Miami Beach
Our springtime baseball tour of Florida was perfectly timed, as we were very lucky with warm, sunny days and not much humidity. The visit was capped off with three nights in Miami Beach– my first time ever visiting Miami, beach or otherwise. We stayed right in South Beach at the Uma House, a very cute boutique hotel very conveniently located, yet removed from the main strip so that it was still pretty quiet.
The first activity after driving down from Tampa Bay was this New World Symphony concert, which they simulcast onto the wall outside (“Wallcast”) for a free outdoor concert open to the community. It was a special performance featuring three concerto competition winners. Very cool, and beautifully produced.
Alex walked over to Raising Cane’s during intermission and came back reporting that they had a full live DJ and disco ball inside the restaurant, haha.
Time to explore the town the next morning! We realized that it was Miami Pride weekend too. Happy Pride!
We browsed a local antiques fair that happens each week, not expecting to find anything…
But then Alex spotted this briefcase with a post-it that said Mahjong set, haha. Did we need a sixth mahjong set? Definitely not. But of course we couldn’t resist sorting the tiles to see if it was complete, and once we figured out that it was… well, we figured we should buy it and fly it back home. This worked out, as it then ended up the perfect birthday gift for our friend Jeri in the end. Spreading the mahjong love around!
A whole bunch of police cars in the Pride parade… interesting, for sure. Plus, one of the tourist shops came through! We needed water shoes for our Biscayne kayak tour, and now we’re equipped for future kayak adventures too.
Puerto Sagua for lunch
The classic art deco rainbow of Miami Beach, decked out for pride!
Then it was beach time.
Our beach contracts with a service across the way to provide beach chairs. It was alright. I’m beginning to embrace the fact that I’m just not that into beaches. Love to looking at the ocean and being next to the ocean, less interested in all the sand and sunburn.
Date night, Carbone Miami!
Originally a NYC restaurant, of course. Alex used to go all the time and loves a good trip down memory lane. Very classic, tasty, would do again.
Time to cross over from Miami Beach to Miami.
A vinyl bar called Dante’s Hifi.
And the main purpose of the whole trip, visiting the Miami Marlins in their lovely ballpark. It’s a beautiful retractable dome, and we were lucky enough to be there on a perfect day with the dome open.
This whole moving sculpture used to be in center field and would be animated, complete with water spraying for home runs, but Derek Jeter decided to get rid of it and banished it outside… not sure why. It looks like it would be fun inside.
Ah yes, a team that has actually won championships and signed big names! Ichiro, Miggy. But they recently made the very unpopular move of firing GM Kim Ng, the first Asian American/woman manager in the MLB, despite her success with the team. They also got rid of their best players, so now the team is terrible. Attendance at the ballpark is also not great. We saw lots of Giants fans at both Florida stadiums though!
We wanted to go to the upper decks to see the city view through the outfield, but they sold so few seats they kept the upper levels completely closed.
Ballpark number 26 for alex, check!
We sat in the outfield next to our dugout. It was also Jackie Robinson Day. All players across the league wear number 42 each April 15th in honor of the day Jackie Robinson debuted in the MLB back in 1947, breaking baseball’s color line.
A former Marlin who’s newly a San Francisco Giant: Jorge Soler.
It also happened to be Bark in the Park day, and we were out in the bleachers with all of the dogs. Very fun.
Quite empty stadium. The attendance was about 8,000, while the ballpark can fit 37,000.
This was pretty fun! They had a very extensive bobblehead collection near where we sat in the outfield. It’s in a case that gently shakes back and forth to make them all bobble, haha. Should I get a mini one of these for our house?? I don’t know what we’re supposed to do with all of our bobbleheads otherwise.
Two of our Giants broadcasters
Current Giants manager Bob Melvin and shortstop Nick Ahmed.
Final day in Miami! Brunch at the hotel restaurant.
Lounging on the hotel roof.
Taking the hotel bikes out for a spin.
Very very cute lifeguard towers.
Then it was time to check out two more Miami neighborhoods. First, Wynwood, with its colorful walls and cute shops.
Then we went over to the Design District (fancy, luxury brand shops) for early dinner before our flight.
Cote Korean Steakhouse– also a New York restaurant with a new Miami location. It’s America’s first Michelin-starred Korean Barbecue. Pretty great!
So good!
A great final feast before rolling ourselves onto the plane back to California. We had a lovely time in Miami!
Anna Wu is a wedding and portrait photographer based in San Francisco. She compulsively documents and blogs all of her daily adventures. Follow her on instagram and view more of her professional work at annawu.com.
