After spending 3 days in Key West we did an overnight passage to Miami (about 157 miles). There are no good long term anchorages near the city so we decided to go into the city marina (Miamarina) on Bayside harbor. It was Memorial Day weekend and the harbor and adjacent mall had public events throughout the weekend featuring music bands that seemed to play day and night. Being in downtown Miami we had the opportunity to get an interesting view of the modern downtown while riding the public train cars above ground and in some cases through buildings.

We did not spend much time touring the city save for Sunday morning when we decided to take a bus to Miami Beach to walk around and eat lunch. The last time we had been to Miami Beach was on a return trip from Colombia in 1997 and we had good memories of this place. Unfortunately we were surprised at how Miami beach has turned into a noisy place, filled with a lot of people who were nearly naked, checking each other out. We had a difficult time finding a restaurant away from the honking and the whistling and where we would be comfortable.