TODAY – the 01ST of December – is my 21ST anniversary of living aqui en el Sur de Florida. I arrived at Homestead Air Force Base during the wee early-morning hours of the 01ST of December in 1987. Aside from the 19 months immediately following the destruction of the Homestead area by Hurricane Andrew I’ve been here ever since. This is my home. This is where I belong. These are my TOP 5 favourite shopping malls of all-time here in South Florida:
5. Cutler Ridge Mall / Southland Mall
It’s much nicer (and safer) today than it’s ever been. It’s officially the first shopping mall I ever visited here in South Florida back in December 1987. I had been going there a few times a year over the past 14 years or so. I’ll be visiting more often since they have a nice movie theatre there now.
4. Miami International Mall
Before the Dolphin Mall ever existed this was the shopping mall to visit on my way to the airport, the Flagler Dog Track, Miami, or the Beaches. This is your basic standard neighbourhood Simon mall. Sometimes you just need to go back to basics and shop the simple life.
3. Dolphin Mall
If I lived in the neighbourhood then I’m afraid that I’d be there every single day shopping, eating, drinking, and watching movies. This is as close as it gets to Downtown Disney West Side. It’s a good thing that I don’t live in the neighbourhood. There could be trouble.
2. The Falls
A stroll through this luxurious outdoor shopping mall is like a stroll down memory lane for me. This was the cool place to hang out a generation ago. When I was a kid I used to hang out there. Of course for me ‘kid’ means early-20s.
1. The Shops At Sunset Place
I watched this jumpin’ joint get built a decade ago, and once it opened for business in 1999 I planned entire Saturdays around it. If you couldn’t find me in Homestead on any given Saturday from 1999 to 2005 then I was probably hiding out at the Virgin Megastore, the Barnes & Noble, or the AMC-24.
CountUp 