South Beach - Pride Edition

We woke up to another fabulous day and were not pleased that we'd have to leave after the Pride Parade. So, we went to the front desk and extended our stay for another day. Then we explored around the grounds a bit and Marilyn tried out the hotel pool. 

I went out to Ocean Drive while Marilyn was swimming to check out preparations for the parade. The staging area was right in front of our hotel. I was also able to get some shots of the hotel and the street with no cars which is impossible to do at other times.

Before the parade started, we wandered around the tents that were set up. Luckily, all the water that was there last night had dried up. One of the first things we noticed was all the food stands! Since we'd only had coffee so far, we tried an arepa and a pina colada. Excellent breakfast!

These are the arepas. They're made with corn flour and these are stuffed with sweet corn and cheese. 

This is another stand with a neat way of grilling turkey legs.

We shared this pina colada.

We found a spot that had a good view of the parade and waited for it to arrive. I don't think it's as big as the Toronto parade but there were still a lot of people, and dogs!

After a short break for lunch, just a sandwich, we set out again to walk on the beach. We went along the beach to some of the larger resort hotels and then cut up to Collins Ave. which is one of the shopping areas. It took a while to explore that and then we went back to the hotel, watched most of the end of the Masters and headed off to dinner.
Tonight's dinner was Cuban at a place called Rodriquez de Cuba. It's fancier than the diner type places and we really enjoyed the flavours. 
We shared two appetizers. The first was smoked marlin tacos. 

The second app was a lemon seafood ceviche with lobster, shrimp and crab. It had a potato and corn salad and some fried plantain chips.

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Marilyn's main was Cuban Shrimp and Grits. It was a little spicy but the flavour was excellent.

My main was boneless oxtail that came in a can! The chef has a machine that cans the oxtail and then slow cooks it. They open the can at the table and add it to the plate. The picture doesn't do it justice really. The side is black beans and rice.