The Cavalier Hotel on South Beach





I moved from the Fontainebleau to a Hampton Inn near the airport several days ago. It’s much less expensive, about one-third the cost. The bed is much more comfortable. The room is cleaner and the furniture newer. I have all the ancillary amenities I had at the Fontainebleau, including the morning paper delivered to my door and wireless Internet service. True, I lost my view of the aqua colored Atlantic Ocean, and the huge pool with waterfalls and grottos, the palm groves and garden like grounds. Nevertheless, it’s a good tradeoff.

About Miami itself, I took a cab to South Beach the other day, and walked around Ocean Drive taking pictures of the Art Deco hotels. There were fewer people about than I expected, but the cab driver, a native of Honduras said that it gets “crazy busy” at night, and stays that way till the wee hours of the morning.

“They walk in the streets, them young people, and you can’t hardly drive,” he said.

The city looks bigger than it is, like there should be at least 2 million people here. Instead, the population is only 362,000 according to the 2000 census, perhaps 380,000 in 2006. It’s a modern skyline, definitely of the twenty-first century. And, it feels like a city in another country because more than 68 percent of the population is Latino. I hear Spanish as often or more than I do English. That would upset most of my peers back at THE BIG NEEDLE, and it would definitely drive Ruth (my daughter) mad, but I like it because it gives the city a more cosmopolitan feeling. The Spanish speaking people are from all over Latin America. They're friendly and courteous, but they drive like maniacs. Many restaurants specialize in Cuban and other Latin American cuisines, and I’ve enjoyed these. However, there are also restaurants with Pacific Rim, French, Italian, American, and other cuisines, and some that specialize in hybrid combinations. I've found the food in these restaurants to be delicious if a bit expensive for my Pennsylvania Dutch taste.

I’ve included one of my pictures of the Art Deco district and of course, earlier in January I had incorporated a picture I took of South Beach and the aqua, Caribbean like Atlantic.

I’ve looked at houses and condominiums in the greater Miami area, including South Beach. I can just barely afford a one-bedroom condo on the bay side of the island at South Beach. That’s not big enough because I hope I’ll have family visiting and staying with me as often as possible. I especially hope to have Adam, my gay grandson visit. I know he’ll enjoy South Florida, and he might just meet someone he likes down here. He works so hard that he doesn’t have time to look for that special person at home. Vacations here would do him good.

I did find larger condominiums in other areas of Miami that I can afford to purchase, but some of these weren’t gated, and others just didn’t appeal to me, and / or they looked run down. So, I guess my next stop is Fort Lauderdale, and the largest concentration of gay men on the Eastern seaboard, or so I’m told. Not that thousands of young gay men can be of interest to me at my age. I’m also sure that very few if any of those young men will be interested in a date with an old Pennsylvania Dutch fart, and the possibility of meeting gay contemporaries is close to nil because not many men survive to be my age. Ah well...


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