South Beach Miami fountain tour- Lincoln Road

After shayna's audition* we went to Lincoln Road to walk around. This was right by the building the casting agency was in, also on Lincoln Road. This is one of the main spots to go to in South Beach, the others being Ocean Drive, Espanola Way, Collins Ave. Last time I was here was in 1996 (to Lincoln Rd.) and it is 100% different now and WOW is it awesome! LOVE this place. I would describe it as a shopping, dining, and entertainment area that is oozing with artsy trendy coolness and class. You may find street artists or performers, people hanging out, cool art to look at, pretty scenery, the best shops- mix of boutiques, art, tourist, no tacky shops, lots of outdoor cafes, and 200% full of life. you will see families with strollers as well as people going out or the singles scene, and fashionistas. Great people watching. I like the way it is set up, with the stores/restaurants aligned where the streets go perpendicular, so where the shops go for 1-2 blocks there are no cars in the middle, more of a plaza feel, which makes it feel very European. In fact, a lot of the restaurants have the food displayed out front- something you see a lot in Europe.

There are also a LOT of fountains here, which skyler loved. here is where we started:



Skyler liked the plastic sofas:

This was inside a big tourist/beach type shop (a nice one not too cheesy at all)...a free cell phone charger machine...never saw this before:

another nice fountain, with a cool looking fairytale like tree behind (you may be able to see if you click on photo to enlarge). we ate at the outdoor restaurant behind where they are sitting and slightly up to the left, called Le Bon, a belguim restaurant (hence the French). I had a really good spinach salad with goat cheese, and they have belguim fries that are really good (I am not a fries person and these were good). I have not been up on researching the restaurant scene, so we stumbled upon this (just checking out menus as we walked by) but it turns out they specialize in mussels- so will have to go that route next time. They had an awesome recipe for the snapper I ordered, it was in a coconut milk sauce and coated with some kind of nuts.

Bob the stroller comes in handy. I noticed a lot of upscale strollers here- Bugaboo and Maclerans.

one of the shops we stoped in, a surf/skate shop...thought this surfboard bench was cool:

There was what appeared to be a roman/greek statue that skyler and I walked by twice, and we were fooled as later we found it was a lady posing as a statue.

we discovered a wonderful artist we did not know about, Romero Britto, when we went into his art gallery. His art is in the pop art cubism style, and he is world famous. the art is so gorgeous, all we could do was oooh and aaah and think, wow is this beautiful!!! He has a huge list of celebrities that own his art, and a huge list of places his art is displayed, including in the white house in DC. If you are not familiar with him already, please take a quick look at his web site:

http://www.britto.com/

Some other pertinent links:

To see the Belguim restaurant we ate at:

http://www.lebonrestaurant.com/

Lincoln Road Miami Beach web site:

http://www.lincolnroadmiamibeach.com/

*Shayna's audition went well. if she gets chosen, callbacks are next friday 11/23. she did not wear the outfit she has on in the above photos, but wore a long sleeved white shirt, long jeans, boots, scarf and gloves (thankfully borrowed from Carissa.)