Recently, Edith and I joined another couple for a wonderful journey to the Miami Boat Show. It’s easy to suffer from “sensory overload” when you see the huge number of boats, boating equipment, people, food vendors and displays present. It’s like a kaleidoscope of colors, smells and sounds. This is the biggest show in North America and it is held in three separate locations. The big powerboats are on display in the water at the Omni Hotel area, the sailboats and sailing equipment are in the water at Bayside and most of the other equipment and smaller boats are at the gigantic Miami Beach Convention Center, which has outside displays as well. For added convenience, the show also provides shuttle busses that run every 12-minutes from one location to another. This is really a 2-3 day show to see everything available, and believe me anything vaguely related to boating is on hand here. Spending the day at the show, your feet easily get tired from all the walking around. Luckily we had great weather, with food and beverages available at all the locations so you get a chance to sit down and catch your breath. Manufactures are there to happily sell their wares and answer questions. Beautiful big, colorful ocean racers with huge blown engines are on display by beautiful ladies in string bikinis. Fishing equipment, electronics and hand-built wood canoes, plus lectures on fishing and vacation resorts and time-shares go on continuously. Geico Insurance had a jet engine powered race boat and spent 3-days taking people for super fast, noisy rides on Biscayne Bay. Our buddies went for a demonstration cruise on a ship with a fancy joystick control system while Edith and I looked at sailboats. In past years the in water displays have been larger and the sailboat gear vendors have be more numerous. The huge one of kind, multi-million dollar vessels weren’t present this time. Perhaps it’s a sign of the times as everyone wanted to make a deal, indicating the industry must be hurting. We had time to introduced our friends to Cuban culture and dined on Cuban food each night. Sunday we had a quick glimpse at the Coconut Grove Art Show. All of us found our NEXT dreamboats…now we only have to win the Lotto, to afford them.