A week-long sojourn to Miami and the Florida keys-Oh, what a week it was!
The brilliant sun, silver sand, the sea and every imaginable shade of blue and green.
I just wanted to capture every beautiful sight and scenery in my memory forever and revisiting it in moments of despair.
It was beyond doubt the most beautiful place I had ever visited.
Miami was a delight. I usually dont enjoy visiting big cities. But the ocean, pristine beaches and those wind blown palms along the road made me forget I was in the downtown area of a bustling city.
It was quite late in the night on christmas eve that we reached our Miami hotel. But I could hear the waves in the distance and couldnt wait for the morning.
We started out towards key west the next morning.
Florida keys is a bunch of beautiful islands accessible from Miami by a narrow road aptly named 'Overseas Highway'. At most places along this 150 mile route, the road is as wide as the island itself, so its flanked by the sea on both sides.
The colour of the sea was like a spectrum starting from a light turquoise near the sand to the deepest violet at the horizon.
I was worried we were going to crash into something looking at the sights around, we just couldnt take our eyes off of the sea.
We stopped at a couple places along the highway when just couldnt keep going and miss the scene.
The water along the road was crystal clear, you could see the bottom.
Then there were long and charming bridges connecting the islands. The view from the bridges was divine.
We went straight to the cruise harbour, Key West, the last key and the southern most point of USA, and went on this sunset cruise on a clear bottomed boat. It turned out the bottom wasnt as clear as we had imagined, but it was quite an experience being able to see the coral reef from there.
We saw a beautiful sunset over the gulf horizon that seemed to set the water ablaze. Dont you just love sunsets over water?
Key West turned out to be a little disappointing, what with the stink of dead fish and crab and grimy, greyish waters but once you are a little far from the shore, cruising, that is when you can fully appreciate the beauty of the coral island.
The next day, driving back to Miami, we immersed ourselves in the beauty by the Overseas Highway once again.
Our first stop was the Bahia Honda state park and beach, voted the world's best beach a couple of times in the 90s.
The beach turned out to be the highlight of the trip.
It was the silverest of all silver sand beaches I had ever seen, in person or through any other medium.
It was cloudy so the sea was the most delightful shade of - I dont even know how to describe that colour, let me call it a very light turqoisish sea-green, almost hazel.
We also saw a couple kite boarders taking advantage of the wind and the weather. Their colourful chutes presenting an even more pleasing picture to our eyes.
We couldnt tear ourselves away from there. I felt I could spend an eternity sitting on that beach looking at the sand, the sea and the sky. all three of which by now were the same exact colour- quicksilver. It was surreal. It seemed as if I were transported to some other world and this silvery sea had some secret magical power.
But we had to move on. We stopped by the Harry Harris park next. It had a most interesting walkway. There was this lagoon of sorts created by a concrete crescent shaped walkway over big rocks running from one end of the beach to the other. It was like walking over water with the sea on one side and this small lagoon on the other.
We also saw John Penekkamp state park which is a favorite snorkeling destination because of a submerged statue creating a unique coral society wrapped around it.
But neither of us was in the mood for snorkeling, we just wanted to admire the beauty above sea level.
Next stop was Miami but it was again nightfall by the time we reached.
Next morning, we explored the world famous Miami beaches.
Biscayne state park, home of an old light house open to tourists from the top of which we saw somemore marvelous views of Miami harbour.
We walked by the harbour and enjoyed the quiet for a couple hours, the only noises were the wind and the tiny waves on rocks. It was therapeutic.
It was Virginia Key next followed by the swanky South Beach Area and the renowned Ocean Drive. It reminded me of quite a few Bollywood movies shot there.
It was a good spot for people watching if only we could get a roadside table in one of numerous cafes and restaurants. Everywhere in Miami, the ocean was a true sea-green.
I was almost sad when it was time to go back home.
