It’s Friday in Miami with cool temperatures now that the wind has died down. Yesterday, was unbearable on the beach like being sandblasted, my sunburn-sensitive skin pelted with granular pellets. We retreated to the deck of our hotel as the palm trees were whipped into a frenzy resembling one of those inflatable advertising figures perched on the roof of a store. I fell asleep early last night, bored after another do-nothing day. There’s even less privacy and space in this hotel room than in our apartment, although the deck is great for morning sun.

I was in search of the Fountainebleau on this morning’s run, a historic hotel where I once stayed with my mother-in-law and son (See Post #151). I can’t remember why I selected it after a business trip to Ft. Lauderdale, but I promised my young son, an avid Dolphins fan, that we would stay in Miami. I dropped the two of them off at a Boca Raton beach while I made my lunch call on the now defunct  Levitz Furniture, and I recall them being soaked by an unexpected afternoon shower once I came back for the rescue. This has been at least thirty years ago when he was a teen, so early 1990s. I must have made a reservation because the famous fountain was under construction along with the beachfront swimming pool, and I remember joking that we must have pulled  into “the Blue Fountain” instead. I did find a ladies watch in a drawer and thought that this was why the room was so pricy. The experience was a total disappointment after feeling like a bigshot advertising executive in anticipation of luxury accommodations on glitzy Miami Beach.

The fact that it was featured in the 1964 James Bond movie Goldfinger must have been one of the lures for booking it. The hotel opened in 1954 on the site of the former Harvey Firestone estate. Al Capone died in 1947, but there were other mob associations with the Fountainebleau and other Miami hotspots. Capone’s estate, built in 1928, is on Palm Island near where we ate at Joe’s Stone Crab the other night. It was one of the few Miami restaurants that would accept his business once he was released from prison. I always find myself drawn to these Mafia connections when I travel and Miami is no exception. The Fountainebleau turned out to be out of running range this morning. I missed it by three blocks, so maybe I’ll try again tomorrow.