Miami Holiday

25th Dec 04 - 5th Jan 05

We spent 10 days in Miami, staying at 'Villa Paradiso' (apartment) in South Beach, in the Art-Deco area. Miami
and surroundings offers lots of things for families with young children to do. Here's some of our pics and videos:

	We went to the beach (of course) but it was quite windy as you'll see from the photos but as its Robert and Emily's favourite holiday activity, we had to start there!
	Robert and Emily had a great time at Wanadoo City - a new concept playarea in Fort Lauderdale (just north of Miami). Children are given some 'Wongas' (Wanadoo dollars) which they can spend at the amusement park and they can earn additional wongas doing jobs like putting out a fire as a fireman, or flying the jumbo as a pilot at the airport. Robert proudly helped in a operation at the hospital. Both Robert and Emily were dressed in doctors gowns for their shift in the paediatric ward, cleaning and changing babies. Robert loved earning his dosh and at the end of the day, proudly opened his first bank account with the National Wanadoo Bank and deposited his wongas for his next visit. Wanadoo made a great effort for the kids to exercise autonomy and independence, so parents were encouraged to hold back and let the children do the activities on their own. Emily didn't seem to struggle with this at all!
	Miami Seaquarium is a must-see in Miami. The show is great and the Orca, Lolita, is getting older and they seem to be reducing the strenuousness of her display. There's a play area there and lots of other sea and water-life to see.
	We went to a couple of children-oriented museums/activity places: the Miami Children's Museum, which is an interactive, educational museum full of fun dressing up activities, displays and hands-on activities (not too dissimilar to Wanadoo) and the Fun At Art centre - a themed arts and crafts centre.
	Next up was Miami Metro Zoo - a world class zoo where the clever landscaping means that there are no cages.
	We then went to Parrot Jungle which has lots of parrots, obviously, but also a 'Liger' (a lion / tiger crossbreed) and another great play area.
	On departure day, we thought we'd let Robert and Emily run off steam before the long flight home, so we went to AD Barnes Park, which has a lovely colourful play area and a treehouse to explore. The weather was glorious.
	In between all these highlights, were miscellaneous activities like breakfast at the local 24 hr deli at 3am (try explaining time zones to Robert and Emily), shopping malls, walks and general holidaying.

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