Palm Beach, bringin’ the heat

If you have a very long memory, or are related to me, you might recall that the last time I visited Palm Beach, it was a bit of a washout. Literally I mean. It poured the whole time we we were there, Worth Avenue was being dug up for some reason, and I looked like this:

It’s OK, you can say it: I look like I’m not wearing any pants, and wow, is that one giant head right there! Well, I WAS wearing pants, thankfully, and the head was (mostly) due to the fact that I left my hat on, rather than getting IT soaked too, but, you know, I’d just spent an hour on a boat in torrential rain: I really didn’t care.

“One day we’ll come back when it’s sunny!” we said. “And when I’m better dressed!” I though, but didn’t say, because honestly, no one listens to me, anyway. That day came a couple of weeks ago: as you can see, the weather was much kinder to us this time around, and there was definitely no need for waterproofs, which is something, at least.

These photos were taken on Worth Avenue, which is sometimes described as the Rodeo Drive of Florida. I actually think it’s prettier than Rodeo, although it’s not hard to see how the comparison came about, because it’s chock full of the kind of stores you’re scared to go into in case they call the police and have you thrown out for not wearing a Rolex or something.

(Seriously, even the DOGS on Worth Avenue were wearing designer outfits, and I’m not even joking. Palm Beach, and South Florida in general, is full of little dogs, and, yes, many of them are CLOTHED. We found Miami an unfriendly city in general (Even compared to other unfriendly cities…), but damn, those people love their pets. They’ll literally push you out of the way so they can cut in line in front of you, but if you stop to pet someone’s dog (And obviously I DID do that…), they’re charm itself, and will happily give you the dog’s life story, plus a list of all its allergies. One time we met a dog called Sheila Galloway. True story.)

The dogs are also allowed inside stores there. I’m not sure whether it’s technically allowed (Over here, dogs aren’t even allowed to LOOK at stores, let alone step inside one…) , or whether the people with the dogs are just so rich that no one’s going to tell them to get their dog out of the Chanel display, but we noticed it in Miami too, which tickled me. I mean, cute animals AND shopping: what’s not to love?

Dogs in department stores is one thing, though, but puppies in pet stores is quite another, and it was really distressing to see tiny puppies in cages in the windows of stores over there. Again, that kind of thing isn’t allowed in the UK, but in Miami we passed quite a few stores that had puppies in the windows: it got to the point where Terry would cross the street to get me away from them, because he knew there would be tears, and yup, he was right. Seriously, if that was legal over here, I’d have a house full of animals by now, because it was almost impossible to walk away from them, especially when they caught sight of you and started pawing at the window to try to get to you.

(Disclaimer for people who are about to jump on me for that statement: Yes, I know that’s exactly what the pet stores are banking on, and that buying one would just encourage them and perpetuate the cycle, so no, I wouldn’t REALLY buy a puppy from a pet store, but GOD, I really wanted to. I just want to hug ALL the dogs.)

Well, THIS post has taken a turn for the depressing, hasn’t it? I should just’ve stopped at the “SOME DOGS WEAR CLOTHES” bit: that would’ve been a much better story. The downward spiral has already been established, however, and there ain’t no stoppin’ it now, so here is a photo of me kissing the Neiman Marcus sign:

Oh, don’t look at me like that: if you’d seen the shoe sale they had on, you’d have kissed it too…