SOBE POSING - WHAT, IN THESE SHOES?

When you are told to expect the world’s largest collection of art deco buildings resplendent in their sorbet colours, well!

A wander along South Beach’s Ocean Drive offers so much more than its impressive architecture.

Curbside restaurants spill out on to the sidewalks, their patrons shaded under colourful umbrellas. 

Miami Beach

The ivory coloured beach stretches for miles in either direction, adorned with brightly coloured umbrellas and wind breaks.

What's it to be, a reading or a latte?

We confess that people watching did rather compete with our enjoyment of the colourful architecture.

Contradictions all around us.  Doug did ponder for a while as he looked at the wares of a South Beach Psychic and then thought an ice cold latte at the Starbucks across the street might be a better bet.

And suntanned flesh

High end cars aplenty

The Ocean Drive curb crawling Ferraris and Maseratis moved at a snail's pace, while the sauntering young things ambled lazily this way and that in the skimpiest of clothing.

We had not appreciated the fact that mini hot pants are enjoying a resurgence, some sported with an open zip so that one’s bejewelled naval can sparkle in the sun. Tattooed buttocks seemed to be everywhere, some more attractive than others. All this hidden behind over sized Jackie O sunglasses so that the watched can become the watchers. It seemed that everyone was striking a pose of some kind.

The former Versace mansion

The former Gianni Versace mansion, Casa Casuarina, dominates Ocean Drive.  Built in 1930 in Mediterranean Revival style, Versace bought the property for $2.95 Million in 1992 but the last time it changed hands in 2013 it sold for $41.5 Million and now operates as the Villa Casa Casuarina, a high end boutique hotel and restaurant. The structure and its gardens exude elegance and style.

Versace was infamously gunned down on his own front doorstep in 1997.

Meanwhile the Cuban American restaurant staff along the strip hustled for business, their ebullient Spanish banter and easy smiles welcoming from the hot sun.

Simply not engineered for snowbanks

Everything is super sized here

Our greeter for a cold beer sojourn sported awkward looking red high heels which she insisted were like slippers as she stalked the sidewalk in search of more customers.

She told us she had originally settled in Canada from Cuba but couldn’t hack the winters. Now she was expressing her frustration with the South Beach heat. However, she did agree that SOBE permitted enjoyment of her red shoes twelve months of the year.