Friends from Chicago were visiting so Hania took the day off and the four of us headed south on 95. We got a late start, so went directly to Versailles for lunch - ropa vieja, black beans, fried plantains - and then went outside for the postprandial cafecitos at the counter.
Then down Calle Ocho, with a brief stop at Dominoes Park, a slow crawl past the Bay of Pigs Memorial, and then a left on Brickell to see the Easter Island-like pillars of the new Viceroy Hotel. On Biscayne we drove between the two arts center buildings, then back past Trinity Cathedral - in 1926 the tallest building in Miami - before getting on the Venetian Causeway.
Long-legged women, not a rare sight in South Beach, were out in force - often wearing matching T-shirts identifying them as volleyball players. They walked in short shorts - you never know when a game is going to break out, I guess - up Collins, they strolled past us on Lincoln Road, they ambled through the lobby of the Fontainebleau as we wondered how their schools could afford the rates. You would not have known there was a recession or - sipping drinks in air-conditioned lobbies - that it was summer.
Around 6 we took the MacArthur Causeway back to Miami. A large Pepsi ad covered about a third of the Herald building, unfairly blocking the views of many employees. Though maybe they found a way to put it up so that it covered only the windows of people who'd been laid off.
Mary Brickell Village was lively with people who didn't look like volleyball players. We got an early dinner at Rosa Mexicano and then walked over to Perricone's to look at the 18th century wood beams - from a Vermont barn - and buy some chocolates. Wednesday, according to the sign on the front porch, was ladies' night, and it seemed a shame that no one had told the athletes.
