Running Miami

by Karen Walrond on

Yesterday, sort of on the spur of the moment, I decided to tag along with a girlfriend of mine to Miami — she for work, me for shopping.  It’s just a quick trip — we return to Trinidad tomorrow.

This morning, the view in this picture greeted me from the window of our hotel room, so I thought I’d start the day with a run.  Running is something I only recently began doing, but I’ve committed to myself that I was going to start running consistently, and besides — one of yesterday’s purchases was a new set of running shoes, so it seemed like a good excuse to break them in.

I’m now officially a convert to exploring a city by running first thing in the morning.  It’s a wonderful way to see how locals start their day.  Today I saw:

  • a homeless person with an MP3 player (I have no idea of there was actually music coming out of the thing);
  • a guy doing the “walk of shame” — walking his professionally-dressed girlfriend to work while still wearing his clothes from last night (I don’t know this, of course, but it’s an experienced guess); and
  • countless other joggers smiling while they passed, thus unwittingly welcoming me to their city.

Now, after a shower, I’m off to check out the scene at South Beach.  More soon.  In the meantime, tell me:  anyone else explore cities through exercise?

Dead Bird Smuggler Nabbed

by Erik Olsen on

First we had the head smuggler, which was bad
enough, but now we’ve got folks trying to
smuggle dead birds into the country. Where will the madness end? Yes, it was at the Miami International Airport
(always Miami!) where customs officials caught a man with a dead bird stuffed in his luggage. Why carry a dead bird
into the country? Can’t one easily find plenty of dead birds already here? Well, such probing questions go unanswered
for the moment, though the man did say he was going to use it for a religious ceremony. Ah, the old religious ceremony
excuse. Seems that one never gets old. So what are our dutiful customs officials to do? Well, after confiscating the
dead bird, the man (from Nigeria apparently) was released. And probably went straight out to find himself another dead
bird.

S. Floridians Second in Nation's Most Adventurous Travelers

by Adrienne Wilson on

If you’re curious to know which Americans are considered the nation’s most adventurous travelers and
seeing the world more than others, this Miami
Herald piece should shed a little light on your research. When they’re not hitting their own sunny, warm, soft,
sandy beaches South Floridians are busy taking second in the nation for travel abroad and they’re not just going to
Jamaica. According to the article South Floridians go just about anywhere from the Himalayan Nation of Bhutan to Latin
America to Africa. And when a road trip is put in effect, you can bet they won’t be stopping in neighboring Central or
North Florida cities, but they’ll be crossing the state line and heading to the Carolinas and the New England area.

What allows them travel more than other Americans? Well, some experts claim it’s the proximity to places to
Caribbean islands and Central America and others note the high number of retirees with the time and money to do spend
weeks in France. Amy Ziff, editor at large for online site Travelocity, notes
the many values and discounted fares available to South Floridians because they travel so often. Interestingly enough,
Miami ranks second in the nation for vacation days not taken. Hmm… Word hard. Play harder. I suppose.

The
San Francisco Bay Area  ranks number one in the nation.