I realized a week ago that I hadn’t taken any significant time off work since the week of Ken and Margaret’s wedding at the end of June so I booked this week off work and started looking for somewhere to go. Saturday evening, I finally settled on Miami Beach and made all the arrangements. Tuesday morning, I headed to the airport and a few hours later landed in sunny Miami. Collecting my luggage, I hopped in a taxi and about an hour later I was checked into my hotel and lying on the beach. (In fact, I spent most of the daylight hours from then until noon today (Saturday) doing pretty much the same thing.)

There are two things about my stay in Miami Beach that really surprised me: the amount of construction and the amount of french I heard being spoken.

The demolition and construction of hotels seems to be the biggest past-time in Miami Beach. Walking along the boardwalk, I must have seen at least a dozen hotels in some state construction or demolition. I looked for the hotel I stayed in last time I visited Miami Beach, but all I came across was the foundation of a new luxury hotel-to-be. Looking across at the skyline of Miami, you can see lots of cranes silhouetted against the sky.

Walking around, I heard a surprising amount of french being spoken. It’s surprising because in Miami Beach I would expect to hear a lot of spanish, and while there is a fair bit of spanish being spoken, the language that caught my ear most often was french.  I also heard a fair bit of german.  From time to time I even heard a bit of english, usually with a British accent.

There are some pictures available in my gallery.