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Best Beach

North Shore State Recreation Area

The tall, menacing black fence stretches a long eight blocks, protecting one of this area's loveliest and best-maintained stretches of beach. At the 85th Street entrance, pay a dollar entry fee (this is a state park after all), traipse through the gate, and behold the leafy sea-grape trees, which provide refreshing shelter from the sweltering South Florida sun. Walk a few feet up the path and fire up one of the many barbecue grills. Continue a few more feet and devour your carcinogenic grub under a roofed picnic pavilion. If you refuse to walk, then run. Take a brisk jog on the Vita course. After you've cooked, eaten, or perspired, hop on the creaky boardwalk and follow the crashing sound of the waves to the inviting ocean. Behold the clean white beach, the refreshing sea, and a minimum of preening naked people.

Best Place To Rollerblade

FIU University Park Campus

Most Florida International University students leave campus from Friday to Sunday, which makes the place perfect for strapping on a pair of blades. Concrete was king back in the late Sixties and early Seventies when FIU was built, so there are long walkways and spacious courtyards that provide plenty of room to gain momentum. Marathoners can circle the sprawling property, which covers twenty city blocks. It's not as trendy as the Beach, but parking is easy, space is abundant, and there is no gawking audience to witness your spectacular tumbles.

Best Surf Spot

First Street Beach

Surfing in Miami? Yes, occasionally we are blessed with a rideable swell here in the land of flat seas. While our Californian, Hawaiian, and Australian counterparts search for that ever-elusive perfect wave, we spend our winters hoping and praying for a set, any rideable set. Please God, let there be a cold front! Let there be a hurricane! Let there be any sort of natural phenomenon that brings us waves! It doesn't matter how disastrous to the city, state, or continent, please! When Miami surfers' prayers are answered, the beach at First Street by Penrod's is the place to go. A few days out of the year a clean, crisp five-to-seven-foot swell that rivals a good day at San Diego's Pacific Beach pier hits First Street. Although waves occasionally break off the jetty by Harbor House on 97th and Collins, they are usually smaller and sloppier. If you are a die-hard surfer with transportation and an open schedule, head north to the Delray pier, Spanish River Beach in Boca Raton, or the Lake Worth pier. Or make a weekend trip up to Sebastian Inlet, Florida's most notorious surf spot and home to several world-class pros, including ex-Baywatch heartthrob Kelly Slater.

Best Place to Jog

Parrot Jungle to Key Biscayne

Canter. Jog. Trot. Okay, ready to really run? This is the path of South Florida marathoners: from Parrot Jungle north along Red Road to the footbridge, then east to Old Cutler Road, north a few miles (yes, a few miles) to Cartagena Plaza, then east almost to the water, north through Coconut Grove. Take a deep breath and follow Bayshore Drive to the Rickenbacker Causeway. The route is refreshingly scenic, backdropped by some of South Florida's most regal architecture and splendid flora, including air-cleansing and gorgeous banyans, ficus, and royal poinciana. The course is competitive, but there are enough drinking fountains to keep everybody hydrated. The best time to go: early Saturday morning, when the kind souls at FootWorks prepare icy coolers of water just northeast of Cocoplum.

Best Place To Jet Ski

The mouth of Government Cut

Forget about chasing manatees. Skip drenching sunbathers with a watery rooster tail from the rear of your personal watercraft. And don't even think of awakening Star Island residents with that wonderful buzzing sound. All that is kid stuff. You need to take Jet Skiing to a higher level. Get out there at the mouth of Government Cut and boogie with the big boys: the cruise ships, tugboats, and speedy outboards. In 1905, when dredgers carved out the shipping lane that today parallels the MacArthur Causeway, they had no idea they had created a formidable Jet Skiing arena. But these days things have taken a turn for the fast. There's always a lot of challenging chop where the cut meets the sea (cruise ships make relatively small, though jumpable, waves). And there's a steady supply of adoring fans on the ocean liners and fishing piers. Half the fun of Jet Skiing is showing off, right?

Best Island Hike

Elliott Key

Before tree huggers and other nature lovers quashed plans for an overseas highway down the center of Elliott Key in the late Sixties, developers bulldozed a six-lane-wide opening. When the dust settled, the key emerged as part of Biscayne National Monument, which Congress reclassified as a national park in 1980. In the years since, managers of this offshore Eden have allowed the foliage to reclaim all but one unpaved lane, which now forms a seven-mile trail. There's also a one-mile loop that slices through the hammock and turns into a boardwalk with an ocean view. If you take either path between April and June, try to spy an endangered Schaus's swallowtail butterfly along with the usual herons, egrets, warblers, and hawks. Or bring your snorkel and check out the rays, sea grass, and sea cucumbers. The best way to get to Elliot Key, unfortunately, is by private boat. The park service's boat concessionaire will take you roundtrip from the Convoy Point Visitor Center on SW 328th Street and Biscayne Bay for $21 per person, but only if you stay overnight and make reservations well in advance. Park authorities recommend avoiding the island during the summer because of mosquitoes and other insects.

Best Place To Ditch The Kids While You Lunch On Lincoln Road

Scott Rakow Youth Center

There isn't much on South Beach to interest eight-year-olds. Nor is there anything constructive for your teenager to do. What to do then with the young ones when you're hankering for adults-only strolling, shopping, or lunching? The answer lies at the Scott Rakow center. It is a virtual summer camp where, for only three dollars on weekdays or six dollars on weekends (half price for Beach residents), fourth- to twelfth-graders can frolic. Among the diversions: ice-skating, swimming, bowling, basketball, and Ping-Pong. Qualified counselors provide supervision. On Sunday children of any age (including those over eighteen) can enjoy the activities. Hours are weekdays from 2:30 till 7:30 p.m.; Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. till 7:00 p.m., and Sundays from 11:00 a.m. till 7:00 p.m. A warning: Convincing the kids to leave may be difficult.

Best Place To Play Shuffleboard

Aboard a cruise ship

There's something to be said for regression. When (and if) a person reaches a certain age, he or she likely begins re-enacting youthful behaviors: hanging out with the gang, playing some game or another, or killing time before time kills them. Shuffleboard, the civil sport of the retirement set, perfectly suits this enterprise, reinvigorating the mind, body, and soul. All of which is fine for the geezers of Broward, where disk-shoving can still be found on land (there's a tournament in Hollywood and courts at dozens of condos). But in all of South Florida, there is only one court maker and only one retailer of cues. Susie Day of Hollywood's Beach-O-Rama, the equipment seller, sums it up: "It's a small, little market." With the graying of America, it's about time to resurrect the dying pastime outside the world of Fort Lauderdale fogies. The best bet, if you're not just being childish and really want to get into a game of skill, fun, and patience that isn't golf, is a cruise. Most major cruise ships have shuffleboard courts where you can soak up the sun and breathe sea air while showing your stroke to a broad demographic cross section. Travel agents recommend Carnival, which has thirteen ships, all with shuffleboard. Most other major liners also feature courts. (Beware day trips like Discovery; most do not offer the venerable game.) There's one catch, though. It ain't cheap. The most affordable rate on a three-day Carnival trip runs upward of $400 per person.

Best Waterfront Park

Sewell Park

Nestled along the banks of the Miami River, this remote, ten- acre park is eerily enticing. Strange artifacts leave you wondering what the designers had in mind. Concrete steps that seemingly belonged to the front porch of a house now lead to nothing; multicolor pillars stand erect on a slab of concrete; a sidewalk begins and ends in the middle of nowhere. Only the gently flowing river, the beautiful hammock, and the coconut palm clusters make sense. This is a wonderful place to sip iced tea and lounge on a hot summer afternoon.

Best Place For A Flying Leap Into The Gulf Stream

Fowey Rocks

Miami mayhem got you feeling like a wreck? Then why not take a flying leap? We've got just the place: Fowey Rocks, about six miles southeast of the southern tip of Key Biscayne on the Gulf Stream's edge. A lighthouse atop a 110-foot iron frame tower, built by U.S. soldiers in 1878, helps cargo ship captains avoid the shallow spot. Unfortunately the beacon wasn't around when the British battleship H.M.S. Fowey scraped bottom there in 1748 and sank just to the south. But if you can find a pleasure boat or a willing sailor, head straight for the submerged rocks; it's easy to drop anchor there. Once you arrive you'll find a twenty-foot-tall platform, which once served as an access dock for the lighthouse keeper. Dive in, drift over to the metal ladder attached to the platform, and climb up. At the summit you can put your family, your job, and your world into perspective. You think your life is hectic? Gaze eastward over the water and contemplate the Mexican sailors whose tanker was torpedoed by a German U-boat near here during World War II. Then put your worries behind you, leap into the void, and scream as loud as you want on the way down. (Don't worry, the water is deep enough.)

Best Of Miami®

Best Of Miami®

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