My Heart Will Beach (Bitch?) On

created 6/2003, posted on 6/2004

June 21st, the first day of the summer, and the day of summer solstice. And it is raining outside - actually, it is pouring. Sort of reminding the Barbara Streisand and Donna Summer old song: "Enough Is Enough (No More Tears)". Yes, life like this in New York is really boring me to tears, after all these years...

So far this year, I can hardly recall any nice weekends. It was very cold in the winter. When spring finally arrived, the very long raining season had also arrived (and been here for more than 3 months now). Weather-wise, the spring of 2003 might have been the worst ever in my life. Somewhat, it feels like February in Taipei (rains, rains, rains) or Vancouver in January (when not raining, it is mostly overcast). However, I have many more friends to hang out with over there, so at least I don't have to feel all alone, left in the rain. (And don't have to bitch about life by e-mails.)

Summer is the time to visit beaches, have suntan (or sunburns if you are not careful), building sandcastles, read a few junk books (like the new Harry P...), and ogling bikini-clad babes. With all the bad weather, all the self-entertaining things I can think of are visit museums, watching Broadway shows, trying a new restaurant - those things that I have already done frequently in the colder seasons.

For a city whose most territory is on islands (The Bronx is the only NYC borough that is on the "mainland"), there are a lot of beaches to go to: the very joyful but cheesy (a lot of cheesy hotdog vendors) Coney Island Beach, a very faraway Far Rock Beach, and nicely sounding Orchard Beach (where there is no orchard). Wandering out the City borders on Long Island, there is Jones Beach, Fire Island Pine Beach, and the rich and famous people's playground - Hamptons (which is on the far east end of Long Island, if you watch "Sex and The City", you know what I am talking about).

However, with weather like this, I would rather spend my time in the heated Metropolitan Museum of Art or a coffeehouse.

Traveling out of town every now and then is always a good remedy for emotional distress (at least for me it is). Thanks god, after being notified that my abstract was accepted for a presentation at a conference held in Miami Beach, I was glad that I could get away at least a few days from this region of miserable weather (Since Washington DC is in the same region, the weather is no better to escape to).

Miami Beach is a very long sandbar outside of the Southern Florida mainland, directly facing the Atlantic Ocean. Though with the name "Miami," it is actually a separate municipality from the City of Miami (though the Bay that separates the "Sandbar" and the mainland is only two to three miles wide). Due to the year round warm weather and abundance of sunshine, Miami Beach becomes a main resort town of North America. Due to its proximity to Latin America (especially Cuba), it is a very Latin-Caribbean flavored place. Many wealthy people from Latin America do their shopping in Miami Area and it is even claimed as "The Capital of Latin America." With all those high-rise luxurious hotels and condos lining along the coast, it is the Riviera of the North America. South Miami Beach, better known as South Beach, is an internationally famous destination for fashion designers and models. It is especially popular by Italian wealthy and hipsters. Very often, there are beautiful people posing on the Beach for photo shoots. The murder of Italian designer Gianni Versace right outside of his mansion here ironically had further increased the visibility of this beach community.

Holding a scientific conference at an internationally desired destination is always distracting. The conference committee is smart enough to host this meeting in a place not so close to South Beach. They chose Bal Harbor, about 10 miles further north on the sandbar, as the base of the conference.

Further north it goes from South Beach, the hip quotient decreases. However, most buildings on the oceanfront are all resided by relatively wealthy people. In the several communities north of South Beach, Bal Harbor might be among the most affluent. Though not as fancy as South Beach, Bal Harbor is still a quite popular by tourists. Not as fashionable and populated with beautiful people, Bal Harbor is a more "family-oriented" resort. It's a good place for conventioneers to bring their children along, I guess.

I checked in the Bal Harbor Beach House, which last year was reported by Conde Nast Travelers' magazine as one of the best boutique hotels in the region. Boutique hotels usually are much smaller than large chain hotels but have more individual characters. Usually their decorations are specially designed and furniture is handpicked by some famous designers. And special theme and atmosphere are created to impress vacationers. Beach House tries to create an atmosphere of a Hamptons (yes, that wealthy Long Island beach resort outside New York City) beach house. The theme is more New England rather than tropical. So there is a lot of bamboo furniture in their specially designed "front porch." Oriental handicrafts (including a Laughing Buddha statue) are abound in its public area. Each room is with Ralph Lauren's linens and towels. Walking outside the hotel to the back of large swimming pool, a path leads to a private beach. Because here is further south than New York, the usually cold Atlantic Ocean water finally feels warm here.

Having no small children to take care of and not really need to prepare much for my poster presentations, I spent most of the time on beaches. Besides the beach at the back of the hotel, I also took bus (yes, they do have buses, and it is even more frequent and punctual than Baltimore or Atlanta) to South Beach every day. When in South Beach, I enjoyed walking along its Ocean Drive, lined with Art Deco style hotels and al fresco restaurants. It is a great place to stroll and people-watching. Due to that June is not a peak season for Miami, it is fortunately that the Ocean Drive was not overrun by tourists as it was in spring break. Walking further north (not a short walk) to Lincoln Road pedestrian mall, I can sample various cuisine from Caribbean and Latin America and visit some boutiques for window shopping. It was actually very hot at this time of the year. The sun was strong and I almost got sunburned. But at least they have sun over there.

The nice beach resort atmosphere reminds me of Ibiza and Santorini in the Mediterranean Sea. Maybe I don't need to go all the way to Europe to see a nice beach and beauties on the beach.

My presentation was on early Monday morning. And I immediately had to check out and catch a flight at noon to return to New York for an evening class. Overall, I spent less than three full days in Miami Beach. Not even had time to have enough tan to look like my hunky Dominican co-worker (whom by the way, is definitely more popular by other female co-workers than I am).

It was sunny but slightly cool when the plane touched down in New York. But after only enjoying one or two sunny days, the whole New York region went back to wetland status again. Just returning from the land of the burning sun, I still cannot get over the pleasure of beach hopping merely one week ago.

Now, going back to bitching about life from beaching lifestyle. I was feeling sort of at loss again. The work has been busy and I still have a lot Tony winning play/musicals I haven't seen. But there is always something missing living in New York. I am not sure if the bad weather will last well into the usually hot and humid (but sunny) New York summer. To make my leisure life more hopeful, I purchased a ticket to Los Angeles on the Independent Day holiday. They sure have some nice beaches there (and supposed not rainy). I also decided finally to add HBO to my Cable subscription. If I have to stay indoors that much from rainy days, I will at least have something fun to get along with. The new season of "Sex and the City" will start on June 22. Since I have never been able to live such an intriguing (and expensive) life or meet many beautiful people as shown in this TV series, I can only live it vicariously by watching it.

Hopefully, when not watching SATC, I will find some sunny days to visit nearby beaches.

Or I can always stay indoors, writing e-mails bitching about life in New York.