We really only went out to dinner - Joe's Stone Crab. Seriously, some of the best seafood I've ever had in my life. UV agrees. We arrived shortly after 5:00PM, when it opens...had 2 drinks at the bar with Jeff the bartender (Welcome to my job), who's been there since 1983. Cool guy, great history lesson and conversation. Then we were seated immediately.

Dinner was phenomenal. UltraViolet had the Stone Crab claws, which were some of the best crab meat I've ever tasted...and I had the Alaskan King Crab legs. We shared, and for desert we had their famous Key Lime Pie. This stuff is no joke. The best slice of any pie I've ever had.

Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak, and Stone Crab are the affiliate restaurants in D.C., Chicago, and Las Vegas. We've been to 2 of the 3. The original, in Miami's South Beach, out does them all. When we left around 7:00pm, there looked to be close to 100 people waiting to be seated in the huge atrium. The bar was 2-3 deep. Get there early on the weekend, or you'll miss out!

So, we spent about 2 hours walking around the gated port area shopping for souvenirs. It really is a nice shopping area, but there really isn’t much there to hold either of our interests for much longer than that.

After maybe 2 hours of exploring, we went back to the pier and got in line for a taxi to Seven Mile Beach. Fun Fact: It’s 6.3 miles. No matter, it’s beautiful, and when 5 ships are in port, very crowded.

The taxi, which is really a very crowded, air-conditioned van, was $4.00pp. A fair deal. We were dropped off at Calico Jack’s Bar & Grill, which had a nice stretch of beach, long with food and drinks. For $20, we rented 2 loungers and an umbrella. The sun was shifting in the skies, and I tried to move the umbrella to compensate, when, out of nowhere, the lady who is apparently the Beach Police appeared. She was fairly upset that I dared this offense against humanity, and told me they “had everything the way it was supposed to be!” Which, upon reflection, is jammed up against everybody else, to maximize space and more importantly, revenue. I get it. But, I also paid for some shade. So, after leaving the umbrella in it’s permanent, non-functional position, and creatively rearranging the loungers within the allotted 10cm, and propping myself up on my side like Burt Reynolds’ 1976 Playgirl layout, I was half-covered in shade. This is a lot like work!

The Beach Police lady is also who you go to for the WiFi password. She needed proof that I was a paying customer, 5 minutes after the umbrella incident (Remember me??) Oh, ok. Here’s the password. Ultraviolet enjoyed the WiFi for our 3-hour duration, but I never could get it to work. I believe there were just so many people there, that the bandwidth was toast. Also, the Universe favors UV in many ways that I simply don’t rate. Which is fine. Anyways, it was a lovely beach afternoon, and the swimming was great. We didn’t avail ourselves of Calico Jack’s, as it was just to far to walk back to for a drink and some food.

We piled into another sardine van, and for $4.00pp were back in the thick of things. We went into the little Tortuga Rumcake building for some “free samples”. This was a large Tupperware lid full of crumbs, that every unwashed hand from 5 Cruise Ships had been in. Ummm….no. PRO-TIP: You can buy the EXACT same Rumcakes at Miami International Airport. They’re the nicest rum-free poundcakes you’ll ever taste. Really. Also, the place was shoulder to shoulder packed. Ugh.

So, we did some more walking around sight-seeing, got a few shirts at the Harley-Davidson apparel store, and had a delish lunch at the Hard Rock Café. The HD Apparel store was one of the biggest, nicest ones we’ve been to. Large selection, frigid A/C, and nice staff. Fair prices, too, which I cannot say about our next port. So, yeah, we had lunch at the Hard Rock. We got there at just the right time, as we walked in and were seated right away during a busy lunch rush. When we left, the line of people waiting for tables was down the stairs and nearly out the door (The restaurant is upstairs). I had a Jerk Chicken sandwich and UltraViolet had a Mahi-Mahi sandwhich. We both agreed that it was a really, really good lunch. Yes, we were hungry, so maybe that factored into it. However, we’ve visited Hard Rock Cafes around the world, and this was the best, least-greasy meal we’ve ever had. I think it was a combination of hunger, air-conditioning, and good food, but yeah, 2 thumbs up!

GSC was awesome! A really, really nice, relaxing beach day. Make sure to rent a clamshell!