Missin' Miami

It's been almost 11 years since I've been to Miami. I lived there for two and a half years, while I did my Master's at University of Miami, and my internship at Miami Children's Hospital. It was a wonderful experience (well, I could have done without the Hurricane Andrew portion of it), but I knew that I would never want to live there full time. The bugs - eeew! "Palmetto bug" is just a fancy way to say cockroach, and they are HUGE!!! I missed having seasons - I mean REAL seasons, not just warm and dry vs hot and humid. The hardest thing was not having fall. And the constant, eternal sunshine. Being from Canada, where there is a good mix of rain and snow and cold, I never thought I'd say this, but - my God, it's too damn sunny! I remember a week of unusual weather for Miami. It was cool(ish)and drizzly, just a fine misty rain. I was so happy - I had my windows open and just reveled in the overall greyness of the sky. I'm not sure what this says about me, but I guess I enjoy being melancholy occasionally.

One place that I love in Miami (well, technically Coral Gables) is the Venetian Pool. It was just around the corner from my apartment on Catalonia Ave, and I could walk there in 5 minutes. There hours during the "winter" months were a bit out of sync with mine (pesky classes), but I would get there every week or so. I loved swimming in the cool, clear water. It was just amazing, and there were several times when it was just me swimming. There is nothing like this here, nor anywhere else that I have been.

I think what has made me think about it lately is that the kids have been to swimming lessons, as well as swimming in other friends' pools, and I can't imagine having a kidney-shaped, plastic-lined, chlorinated body of water as part of my landscape. That's not to say that I don't enjoy swimming, or that I'm not appreciative of our neighbours' generosity in inviting us for a dip. It's just that I like the look of something more natural, and integrated with the landscaping. I have seen many pictures in design books of stunning, natural-looking pools, but this is the only one I've seen up close and personal. Granted, it's a little large scale for the average homeowner (820,000 gallons!!!), but they did an amazing job of turning a gravel pit into something beautiful, for everyone to enjoy.

So when I say that I miss swimming in Miami, sometimes I mean in the ocean. But more often than not, I'm talking about the Venetian Pool.

And I still crave the hot and sour soup at Lotus Garden on Ponce de Leon, in the little strip mall in front of the Publix. It is still there. I'm sure their soup still kicks ass in a big way. *sigh*