Miami Main

My first destination after the covid epidemic had come on was Miami, which I visited in March 2022, lured more by the prospect of lively art galleries than heat or sun. The heat was omnipresent, it was 30C every day I was there, which is unpleasantly warm for me. But Miami's galleries did not fail to impress - the city seems to have only contemporary art, and there are many, many galleries that have engaging contemporary art. I was frequently surprised by the size of galleries, I would expect a small storefront and be greeted with three large floors of art. I also drove around to see architectural offerings, Miami Beach, and a few gardens or historical houses. Miami had oddly decorated parking garages all over the city. I went to the Everglades one day for the alligators and slow moving waters. The last gallery on this page is from an earlier visit in 1994 with Clint and Bob.

Photo List (Total 604 Photos)

Click bolded headers below to view, or click "just the best" for quick tour

Downtown (87 photos) - I was warned off downtown Miami when planning my trip, but of course I had to investigate it. You can think of "downtown" Miami as a long very thin strip of tall modern buildings alongside the harbour. The views out onto the water are not much, since you are mostly looking at the port of Miami, and it's not terribly pretty. Also, there are remnants of what appears to have been a historical downtown, north of the Miami River, and that area is now on the seedy side, though some lovely buildings remain. But in general I found downtown to be interesting enough architecturally to visit, and with plentiful parkland. I was happy to see the Espirito Santo Plaza, which I think is a simple, lovely building.
Midtown (27 photos) - This area is just north of the downtown, nothing that interesting about it but I was happy to see the lovely mid-century Bacardi building.
Wynwood (53 photos) - The Wynwood area is to the north and west of downtown, and is famous for it's colourful murals and galleries. You can see that the area used to be rundown and dominated by warehouses, and some of that grittiness remains, but lots of condos going up now, and tons of tourists mill about, looking at the at the Wynwood Walls, a paid outdoor art gallery (with one indoor portion). This gallery starts with the general area, including murals, then visits the Wynwood Walls, then the very fine Margulies Collection, which was the highlight of my first half-day in the city.
Allapattah (59 photos) - I didn't really visit this neighbourhood per se, except for two massive and fantastic art galleries: the Rubell Collection and Superblue. Both of these showcased contemporary art, and they were fantastic. I was in a mirror house, I walked in clouds, I was in artworks by Yayoi Kusama. Terribly entertaining.
Design District (46 photos) - I had no idea what the Design District was at all, I headed up this way for the Institute of Contemporary Art and a few other galleries. When I arrived, by car, I was bewildered and unprepared for the intensity of the neighbourhood. It's as if you took Toronto's Yorkville and made it ten times more extreme, in terms of architecture and high end stores. There were elephants dripping off the parking garages, art all over, pedestrian streets, lines to get into high end stores. I found the whole area strange and almost objectionable, I certainly didn't feel comfortable there at all. The ICA was lovely, though, and some other galleries also good.
Little Haiti (19 photos) - I must be the only person who went further north to Little Haiti after visiting the Design District. I had visited the Haitian Heritage Museum and was lured further north, towards the heart of LIttle Haiti, but the promise of a restaurant. I was starving, almost literally, and didn't feel like dining amongst pretty people, so I drove north to King Creole, had a fantastic meal, and then did a little walking tour of Little Haiti based on a card that I got at the Museum. Little Haiti was quite poor, but not uninteresting, and certainly made a good counter-point to the over-fabulous Design District.
Little Havana (16 photos) - This neighbourhood, west of downtown, I found mostly unremarkable though I was possibly there too early in the morning for it to be engaging. I am not interested in cigars, though, so it's unlikely that it would ever be that engaging for me.
South (114 photos) - My hotel was in the south part of Miami, but the less said about that the better. These photos are mostly of the Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden, and the Vizcaya Estate.
Miami Beach (68 photos) - I drove to Miami Beach early in the morning, arriving in time for the sunet. I was particularly pleased with the parking spot I found, just a few metres away from the beach on 5th. I saw the sunrise, had an excellent sandwich and Cuban coffee on the beach, toured the plentiful Art Deco buildings, did a larger walking tour up as far north as Lincoln Drive, then went back to the beach for a swim before driving away. It was a lovely, well-executed interlude.
Random Photos (19 photos) - These photos, some of which were taken from the car window as I was driving (I drove a lot in Miami), just don't belong anywhere else. They include a short tour of Coral Gables and the Woodlawn Cemetery.
Everglades (38 photos) - I drove out to the Everglades on my last day in Miami, without a ton of preparation or a plan. I was interested to see the urban border of Miami, where the city abruptly stops in a dead straight line, one side being houses on cul-de-sacs and the other being the everglades. I ended up in Everglades National Park, where I walked a little then rented a bike and cycled 11 kilometres out, and 13 kilometres back, to an elevated tower. I saw lots of alligators and birds and burned the living shit out of my forearms.
Miami Transit (23 photos) - Miami has two forms of rail transit, which are both elevated: one is the Metrorail, which is an elevated subway with two lines, most of the lines are shared with a small deviation to the airport for one of them. I took this one, more or less just to have taken it, from Government Center to Allapattah. The Metromover is a small elevated rail system downtown, three overlapping lines, sometimes only moving in one direction. The two systems meet at two different stations. The People Mover is the most successful of that type of system and feel embedded in the downtown, though the single or two car trains have a rinky dinky feel to them.
Miami in 1994 with Clint and Bob (36 photos) - In 1994 I went to Miami and area with friends to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Bob and Tony, who were close friends of my good friend Clint. These photos show that visit, especially the formal party which we attended, and a side trip to Fort Lauderdale.