So this blog post takes a little set up so you can completely understand what you are about to see. We had scheduled an extra day in Miami after our diving trip to literally decompress (you have to wait 24 hours between diving and flying) and to relax a bit. We decided to get a hotel room near the airport for our early flight the next day and spend the day at the beach – relaxing and letting the invisible residual nitrogen turn into real sunburn. Sounds like a nice plan that should – if executed correctly result in two rested and tan individuals when the workweek resumes on Tuesday Wednesday. With that much setup, you can probably guess that our plans didn’t work as well as we might have hoped.
As we approached Miami Beach we saw signs alerting us to a shift in traffic patterns. It is Sunday and well – could be anything. We soon learned that ‘anything’ is an understatement when it comes to the theme of this parade. All you can say is nothing. Words can’t describe the spectacle that walked down Ocean Boulevard to a large and thankfully somewhat clothed crowd. (Being generous here.)
And there we were – I have no strong feelings one way or the other about what this parade represents but it was definitely fun and at times somewhat shocking to watch. I know – this is more than a little off the beaten path for us – not that there is anything wrong with anything we saw – except for the things that were intentionally wrong. (Yes – some elements of the parade were meant to shock and they did.)
As a regular at the Raleigh St. Patrick’s Day parade I found myself critiquing the style and design of the floats and the pace of the parade. It is the first parade I’ve watched in a while and I realized how difficult it has to be to time these things where the stream of activity is consistent. Their route was much shorter than ours and the handouts – well – they weren’t giving kids candy.
It was an experience and while not one I am likely to seek out in the future definitely one I would sit through should our paths cross again. Enjoy the pictures after the jump and fair warning – they are not work safe and just cause it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck doesn’t mean it is a duck. Get my drift?
