south beach

this is one of the buildings on the street we live on right now.  we are staying in the flamingo park historical district of south beach where there are many historic buildings such as this one that have been renovated whilst maintaining their original architecture dating back to the 20's.  i was looking forward to living amongst these buildings during our time here.

we chose to live in south beach not only for its close and convenient location for michael to get to the three different hospitals he'll be rotating at but also for its extreme walkability.  ezra and i will be walking or riding bikes everywhere we need to go.  sidewalks are all over the city and will take you most everywhere but we are also learning that walking in the street and crossing without using a crosswalk are the norm and you must be very careful of the many jaywalkers out there while driving your car.

we had to drop off our rental car earlier this week and had no trouble walking home from the car rental office almost 2 miles away.  it was our first time exploring our new surroundings on foot.

we walked along collins avenue part of the way and saw some of the older art deco high rise hotels the area is famous for.

we walked down española way - another famous part of south beach with an interesting history.  click on española way if you want to know more about it.

then we stopped at flamingo park so ezra could play.  i was happy to see this huge tree in the center of the play area providing a lot of shade for all the children to play under.

he was delighted to find this train and climb aboard.  he even asked me to take several pictures of him which is a new request from my camera shy boy.  

this is the apartment building turned hotel that we are staying in.  it is a newly renovated building in a quiet location (other than the construction noise), and is comfortable for a temporary place to live.  

 

 here is a view of the inside.  as you can see ezra's trains and tracks are sprawled out on the floor.  we have learned that as long as he has his trains to play with wherever we are he feels at home.

we have had some ups and downs our first week in miami.  we had a place picked out to live but it turned out to be all wrong for us - the area, the building, the inside...  we lost our deposit and learned an expensive lesson.  on the upside, michael bought a used car that seems to be a real gem.  michael has an orientation at the hospital tomorrow and begins rotations the next day.  we have two places to look at with realtors tomorrow morning and evening.  we are keeping positive and grateful for the experience we are having.  it is luscious to be in tropical weather again and we enjoyed our first tropical storm this afternoon.  life is good.