Diann and I had planned for some time to attend the 2004 Miami boat show.

When we travel, my general theme is "eat good- sleep cheap" .   My research turned up a combination hostel and motel at the transition of South Beach and Miami Beach called Banana Bungalow. The web site indicated that it was popular with young European travelers on a budget.  Group room / hostel accommodations did not fit our idea of vacation travel but the fact that the facility had private rooms also and that those rooms had private baths made for an interesting possibility. 

We decided to use our backpacks as a means of blending in with the patrons and booked a room over the internet.  A couple of days went by and having not gotten a confirmation on the room, I called to see what the status was.  What I found was that the Banana Bungalow had been sold and renamed  "The Creek At South Beach".  So I ended up booking a room at The Creek.  The photo to the left is the cardboard/ plastic/ and tape system I used to keep my dress shirts from wrinkling in the pack.

Lets just say that web photos sometimes portray a place as more refined that it really is.

The place was clean and very efficiently run.  We were not overly concerned about safety, but boy was the room a bit less than what we expected.

Note that the blinds, over the TV,  don't come together.  No amount of adjustment solved that problem. There was no hanging rack or coat hooks anywhere. I guess their typical patrons don't have clothes on hangers? You can see one of our backpacks on the floor to the left of the dresser.  Seen on the right of the dresser is our breakfast.

The pool side bar has a grill which serves instant coffee, juice of the day (same flavor as the bar drink mix of the day), toast, jelly, and peanut butter from a big tub.  I put the quality in the category of "maintenance food".

The shower was clean and the towels fresh every day. But the towel rod was the most industrial strength I have ever seen.

The pool never seemed to have swimmers in it.  There was however, a student film crew doing some underwater video photography on Sunday after noon.

Diann's Latitudes & Attitudes jacket says a lot about handling situations in travel and in life and certainly how she handles things.

The tee shirt that I purchased at the Lat's booth fits the management style of my last corporate-America boss who's name is Roger S......  I was working as Atlantic Division President for a national housing company and decided that I didn't want to order the "flogging" of staff, nor would I put up with being "flogged" by that character anymore.  Roger was my incentive to return to listing and selling properties in the traditional brokerage manner.  So when I saw this shirt I had to have it as a parody of  what many executives view as "management".

When we got to the sailboat part of the show, our first stop was to see the catamarans.  As Diann will tell you, "they don't heel."  We progressed around to a number of boats and spent a fair amount of time on a mono-hull boat built by Island Packett.

The Island Packett brand has a long standing reputation for being set up for live-aboard cruising.

Here you see one of the vents called dorads.

No good sail would be fun without food.  Here is the galley on the IP-37

Note the drawer under the seat.  Below the drawer is a locker that could hold a month's worth of food!  The front bed, queen sized, raises up on pressure posts to reveal blanket and linen storage.

We bought shoes for a new boat, since we couldn't afford a new boat!  And we picked up a fair amount of "free stuff"- three canvas bags, assorted floating key chains and such.

I'm embarrassed to admit that I have forgotten the name of the restaurant we spent two meals at. I can tell you however, it was a mix of Mexican and Cuban foods.  One of the tables was under a vent (like the one seen to the left).  We asked to move from the table due to the extreme air flow.  Six more sets of patrons sat and asked to move.  The food was good but what was with the table?

There were hats nailed to the ceiling through out the place.  It was a favorite of one of the bedding vendors we met at the show.

On Friday night we ventured to Lincoln Avenue for the best assortment of restaurants at south beach.

I love mimes and this young lady was doing a fine job. The clown entertained the kids too.

Van Dykes has great food, but I wanted the veal picata found at the pizza place close by.  The veal was again as good as I had remembered. We chose to go to Van Dykes for after dinner drinks and to listen to the Brazilian inspired jazz ensemble.

This propeller is real.  It was on display in the convention center near the engines and generators.  Diann and I visited the power boat display, too.  Sail boats still hold our interest though we know that in fifteen years we will not want to pull "sheets" to handle sail and will have a power boat.  Maybe by then electric motors will quiet the engine noise of power boats.  It is the quiet of sailing that I truly enjoy over motorboats.

We did decide to by a dinghy to use with our boat on Lake Norman. More on that, later.  Meanwhile I hope you enjoy the site.