Vacation

As you have noticed, for the last few days the Miami Daily Photo has not been very daily. I am leaving on vacation to Belgium and Holland for 2 weeks tomorrow, and I've been super busy getting things up to date both at work and at home. In the meantime I basically ran out of saved pics, and haven't really had time to take new ones for the past days, let alone for the 2 weeks I'll be out.

The Miami Daily Photo will be on hiatus during my vacation. I will post a couple of pics I took between last night and this morning to make up the missing dates, and then restart once I get back.

Thanks for your support thus far, enjoy the break, and see you when I get back. Later!

NBA Champions!

The Miami Heat have just become the 2006 NBA Champions after beating the Dallas Mavericks and sweeping the series 4-2 after having been down 0-2. The team will return to Miami from Dallas today and on Friday there will be a celebratory championship parade (which I'll miss because I'll be in Belgium).

Photo from The Miami Herald.

GO HEAT!!!

Candid Shot

This is a candid shot I took from the Metromover of students in class at a Downtown college. I'd lost it in my files and came across it just now. I like the utter mundane tone of daily life it conveys. 

Who Hauls the Haulers?

Because sometimes the workhorse breaks down and you need to call an even bigger workhorse to take the former back to the shop for repairs. I have always thought that, as far as automobiles go, seeing a bus (especially an extra long, accordion one like this one) being carried by a tow truck is a very sad sight. It's kinda like seeing a big burly man that can take lots of punishment brought down by a mere cold. 

Go Heat!

Shot of Downtown Miami on Tuesday night (6/13) when the Miami Heat were playing game 3 of the NBA Finals at home. They went on to win 98-96 vs. the Dallas Mavericks, putting the series 2-1 in favor of the Mavericks. Next game is tomorrow night, Thursday. Go Heat!

Picture taken by Gabriel Lopez-Bernal for the Transit Miami blog. 

And We're Off!

Alberto became the first name tropical system of the 2006 Hurricane Season. Though it only reached Tropical Storm strength, and quicly downgraded to Tropical Depression, it doesn't bode well for the tropics. Here in Miami we're still rebuilding from Katrina and Wilma and let's not forget New Orleans, barely getting back on its feet after Katrina pounded it to bits. We'll see how things go from here. 

Sunflower and Cat

I had been chronicling the birth of this sunflower, the first in my (and my neighbor's) small garden, and on this shot, my neighbor's cat decided he wanted to make a cameo appereance. Sadly, the sunflower has since died due to a lack of enough sunlight, though other smaller ones are still thriving. 

Mi Familia

Back from my forced hiatus, I bring you a local fad you are unlikely to see in many other places, the Mi Familia (My Family) stickers. I first saw these on my Mom's car on a visit to Puerto Rico. The idea is that you buy one sticker for each member of your family and put them on your car somewhere. At some point it became the accepted custom that these go on the rear windshield. It is mostly Hispanics who have these, and since we tend to have large families, immediate and extended, some of these collections can cover a lot of windshield real estate, as you can see in some of these. For the record, my Mom still has her's, and no, she has not added me to her car yet. 

Forced Hiatus

The Miami Daily Photo blog is going into a short, forced hiatus.

My cat bit into my laptop's power cord this morning, severing the insides, and rendering it useless, a fact I discovered when my laptop ran out of power while it was plugged. I have already ordered a replacement cord, but until it arrives (hopefully by Friday) I am cut off from everything in my computer, including my pictures.

It'll be just a couple of days (Dell is very good about delivering promptly). Please accept my apologies.

(Maybe it has something to do with today's date: 6/6/06?!?!) ;-)

Metromover

Though in my opinion the Miami public transit system is just incredibly sub-par for a city this size, it does have a small crowning gem, the Miami Metromover, an automated, elevated train system that services the entire Downtown area. I hadn't been Downtown in about a year, and was very surprised to find out that the Metromover is now a free service, which makes a great service even better. I went for a ride to get to some of the spots I have shown you in the past week, and even recorded a short movie of the trip between two of the stations (from College North to College/Bayside stations, on the inner orange loop if you look at the map). 

Past Quitting Time

This is just a simple shot of NW 1st street in Downtown Miami, taken from the Metromover, at about 6:00 PM, an hour past quitting time for the mainly-business oriented core of the city. To the left is the Downtown campus of the Miami-Dade College, and in the distance is the Brickell Financial District. Most of all I just liked the perspective and sense of depth the higher ground afforded me. 

House of Law

The Miami-Dade County Courthouse is one of the coolest buildings in Miami, mainly because it has a slightly gothic thing going on (though it is actually classified as a neo-classical structure with elements of Art Deco). It served as Miami City Hall for a short while and it is actually listed in the registry of historic places since 1989. Personally, I like it because it has a somewhat medieval air to it.

(In observance of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, I am posting this on 6/1/06 and postdating it to the correct date). 

Double Helix

Tucked in one corner of Bayfront Park is this metal pipe sculpture which I had always thought was some strange monument to DNA. Turns out I wasn't that far off. The sculpture is called the Challenger Memorial, in remembrance of the ill-fated NASA shuttle. The sculpture is indeed meant to recall the double helix of the DNA molecule as well as the similar smoke trails left by the Challenger's booster rockets after the explosion.

(In observance of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, I am posting this on 6/1/06 and postdating it to the correct date). 

The Herald

First established in 1903, the Miami Herald (name acquired in 1910) is South Florida's oldest newspaper. It has won 18 Pulitzer Prizes during it's run and is considered to be one of the best newspapers of the nation, especially on its coverage of Latin America. The paper publishes also a Spanish edition called El Nuevo Herald. The big blocky building sits on a prime spot of real estate right on the bay, and just down from the American Airlines Arena.