When I first moved into Isles at Oasis over three years ago, I fell in love. I fell in love with my…read morehome and the community I moved into. We had 24 hour a day, manned security guard, I lived in front of a beautiful lake with breathtaking sun sets, an active HOA which enforced the rules and great neighbors. By the time I left: 1)the manned security was replaced by remote security. They hired this company called Envera, which operates a remote security. In order to get in, you have to have you car use a sticker which allows a scanner to read your a resident or use the visitor box at the entrance and have your drivers license scanned. Allegedly anyway, tons of people tailgate to get in (especially people in Caribbean isles)... and sometimes the company just has the bars raised at random parts of the day including nights sometimes and all holidays. I never felt secure. Plus it was a pain to get Uber eats or other services to get thru. And good lord the lines to get in! This never happened with manned security. 2) neighbors... had mostly good ones but I got some to the right of me that were a piece of work. The kids were jerks. They purposefully did things to piss us off including riding their bikes through our front yard including when we had Christmas lights in order to unplug our extensions cords 3) Capri never had a fountain... why? All the other subcommunities got one 4) The sign to Isles at Oasis was always lighted and beautiful... not so much by feb this year This is why, although it pained me to move out... kinda glad I did... neighborhood just wasn't the same anymore.

Beautiful place to dock your boat and have lunch in the park…read more No Name Harbor is a natural harbor on Key Biscayne, Florida. It is located within the boundaries of Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park. In the 19th century, the site served as a food-rich rookery for herons, egrets, and other species of wildlife. Originally, the site was privately owned prior to the creation of the state park. Several development plans indicated the land was slated for the construction of condominiums and residential homes. The surrounding land was cleared for development in the 1950s, and charts identified the body of water as "No Name Harbor". The plans failed, and the harbor's name was retained.

Beautiful park and water. HOWEVER...we are moored here on our friend's sailboat and the music from…read moreother boats is so loud that we cannot talk over it. Not just an hour...all day and late into the night. No one observes the rules here. People swim even though very large boats are in and out of the harbor and it is posted that there is no swimming. What started out as a great time turned sour quickly.

George Merrick is the founder of the City of Coral Gables. His family came to Miami from PA two…read moreyears after Henry Flagler brought the railroad to Florida. It was the dawn of the development of Florida. George Merrick attended Rollins College in Winter Park and in 1922 he meticulously planned Coral Gables. The houses were so well made that they survived hurricanes before there were building codes and his architecture was so charming that Coral Gables is called the city beautiful. He also created the University of Miami. At first he wanted his buildings to be strictly Spanish and later Mediterranean style. Eventually he expanded his vision to include seven unique villages inspired by different international influences. The villages were built during the land boom years in the 1920's. It was a joint venture between Merrick, The American Building Company and former Ohio Governor Myers Cooper. The original plan was for more 1,000 residences in a series of villages based on architecture from around the world. The plan was never fully realized when the housing boom crashed from two hurricanes followed by the Great Depression. In the end only seven villages were built including this French City Village. By 1928 George Merrick was forced out of the city he founded and ended up in the Keys. He returned to the city two years before he died to serve as postmaster. You can learn more about George Merrick by taking a tour of his family home in Coral Gables. Built in 1925, the French City Village is inspired by 18th-century French town homes. The village is bounded by Maggiore Street, San Vicente Street, Caligula Avenue, and Barbarossa Avenue. The homes are characterized by stately entrance halls, enclosed courtyards, walled kitchen gardens, open-air porches, French doors, and ornate moldings. Two architects designed the homes in this village. Philip L. Goodwin, the Beaux Arts architect designed the homes on the south side of Hardee Road. They are more rustic but still have a formal and classical design. Architect Mott B. Schmidt known for his work with American Georgian Classicism, designed the homes on the north side of Hardee Road. He took his inspiration from the Renaissance architecture of Italy. Fourteen years after Goodwin designed the houses in Coral Gables, he worked with modernist Edward Durell Stone to design the original, Museum of Modern Art in New York. If you are interested in one of these homes expect to pay north of two million. The largest home, on the largest lot in the French City Village at 1030 Hardee Road was listed for four million. Absolutely gorgeous architecture. C'est magnifique!

The French City Village is across the street(s) from the French Country Village. These houses were…read moreinspired by a formal and classical style of 18th century French city architecture. So interesting to stroll around the block and compare the two styles. The French Country Village draws on two distinct 18th century French building styles: rural farmsteads designed by architect Frank Forster and rustic chateaux designed by Edgar Albright and Phillip L Goodwin. Architectural elements of the twelve properties include French mansard roofs, rounded towers, wrought iron balconies and red brick. If you can peak into the gardens. Such an interesting part of community's history

The Kaleidoscope (...Bigger) House is an art installation by Laurie Simmons and Peter Wheelwright…read morecurrently on display in the Melin Atrium in the Miami Design District. Laurie Simmons art work is displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, and The Whitney Museum of American Art. Peter Wheelwright is an architect, educator, and writer. This art piece was originally created as a 1:12 scale dollhouse, produced by Bozart Toys in 2001 and sold at the MoMA Design Shop. The house has a midcentury design with furniture and decor contributed by Dakota Jackson, Karim Rashid, Ron Arad, and Jonathan Adler with art by Carroll Dunham, Cindy Sherman, Peter Halley and Mel Kendrick. In collaboration with DMINTI, ICA Miami, and Laurie Simmons and Peter Wheelwright, The Kaleidoscope (...Bigger) House was recreated on a larger scale for Miami Art Week. There is an AI interactive component to the installation. If you scan the QR code near the entrance you can create a digital photo. The Kaleidoscope (...Bigger) House will be on display until March 31, 2025.

More like 4.5 stars. I like Little Havana. I really don't come here very often. In fact, I have…read morebeen more on the west side of 8th Street compared to Little Havana. I find the Little Havana area to be charming. There are some nice restaurants in this area. I got to eat at Ciao Havana and was happy eating there. There is Old's Sandwich near there. That looked really good. I would like.to.eat there at some point. I like this area because of the history. I walked by a barber shop and saw how busy it was and how the barbershop seemed to be taking pride in their work. That is so nice to see. I look forward to coming back to this area. It is a nice break from Broward where I live.

Review #1,000 The…read morefinale to our Miami tour, booked to kill time before heading to the airport. This was the day that we disembarked from our Caribbean cruise. After Cuba's fall to Fidel Castro, Miami received an influx of Cuban migrants, some 150,000 at the time. And this community became their hub. We were tantalized by our tour bus guide's verbal preparations of his Cuban heritage found here, especially the Cuban coffee. Lunch at the popular Cuban restaurant La Esquina de La Fama, our first stop, delivered on the Cuban coffee hype. As did the mojitos for some, which they're probably most famous for. Then other than the guide's walking tour option to the nearby Cuban cigar factory which we passed on; we had toured a similar hand rolled cigar factory in the Dominican Republic. So we were now free to explore on our own. Colorful murals, especially in what is known as Art Park, surround you. Nearby Domino Park is open to the public, but playing dominoes there is reserved only for the local elderly. But feel free to stroll around the various games going on. There is also a very popular ice cream parlor that came highly recommended but we passed on it. And per the guides strong protest to please avoid/tongue-in-cheek, the McDonald's smack dab in the midst of it all, that advice went unheeded by more than a few lol. My wife crossed the street to check out a small strip mall, joining another group of tourists headed that way. While I remained in a cool shaded spot to avoid the encroaching Miami humidity. Oh, and if you feel a need for a bit more positivity in your life, try rubbing one of the large chickens, you can't miss them, for "good luck" they say. Little Havana, a nice way to kill some time when in town.

This is actually for part of the Pub Crawl, as I joined in a little more than halfway through…read more (Sorry the intro isn't as elaborate as my usual reviews, as I am still recovering from the food coma :) I heard about the Croqueta Crawl through the talk threads and on Twitter. There was a little bit of confusion about the RSVP, but our hostess Liza W. was great in keeping those of us interested that there was enough space. I met up with the group at El Brazo Fuerte. Besides meeting up with Tom W., Vanessa S., Will and Jax, and George, I tasted a "meh" ham croquette. So in the words of the great Sean Carter, "On to the Next One". ..which was Ricky Bakery. Although unassuming from the outside, the interior of the bakery si a cozy spot with wood framed ceilings, little tables and a dessert selection as well. My tasting consisted of both ham and chicken croquettes. I had two of each since it was hard to decide between the two. In the end, both were 5 stars along with a passion fruit mousse I got for myself. The owner (Ricky) also came out to talk to the group and from what I hear was a hit with the ladies. Gilbert's was also 5-star worthy. The owner socialized with us as well, but at least for me the "Bocadito" (bread with ham spread) was better than the croquertas. Certainly a fun Sunday alt-brunch, and a great way to absorb last night's "grown up grape juice"!

I've got to start this review by congratulating Liza Walton (http://twitter.com/lizawalton) for…read moreputting this whole thing together after her, my wife and a few other instigators started a debate on Twitter, "Who has the best croquetas in Miami?". We embarked on a mission to try them all; or at least the big hitters starting in Little Havana. We've been promised a Part Deux to explore some bakeries in Hialeah but I'm sure that Isla Canarias will still take the croqueta. We've even had a convert who came into this stating that a particular place in Hialeah had the best croqueta's around. Once he bit into a jamon piece of heaven from Islas Canarias, he retracted his previous statement. Starting at Versailles (http://www.yelp.com/biz/versailles-bakery-miami) we were provided with traditional jamon, pollo and bacalao croquetas which were served with tartar sauce. What? Yeah, tartar sauce, WEIRD. I've heard Versailles is the place to be in MIA for all things Cuban and while I thought their offerings were good it was definitely over-rated. So we all piled into our GM sponsored Escalades, Regals, Malibus, Denalis and Cruzes and OnStar locked us onto our next stop, Islas Canarias (http://www.yelp.com/biz/islas-canarias-restaurant-miami-2). Their only offering was jamon (you've gotta venture out west to their main location [http://www.yelp.com/biz/islas-canarias-restaurant-miami] to get the full spread [and I *LOVE* the full spread!]). In my book, Islas rocked it and won best croqueta of all the bakeries we invaded. Their meat pastries are obviously handmade, HUGE and tasted friggin' perfect. They even gave us lime, crackers and Tabasco to bathe in, I mean enjoy them with; just the way a croqueta is supposed to be enjoyed! Next stop was at the massively underwhelming El Brazo Fuerte (http://www.yelp.com/biz/el-brazo-fuerte-bakery-miami). I think there is something wrong with a bakery that also sells knock-off Power Rangers (Who even still makes those? Didn't Power Rangers go out of style in like 1995???). Just how authentic can your croquetas be when you're touting Official Twilight Eclipse cupcakes in the same display? I won't even get into how disappointing these blatantly machine made, perfectly round, probably frozen croquetas were that they tried to pass off on us. Ricky's Bakery (http://www.yelp.com/biz/rickys-bakery-miami) saved us from El Brazo Fuerte by serving up delicious pollo, jamon, spinach, bacalao, and cheese versions of (can you guess what?) CROQUETAS (Good guess! Next time you're riding in the short yellow Escalade!)! By this point my gut was asking me how many more of these I was planning on stuffing down my fat mouth and I told it to STFU or else I was going to start over at the beginning again. Ricky's took second place in my book. A *very* close second to Islas, but second place none the less. My favs at Ricky's were the jamon (because who doesn't like tasty dead pig), spinach because it was über tasty and a cool variety I've never had before, and bacalao which was delicious without being overly fishy *looking at you Versailles*. Our final resting place, post croqueta heart failure, was Gilbert's (http://www.yelp.com/biz/gilberts-bakery-miami). I give them the prize for most unique offerings as they pumped out quite interesting versions of jamon, romesco and piquillo treats. I liked that the romesco had a little capsaicin bite and was served with a delicious aioli sauce but the croquetas were really small, kind of weird and a little soft. So soft in fact that I couldn't even pick up the jamon with my hands as they would just fall apart. Gilbert's and Brazo Fuerte are still arguing about who gets 4th place because neither of them wants to be last. The people were amazing, our GM rides were sweet and the croquetas were colon-clogging. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to go try out this enema before I hit the box for a solid WOD (http://www.yelp.com/biz/crossfit-coral-gables-coral-gables).

We try to get down to Calle Ocho every chance we get especially with our Cuban friends who always…read moretake us to the best restaurants. It never gets boring in Little Havana and that's what I love about it. There's great food from several different countries: Cuba, Nicaragua, Colunbia, Peru, Argentina just to name a few. There are many tobacco/cigar shops. Knick knack shops for souveniers. Great ice cream shops like Azucar's! Fun vibrant art painted on buildings. Impromptu and scheduled parades and festivals. Spanish being spoken everywhere you go. And the best part is to watch the old-timers playing dominoes in the parking lots/sidewalks. Mass traffic on Calle Ocho (SW 8th) with no where to park so go past it a couple of blocks and park in that area or take Uber or a transit bus. No matter what, you will have fun there! Wear comfortable shoes, summer clothes, a hat, and sunscreen.

Calle Ocho in Little Havana is definitely a must stop when visiting Miami. The whole area is full…read moreof life and color from the vibrant murals to the local live music playing from the restaurants you can hear as you walk by, so full of culture... I love it I love it. It's a great place to grab a mojito and some really good Cuban/Spanish food. There are also plenty of small shops with affordable souvenirs and handmade items. It's such a vibe, I love coming here every time!

This Bright red massive M, can be seen from the motorway, and whilst in Downtown Miami. I have…read morealways wanted to see it up close and it did not disappoint. It is located at The Riverwalk station.  Climb to the top or take the elevator, for different angles of this iconic "M" . The big red M for Miami sculpture was designed by local architectural artists Roberto Behar and Rosario Marquardt.