☼ Miami Beach, Florida 2004-2005

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Miami Beach, Florida : Trip Report

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Current weather in Miami Beach, Florida:

Chicago sucks in the winter so we decided to pack up the family and fly south for the winter, or at least part of it. We stayed in Miami Beach but since we were here with two little kids we skipped the bar and club scene and instead did more child friendly activities. We visited the Miami Children's Museum a couple times and did as many child friendly activities as possible. We were amazed how many zoo-like attractions there are in Southern Florida but we shouldn't be surprised since the weather is ideal for most types of animals, including humans.

Our home base as always was Miami Beach, specifically South Beach. We love hanging out on Lincoln Road Mall which is a great place for an evening stroll, dining out and just plain people watching.

South Beach & Art Deco District
When most people say they are going to Miami or Miami Beach they usually refer to "South Beach", the southern tip of the Miami Beach. This is the historic section with lots of wonderful Art Deco architecture, great hotels, wonderful dining and the famous nightlife.
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Lion Country Safari
A nice open-air zoo near West Palm Beach. It's worth the drive from Miami to see animals roaming in large areas.
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Vizcaya Museum & Gardens
A great state-owned mansion now a museum. Built by James Deering at the turn of the 20th century and filled with European antiques from many centuries. The gardens are just as impressive.
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Everglades National Park
Alligators and Herons and Turtles oh my! Great place to see native Everglades wildlife even closer than in a zoo and in their actual natural habitat.
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John Pennekamp State Park
We really wanted to do some diving but we also needed for something for our kids to do so we went to John Pennekamp State Park in Key Largo, about 90 minutes from Miami. We went diving and the kids and babysitter went on a glass bottom boat ride.
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Parrot Jungle Island
On an island very close to downtown Miami and the cruise ship docks is the practically brand new home of Parrot Jungle. It's a very nice and clean park but still lacks a certain something.
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Henry Flagler Museum
We read an article about extravagant historical homes and this one was listed, plus we needed an excuse to visit Palm Beach. That adds up to Road Trip!
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Miami Metro Zoo
Yet another zoo-like attraction in the Miami area, and this one is actually a zoo. It's a very scenic and large zoo. The weather was perfect so it made for a good visit. We did visit it a second time on a much hotter day. That wasn't quite as fun.
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Caribbean Gardens in Naples
Before leaving Florida and returning to the great white north we did a road trip to visit some friends in Naples. When finding something child friendly to do there, guess what, we went to a zoo.
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Monkey Jungle
Located pretty close to the Miami Zoo there is the small attraction called Monkey Jungle. It's not large but interested in that many of the monkeys roam pretty much free on the site and the visitors watch them from inside a cage. Sorta.
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Miami Seaquarium
It's very hot in Miami, so what does one do with the kids? Take them someplace where you can hang out outside with thousands of other hot sweaty people. It's no Sea World but it was entertaining enough for my kids.
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Reference Library
For your convenience I put information about all the books and web sites we used to plan our travel in one place.
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Here are some related links from previous visits to the Miami area:

2003 Visit to Vizcaya
The first time I visited Vizcaya was in January of 2003. Here are the pictures from that visit.
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2002 Visit to Miami Seaquarium
On one of my first visits to Miami Beach my friend Jeremy from Chicago dropped by with his family. His kids love aquariums so we drove down to visit the Miami Seaquarium.
Viewed: 1,843 times.

Comments From People Like You! Miami, Florida 2004	add a comment
JOEL LEININGER 14-Jan-2005 18:09
`PRICES & HOURS WOULD BE HELPFUL.`

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