. The shot bottom-right is looking out to the man-made Fisher Island, accessible only by ferry. Some of its current and former residents include Oprah Winfrey, Sylvester Stallone, and Luciano Pavarotti.

There were several people around the place making random things out of some sort of leaf - bloody clever I thought!

Sum Yum Gai (Some Yum Guy, hehe).

$133.50 - that's a pretty exact figure! What's wrong with an even $150 or something?

The famous Ocean Drive runs ten blocks along the eastern coast of South Beach, and is a big tourist spot! Ocean Drive is the site of famous Italian designer Gianni Versace's former ocean front mansion, outside which he was gunned down and murdered in July 1997, aged 50, while returning home from his usual morning walkies. In his home town this was a sign of a mafia hit, but it was reported in the media that he was murdered by spree killer Andrew Cunanan, who committed suicide shortly after the murder. Police reported that Andrew Cunanan had committed suicide using the same handgun that had been used to murder Versace.

Ocean drive is bloody great to meander down, with its numerous Art Deco hotels and buildings...

Bars and clubs...

Restaurants and cafes...

Lummus Park running along its length...

And of course, the beach! :)

Straight out of Baywatch hehe.

South Beach is an awesome spot, and reminded me a little of Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast with the buildings in the background towering over it and, of course, the perfect weather!

The water is so nice; I could've quite happily spent the rest of the day in there!

This is my James Bond shot, straight out of Casino Royale hahaha! Where are my tighty whiteys?!

After leaving Miami Beach we headed for another beach down on Key Biscayne. The village of Key Biscayne itself is pretty fancy, and apparently caters to an elite population of business moguls and high-income professionals (and it sure looks like it).

Be that as it may, we were more interested in the state park on the southern third of the key. We had the beach pretty much to ourselves on this part of it - nice!

Further south the beach was much busier. This is the Cape Florida Light lighthouse, a somewhat famous Florida landmark.

We caught a bus north to Aventure Mall (or Ace Venturer mall as we called it) upon the recommendation of staff at our hostel. It's a pretty decent size in there, complete with piano to entertain the oldies.

There's also a sweet shop that would be every kid's dream called It's Sugar. They sold most every kind of lolly under the sun, including the shitload of jellybeans and M&M's shown here! And that white stuff in the shot on the right - sugar, or as Mum would call it, "tooth-rot"! :)

Couple shots of Miami taken from the bus between Key Biscayne and South Beach.

We went back to Ocean Drive in the evening for some grub, and found a great 50s-themed burger joint called Johnny Rockets. It's similar to Burger King except it has more of restaurant feel, and is better!

Oh by the way, Sam Adams is bloody good beer! We also tried Root Beer here too, which tastes a lot like Listerine mouth wash, only sweeter hehe.

This was actually the second night in a row we'd come here for dinner, and for Mo it was starting to show - she was letting herself go a bit ;)

Ocean Drive by night.

One of many rowdy bars along here, this one with dancing cow girls. Giddy up!

Some random dude playing his guitar to himself in Lummus Park.

As I mentioned, Ocean drive is full with restaurants, and most all of them have some of their menu out on display - yummy!

DVD store - no surprise the Yanks to have a whole DVD section dedicated to war!