Post 4th of July 305 coverage

Forth of July is one of my favorite holidays (behind Halloween of course.) There are so many good things around it - It's a celebration that calls for BBQs, gatherings with friends, fireworks and general summer shenanigans.

This year has been really up and down for both me and El Hombre, so we took the long weekend to enjoy the new kitten, go to a couple BBQs and try to catch fireworks. We also decided to explore a new beach: Bal Harbor Beach. Now, it never occurred to either of us to go to Bal Harbor for the beach. We both really like Hollywood if we feel like going for a drive, or we generally end of on different parts of Miami Beach. But Bal Harbor got the Miami New Times Best Beach recognition, so we figured, "why not?"

Let me tell you, it's definitely the way to go. It's got wide beaches, and surprisingly, it wasn't overcrowded. There were lots of shells and the water was really clean and clear. It also stays shallow so you can go pretty far out into the water if you so desire, and still see your feet.

Here's some shots:




I spotted the crab, upside down in the water, so El Hombre decided to check it out. It had been stepped on or something, so El Hombre decided to have some fun with it.

(ew)

After the beach, we went to a BBQ with friends, set off some fireworks and then headed downtown to catch the City of Miami Fireworks. We decided to avoid the absolutely horrible traffic by parking in Brickell and taking the MetroMover. Let me tell you, we were crammed like cows in a cattle car with a bunch of other people ready to throw down. Despite not being able to move, it was really entertaining to have everyone hoot and holler everytime we turned a corner, and shout like we were on a roller coaster when we went up the big hill. Unfortunately the City of Miami fireworks show was a massive fail because it apparently was only 15-20 minutes long, so we completely missed it. We ended up walking around the park to Bayside, watching families chill out in the grass, kids rolling down the hills and everyone milling around.


After I almost got beat down for wanting to use the bathroom sink to wash my face at Bayside, we elected to get back on the MetroMover and go home, where we observed the terrible terrible traffic.


IF we decide to go next year, we definitely will do the metromover thing again. We didn't sit in a lick of traffic the entire way home. But from what I heard, all the other areas that did fireworks were able to put more money into it, so I don't know that I would do the whole downtown thing again.