7 August Miami

Not quite sure how to describe today.  Probably a day of 'non-events' really and had it been 15 degrees cooler with half as much humidity then might have been a different story.  At the end of the day I am reminded of the few times I had the privilege of picking Chloe until from day-care and each time I would ask her 'so what did you have for lunch today, Chloe?' and every time she would answer 'nothing'!!!  A bit like that today.  Firstly, we docked at 6.30 am, had the most beautiful view of Miami from our suite and by then it was already hot!!!! We think Regent dudded us today - it is really the end of one cruise and the beginning of another but for 179 passengers who are going through to Montreal we expected to have some sort of excursion options.  (Personally, we had decided to go to a shopping mall and spend a few hours in air conditioning but the best laid plans......!! ) So Regent threw in a complimentary ticket for the Hop-On-Hop-Off bus.  We all got the bus from the ship to the bus terminal and from there we were going to find this Mall but instead we stayed on the bus as it was going to South Beach, a round trip of 90 minutes. Best laid plans, eh? The trip was  interesting as drove through the Art Deco area, saw hundreds of beautiful hotels, the Versace mansion, etc etc but by the time we got back to the bus depot we were so hot and uncomfortable despite the air con on the bus.  Decided to take another bus to a 'Mall' (in all our travels have never seen a more incompetent group of people, the worst HoHo people ever)- got off at the stop, walked 2 blocks in the heat to this shopping centre, found it was an open air place with a few restaurants and a  couple of up market interior design shops and a Nordstroms department store!  By now we are at boiling point!!!  So, needing to use a rest room we decided to pop into Nordstroms - great idea, was cool and facilities there but looking so bedraggled was not the time to browse through the shop.  Decided to get a cab back to the bus depot (where there were shops all the time!!!!) and were lucky enough to get one straight away, got a block away & George couldn't find his glasses.  Did a u-turn, back to Nordstroms where he'd left them in the restroom and by now they'd been handed in so lucky for him.

Had a bite to eat, a quick look at the touristy shops and couldn't wait to get back to the ship.  We have been to Miami before, in the winter, and enjoyed it but  I can not believe how people live here in the summer months.  

This post is so trivial - I'm almost embarrassed to send it off but it really does sum up our day.  

Dinner was nice, new people on board tonight and we sat with a couple from Cincinnati, Ohio.