5 weeks in the sun

Went to Miami Beach today and what can I say...it's just like it looks on TV. Body sculpted men in shorts throwing American footballs, beautiful women in bikinis laying on beach towels and rollerblading on the pavement. You go there to see or be seen. We were there to see and there was plenty to look at.

We actually took an unscheduled tour of North Miami on the way to South Beach so we arrived a little later than planned. Traffic and parking was a problem the closer we got but we eventually found a space and made our way to the sand. I think we were the four whitest people on the beach; quite possibly the city.

Two things added to the Miami atmosphere. First, it's Spring Break here in the US, a big deal for collage students who get a week or two off and go wild. Miami Beach attracts them like sand to sun-cream and they're all there to party. Second, it was the first of five days of the Miami Winter Music Conference. Top DJs from all over the world converge in Miami for 5 days of clubbing and partying. The Winter Music Conference is the warm-up for Ibiza and it's where many summer anthems were born.

There was a big gig in the centre of Miami with 200 DJs on 12 stages for 14 hours but as tempting as that sounded, the 50,000 strong crowd and $55 cover charge meant that we wouldn't have seen any of South Beach or Ocean Drive so we gave it a miss. There were DJs playing all over and we found an open-air club beside the beach with a live DJ, dancers and a couple of MCs. We hung out there for a while.

In the evening we took a walk through the Deco District, which runs along-side the beach and so-called because of the 20s and 30s style of the buildings. Ocean Drive at South Beach is one of the liveliest and well known locations in Miami where a variety of restaurants and bars spill out onto the sidewalk. We passed by the former home of Gianni Versace, fronted by the infamous steps where he was shot in 1997. We got some food in what we think was a Caribbean style restaurant and finished up the night in Wet Willies.

We left Miami about midnight and I drove the 110 miles back across the I-75 (alligator alley) to our retirement home.

I somehow managed to return without any decent pictures at all. The few I've posted here don't really do justice to our day in Miami but we're planning on going back on the Friday before we leave so hopefully I'll get some better shots then, particularly some of the beach. Here are a few of the open-air party and the beach at sunset. Trust me, the beach was a lot livelier a couple of hours earlier!

This was the last night that another team of Belfast people had in Naples so we went bowling. I managed to win three of the four matches, although the dismal score of the one I didn't win was probably a good indication that luck was a bigger factor than skill.

There are loads of little lizard like things running around here and sitting sunning themselves on the footpath around the hotel. They're very fast and won't let you get near them most of the time but you'll find the odd one daydreaming so you have to be careful not to step on them.

If anyone ever spends any time in Naples, tune into Real Rock Radio on 92.5 FM. The early morning show isn't going to win any awards but the rest of the day they play a lot of great rock music. They broadcast from Fort Myers, which is about 35 miles north of Naples, but unfortunately don't stream on the internet.

Thanks to the broadband connection in the hotel room I can also listen to Radio 1 and Cool FM. It's certainly preferable to the TV here, which must be close to 35% advertisements.

Took a walk down to one of the inlets to take a few photos. The sun goes down pretty quick here so it was dark by the time I got there. Still, got a few nice photos.

I drove a car today for the first time in the US. It's not as difficult to get the hang of as I thought it would be. There are a few new things to get used to, like 4-ways, blinkers, right on red, U-turn road systems and, of course, driving on the 'wrong' side but it was made easier by the fact that I didn't have to think about gear changing. I can't say I like automatic cars though. Acceleration and breaking feels strange and I just don't like the car deciding what gear I should be in.

After only a few days here, I can already see why it's such a big deal for American teenagers to get their driving license. It's because they can't get anywhere without driving. There's so much wasted space and everything is so far apart that you can't get anywhere without a car. Public transport is non-existent and I've seen very few taxi's on the road. Obviously the US is a big place and everywhere is different but I suspect that Naples isn't unique in this respect.

After spending 3 days here, I have to bow down to whoever invented air conditioning. Everything here is air-conditioned. The car, the hotel room, the office, the restaurants. You could live here for months and only feel the heat walking between your car and wherever you're going. It feels odd being warmer outside than inside but I can't imagine living or working here without it.

Speaking of heat, Brian and I went for a run today after work. At 6pm it's as cool as it's going to get so we ran through the residential area behind the hotel towards the beach. After looking at a map I thought we'd be running along the seafront but it's all private hotels and condos. We eventually found a public access route to the beach so I've finally seen the sea here, the Gulf Of Mexico. I'll bring a camera down here sometime and take a few photos.

Why is everything so big here? The cars are bigger, the roads are bigger, the buildings are bigger, the space between them is bigger. Apples are bigger. Toothpaste is bigger. Chewing gum is bigger. The mentality of being able to turn everything up to 11 is embedded in the culture here and "because we can" is their only reasoning.

Enough of the rant. What did I do today? Nothing much different from yesterday. Went to the mall for lunch. It’s about half way between the office and our hotel and has a big food court with every type of food outlet you can think of. The people working in Subway are a lot fast than those in Belfast.

We've discovered that Naples is not the liveliest part of Florida. Basically, Naples is one big retirement home for rich people. It's obvious that there's plenty of money around when you pass grandpa at the garage filling his Mustang convertible with his granddaughter in the front seat. The seafront is littered with condos and private houses with their own jetty. The marinas are filled with flash boats. Further inland you'll find the country clubs and more condos built next to man-made lakes (as if south Florida didn't have enough waterways). The average age of the residents in The City Of Naples (the main part of Naples) is 64. Then, just to top up the quota, the hotel we're staying in is also full of elderly people.

Ok, it's not as bad as it sounds. It's only the rich old people who can afford to live around here but there are plenty of families living in other parts of the city. Still, there's a very quite, slow, lazy atmosphere everywhere you go. Maybe we just haven't found the right spot yet but Naples is definitely not a holiday destination for anyone under 50.

Dragging myself out of bed at 6am wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be, although I knew things would catch up with me later in the day. I ate more for breakfast than I would normally eat for dinner and got to the office for 8am. It's only a 10 minute drive from the hotel and the 'rush hour' traffic is no more than maybe 6 cars deep at any red light. I think the fact that the roads are three lanes wide in each direction and filter lanes at most junctions probably helps! I think if the entire population of Naples decided to drive around the city at the same time you'd still be hard pressed to find any congestion. Did I mention that the roads are three lanes wide in each direction?

When we arrived last night we decided to go for some authentic American cuisine and opted for the MacDonalds beside the hotel. Thankfully, we appear to have quite a choice of restaurants around here and we went to Chillies for dinner today. Pretty good food so I suspect we'll be back there a few times before we leave.

The gym in the hotel is rubbish. It's got two treadmills, two cycle machines and a few hand weights. It's not surprising, given the average age of the residence (more on this tomorrow), so I'm probably going to have to go out running, which is the most boring form of exercise I can think of. I'll leave that 'till later in the week.

Here's the view from the front of the office building. Unfortunately the room we're working in doesn't have windows, never mind a view, so the only time we'll see the sun is a little in the morning and whatever's left between getting back to the hotel after work and sunset at 6:30. I doubt I'll be coming home with a tan.

Following some late night packing and 5 hours sleep, I got up at 6am this morning and was in a taxi an hour later on the way to the airport. I met Brian, Noel & Stephen in the terminal and after 20 hours of traveling we arrived in Naples, Florida. We're 4200 miles from Belfast, although we've probably traveled closer to 6500 miles to get here after first flying to Heathrow and then making an arc over the Atlantic and down the east coast of the US. It's a lot warmer here than the sub-0 temperatures we left behind but it wasn't as sunny as I hoped it would be when we got off the plane in the overcast Miami. By the time we got through immigration and out of the airport it was dark so there wasn't much to see on the 2 hour drive to Naples, despite the fact that there we're probably loads of alligators just meters from the car all the way across the I-75.

The hotel seems pretty comfortable. The 3rd floor room is like a small studio flat with a little kitchen area, bed, desk, TV and sofa in the main room and an en-suite bathroom.

Anyway, it's just after 10pm here, which is 3am at home, so I need to get some sleep. I have a 7:15am meeting in the morning!