Believe it or not, for all the years I've been traveling like a maniac for business, this is my first trip to Miami. Every city has something unique about it, and with Miami, there's a certain visual sense. The best word I can think of is "overexposed," in the photographic sense. 

The sun is extremely bright by my Minnesota standards. Even in early fall, I think the sun is higher in the sky here than it ever gets in the Twin Cities (astronomy geeks can tell me if I'm right or not). In addition, the architecture tends towards whites and pastels, and the overall effect is like a photograph which is just a little bit (maybe one stop) overexposed. Colors just aren't saturated, with the only exception being the ocean.

The above photo was taken from my hotel room the night I stayed at the Inter-Continental. In keeping with the visual metaphor, the picture is overexposed by 2/3 of a stop; in addition, the tinted glass of the hotel window washes out the greens of the grass in the park.

Some observations about Miami:

1) Everybody, and I mean everybody speaks Spanish. You can tell the non-natives because they only speak English. In Minneapolis, you're more likely to hear Hmong or Somali than Spanish.

2) It is very hot, and very humid. Even my VP of Marketing, who is always complaining about being too cold, was complaining about the heat. When I took my camera outside, I couldn't use it because the lens had fogged up. Since the hotel room is 72 degrees, that means that the dewpoint outside is above 72.

3) Everybody loves to party. I'm not sure if this is because the city's culture is party-centric, or because people come here to party, but the day doesn't begin until sunset. Which is just as well, since before sunset it is too hot to go outside.

And my biggest disappointment:

I've been here two days so far, and I have yet to see a single cop driving a Ferrari. I guess you can't believe everything you see on TV.