DAY 3 - FIRST FULL DAY IN MIAMI

It's wonderful to be back in Miami.  

Before dinner last evening we walked along the Bay and took in the  nice scenery and enjoyed being out in the fresh air.  Temperature was moderate and very few clouds in the sky.  

Last evening we had our first dinner in Miami of this journey and it was at one of our favorite places; Perricones.  Perricones is an Italian Restaurant that attracts many locals as well as tourists.  To us it is your neighborhood type of restaurant.  We first dined here in December of 2009 and on each subsequent visit to Miami we have enjoyed several lunches and dinners here.  They offer an array of entrees including pasta, seafood and beef and we enjoy having their seafood dishes.  Ingredients in the salad and entree are fresh, we find the wait staff to be very friendly, and the interior rooms of the restaurant are quite unique.  

We had a great waiter and we spoke with him for quite awhile.  We also chatted with the Maitre d' whom we have known since we first began dining here and later on the Manager of the restaurant came by.  Everyone was very accommodating as they always are.

We will try to get more photos of the interior of the restaurant the next time we dine here.  There are several rooms. Some of the rooms have no ceiling so you are under the stars at night.  Should it rain they can cover the tops of rooms.  Each room is very unique and very uplifting   

The room we were in did have a ceiling but the room you see behind us does not nor does the room that we were facing for the photo.

We typically have two courses at this restaurant and sorry but one of them is not dessert.

We began our meal with salads.

We each had one of the seafood specials.  This one was Wahoo which is a white flaky fish and it was blackened so it had a terrific taste to it.  

After dinner, we walked over to the Publix Grocery Store which is located right around the corner to pick up a few additional items including more water.  We also have some items on our list that we need for our time on Serenity.  Since they are liquids we pick them up in Miami and we purchased some of them last night.  We will pick up the rest of the items over the next few days.  

This is always a pretty time to visit Miami as there are holiday lights and other decorations displayed in many areas across the city.

When you enter the Hotel from the main entrance before taking the elevator up to the Hotel's Main Lobby there is a Christmas tree on display.

This is a holiday display located across from the concierge desk at the main lobby.

After we got back to the room we relaxed and read and wrote.  We were tired from being up early so we tried to get to sleep fairly early.  We slept well and the room and the hotel is very quiet.

Just like at home and on the cruise ship, Keith is the first up and that as we mentioned yesterday this room works perfectly for us as Keith can read and write in the living area while Anne Marie can sleep longer.  Coffee is available in the lobby fairly early so Keith will make his way to the lobby shortly after the coffee is set up and with a tray in hand bring back coffee to the room.

One of the benefits that our Travel Agency provides at this Resort is breakfast each morning which we can have in the restaurant or in the room.  We enjoy having breakfast in the room which for those who have been following our Blog in past years know this is pretty much our pattern while on Serenity.

We enjoyed a nice simple breakfast of cereal along with fruit.  The fruit was more than enough so we shared one of the two bowls and will enjoy the second bowl this evening.

We have really come to enjoy Miami as well as the Four Seasons Miami Hotel.  

Our first stay at the Four Seasons Hotel was before the start of the 2007 World Cruise.  As part of that World Cruise Crystal Cruises provided a one night as this Hotel and also held the World Cruise Gala that evening.  We extended our stay by arriving a few days earlier.    

Before our arrival in 2007,  our perception of Miami was not very positive but that was based on a drive around the city in the early 1980's.  It was during the visit in 2007 that we saw many improvements to the downtown Miami area as well as to other areas such as Miami Beach and South Beach.  

We enjoyed our visit so much that starting in 2010 we have stayed at the Four Seasons annually and this now marks our seventh stay at this hotel.  With each succeeding year we have seen improvements to Miami and we look forward to our pre-cruise stay  each and every time we cruise from the Port Of Miami.

There is something even more special about our stay at Four Seasons this time around.  It seems that wherever we walk that many members of the staff are calling us by our names.  We are not quite sure why but it happened several times last evening.  Maybe, the Four Seasons Hotel is taking notes from Crystal Cruises.  LOL, but very true.

We greatly enjoy this hotel and its location.  If you want to be at or near the beach, this is not the hotel for you as there is no beach nearby.  A better option might be Miami Beach.  Likewise, if you want the night life of South Beach this is not the hotel for you either.  The hotel is located in a relatively quiet area of the city.  Nearby are residential houses and condominiums along with some office buildings.  Since we are not beach people we greatly appreciate its location and that it is within walking distance of various destinations that we enjoy visiting as well as many restaurants and other places of business.  During one day of each stay we will take a long walk over to another hotel a couple of miles from the Four Seasons where we will then take a taxi over to South Beach and we plan to do that this time around as well.  We also have walked from this Hotel over to the bridge that takes traffic over to Key Biscayne and we often walk from the Hotel to and from the Port Of Miami.  As many of you know, we enjoy walking and this area fits the bill for us.  

The Hotel does have a beautiful outdoor area the size of two acres with a pool, cabanas and outdoor food service and it has a beautiful fitness center, spa, a full service on-site restaurant and a beautiful interior.  Rooms were also updated a couple of years ago.

After breakfast we went on the first of many long walks that we plan to take this week during our stay in Miami.  We wanted to share an observation.

When we were here back in 2007, we saw more cranes in Miami than almost anywhere around the world except for maybe Dubai.  This was at a time when commercial office space and residential condominiums was booming in many areas of the United States, including Miami. When we returned in late 2009 the cranes were gone, the office buildings mostly complete, but many stood empty because of the economic collapse.  In each succeeding year from 2010 and beyond occupancy increased and the buildings were filled with tenants.  On our visit last year, we noticed the return of the cranes but still not as many as we saw in 2007.  Well, that has changed and this time around there are a lot of cranes throughout the downtown Miami area.  As was the case in 2007, smaller buildings are being replaced with buildings many times taller and some empty lots are getting new buildings.  It is interesting to observe the ups and downs of real estate.  

This is just one small area but you can see four building in various stages of construction.

We walked from our hotel and then over to the Intercontinental Hotel which is a popular choice for many who cruise in and out of Miami.  

We then continued our walk and walked by The Torches Of Friendship Memorial in honor of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

We then saw one of several iconic Miami Landmarks.

We continued walking to the bridge that would take us to the Port Of Miami.

We walked across this Bridge of to the Port Of Miami.  On the left side is a very safe pedestrian walkway.  There is no walkway on the right hand side and for the first time ever we saw not only the couple on the right walking in the street but some people who were behind them and not in this photo.  That was not a smart idea to be walking on the road.

Four ships were in port.  This is the Royal Caribbean International Majesty Of The Seas which is one of their older ships.

This is the Carnival Ecstasy.

The NCL Sky was another ship in port.

This is the Aida with those lips on the bow.  This is a British-American owned German Cruise Line.  Many of the people who were walking on the same side as us but in the opposite direction as we were walking were from that cruise ship.  

Inside the Port there is even a Basketball Court and a separate Tennis Court.

After walking all the way over to the Port we walked back over the bridge and we stopped at Bayside which has stores and restaurants and made a stop at a store to pick up some items for Anne Marie.  From there we walked through the Bayside Park. 

We then walked towards the Intercontinental.  This is the Grand Luxe which we have seen docked in Miami the past two years around this time of year.  The ship has very few windows and during portions of the year sails the Florida Coast making stops at various places to sell art work.  This time of the year the ship will be used for a New Years Eve Gala.

We then walked towards Mary Brickell Village and came across some of Santa's Reindeer.

As we got close to the Hotel we received a FaceTime call from our daughter Jennifer, and Grand Son Andre, and Andre was all decked out in this hat, sweater and pants.  Jennifer also sent us this photo.  This outfit was hand-made by Jennifer's Grandma, (Keith's Mom) when Jennifer was very young and Jennifer wore this herself.  We saved the items that Keith's Mom (deceased in 1994) made for both Jennifer and our son Eric so that we could pass it down to their children.  Andre is wearing this as part of being one of Santa's Elves.  We then chatted with both Jennifer and Andre while Grand Baby Violet slept for the very first time in the Crib.

After a very long walk we worked up an appetite and we each enjoyed Salad Entrées for lunch.  We then took care of a few items back at the Hotel before going out again for our second walk of the day.  

The weather was gorgeous on both walks.

This time we went from the Hotel over to a road that allowed us to walk by the Bay.  Eventually the road ends and we worked our way to another road and then we eventually come to another road and make our way to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel which we get to by walking across a relatively small bridge.  

We then walked all around the island that the hotel is situated on along with other condominiums and some shops and enjoyed beautiful views of the Bay and the surrounding area.

A statue in honor of The Centinela Del Rio blowing a Conch Shell.

We then walked back over towards Bayside but to get there we had to cross a draw bridge that we cross often on our walks.  This is a view of the bridge while it was open to let a boat through and then a view as we were walking the bridge.

We went over to the Epic Hotel and then we walked towards the new Whole Foods which should be opening shortly and then looped our way around. We then stopped off at a couple of stores to pick up some additional liquid items that we will need after boarding Serenity.

We had a great time walking today and we ended up walking 15.85 miles. 

We will post about dinner and the rest of the evening tomorrow.

It's been a great day in the City of Miami.

TODAY'S THOUGHT FOR THE DAY..............

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” - Henry Miller