Fifty By 50: South Beach for the Day, Miami Day Three. (Feb.22, 2019)

This morning we headed over to South Beach for a food tour we booked.

It was shaping up to be another gorgeous day.

I wonder if they ever have bad days here?

The sun sparkling on the water is so pretty.

The tour was booked for 11 am and we met at this little Cafe Books x Books.

The tour guide was Slovakian of all things and he's lived in a bunch of different places around the world including Albert, he'd even heard of Grande Prairie and Whitecourt before!

There was an older couple there from Seattle Washington and two girls, friends from different states that had both flown to Miami to meet up and vacation together.

Our first stop was right there at the meeting spot.

We had the trio of dips appetizer which had salsa, hummus & guacamole.

It was pretty good.

Then we got on our way.

We'd never been to the downtown area of Miami Beach last time we were here so it was nice to check out.

It's really very beautiful and geared definitely toward tourists.

Our guide told us that it wasn't this tropical looking before, the guy that built it (who was a car salesman by the way) brought in all the tropical plants and trees.

He thought of everything right down to bringing in tropical birds so you could hear them chirp and imagine you were in a tropical paradise.

He did a pretty great job.

It was a bit of a walk to our second stop.

We passed all kinds of restaurants with outdoor seating areas.

Apparently, the first stop on our tour today was the very first place to ever have a permit for outdoor seating.

When the owner went to apply for it, they thought he was crazy and didn't want to give it to him but he insisted and it's a good thing he did because the rents have skyrocketed in this area.

He can no longer afford to rent the storefront but he still has the permit to the outdoor seating area so he made a deal with the book store that rents the space now to partner up and he uses a small part of their space for his restaurant.

I thought that was such an interesting story.

If it wasn't for his foresight, places like this might not exist.

Of course there is a Starbucks there and all the other big box stores.

The palm trees here are so pretty and well kept.

(The windows here were the office of the car salesman who created the whole South Beach area).

I learned today that they are many kinds of palm trees, hard to believe that I didn't know that before.

I think the one kind of in the center of this picture is my favorite kind.

It looks so full and pretty.

Our food tour group.

We stopped under this tree so Alex (the tour guide) could tell us some more information.

He said they call this a sausage tree.

It has all these hanging vines and they have pods on the end of them that look like meats curing in a deli.

Kind of cool.

The palm tree straight ahead is a Royal Palm and I think it's gorgeous.

One of the "sausages".

And we are off again.

This doorway was ornate.

This old church is getting some restoration done.

It looks like a something straight out of Mexico.

It had a beautiful garden next to it but I think he said that they sold that land and they are going to put a garden on the roof now instead.

We weren't the only ones out enjoying the day, there were people everywhere.

We had another stop here for another information session and while Alex talking, there was a homeless lady nearby talking and yelling to nobody in particular, very loudly, and it was very distracting.

She was yelling and swearing - obviously she was struggling with mental issues and I felt so bad.

She eventually moved on.

There were all kinds of pretty areas with ponds and fountains and small pools.

Not a bad spot to spend a day.

Eventually we made it to our second stop which was a Cuban place.

It looked small but was surprisingly spacious once we got inside.

They had lots of Cuban decor which I liked.

We started off with Mojitos - very refreshing.

We tried assorted Cuban appetizers and I liked everything except for the plantains.

Saw this trellis thing covered in flowers on our way to the next stop and it was beautiful.

Our fourth stop was a Peruvian place.

Challan on the Beach was the name of the place.

We started out with ceviche and it was the best ceviche that I'd ever had in my entire life to date.

If nobody else had been around, I would have picked up the plate after we were done and drank the juice.

We also had this Cowboy Steak which was just slices of beef with onions and tomato with a side of rice and french fries.

We had these two sauces to try as well.

I could take them or leave them.

I was able to get a shot of our whole group (minus me of course).

Next stop was a bakery.

Andrix Cafe.

They had lots of stuff.

These little fruit tarts looked good.

Everything looked good honestly.

We tried doughnuts with different kinds of filling.

I bought a croissant too because I love them so much.

I wanted a tart too but I didn't want to look greedy so I skipped it.

I'm sorry about that now, I should have went for it.

Who knows if I'll ever get another chance!

We passed by Espanole Way.

This limo would be easy to spot.

Alex told us that this area was a great place to get a bite to eat.

It was a pretty area just to walk through too.

The buildings had cool designs.

Nice cobblestone kind of street too and just look at all those pretty palm trees.

I like that pink/peach buildings are a thing here.

Groot.

We went through a residential type area.

We got a lesson on art deco on our way through.

The art deco style is not my favorite but it really fits here.

One thing I do love about it though are the colors.

These flowering shrubs are so pretty.

I would so love to live in a place where you could have green spaces like this all year long.

The flowers that you can grow here are so pretty too.

Fabulous!

We did get rained on a teeny bit but the rain went away just as quickly as it had come and it honestly felt really nice.

It felt like we walked forever.

Wonder how this building with the rounded edges look on the inside?

I kind of wanted to jump in this fountain because I was so hot and sweaty by this point.

I refrained.

Still walking.

Our final stop.

The Frieze Ice Cream Factory.

They make their own ice cream here from scratch.

I went for the Vegetarian Pistachio and it was to die for.

It was just loaded with pistachios which I loved.

My Honey got the mango.

The tour ended there and we all went our separate ways.

It was a really great food tour I thought and for anyone who might be interested, here is the information.

I would recommend it for sure.

We stopped at Marshalls because I was overheated and needed something cooler to wear.

I was looking for a dress and had no luck but did find a couple breezy tops and I changed into one immediately.

It felt so nice too.

My Honey and I headed to the beach.

We passed by the trellis/arches we'd seen a bit earlier that were covered in flowers.

I like how they built them, I think it would even look nice on its own without any flowers or vines growing on it at all.

Of course it looks really great with them on it too.

It was way over on the other side of the intersection and I was all in beach mode so we didn't get over to take a picture with the SOBE sign.

We passed the James Hotel.

It was quite an interesting looking place.

Somebody has been very busy.

I don't know it its super cool or an eye sore?

Made it to the beach.

The Miami Beach Food & Wine Festival is going on, hence all the white tents.

We looked at some of the events but they were a little on the pricey side so we skipped them.

Just My Honey and I on South Beach enjoying a beautiful day.

We found a spot and I got my feet right into the cool sand.

What a view!

One of us had a nap, can you guess which one?

Cruise ships were departing every 5 minutes it seemed.

There's that sunshine on my shoulder again.

It's hard not to smile - Life is good.

Still napping.

I really wanted to get into the water but I didn't have the foresight to put my bathing suit on under my clothes.

I managed to get my top on but I couldn't figure out a way to get the bottom on.

I just rolled my capris up and walked out into the water as far as I could.

I will have to save the full on swimming for another day.

After a bit of a dip and a rest, we decided to walk up to the other end of Miami Beach to try out Joe's Stone Crab.

This is the happening street here in South Beach.

We walked by the beach as far up as we could.

It was such a pretty evening.

The view never gets old.

Neither does Miami, I think it could be our warm version of New York, a place that we return to again and again.

It has some really interesting looking buildings.

Like this one.

We made it to Joe's Stone Crabs finally but the prices were outrageously expensive.

We knew they were going to be on the high side but we'd heard so much good about this place and we don't mind enjoying an expensive meal every now & then but I don't know, when we saw the prices it just turned us off.

We had stone crab before and it just didn't knock our socks off.

It might be totally worth it but tonight just wasn't the night for us to find that out.

We didn't want to try it that badly so we turned around and walked all the way back to where we'd started.

We passed this Mexican restaurant on the food tour and Alex told us that a family from Mexico came and opened this place up so it was truly authentic.

Good enough for me.