Miles of walking over many hours across Downtown Miami on quiet streets and days December 24-25 let my mind drift and wander through images of color, shape and texture. A solitary bird by nature, my photos and words help me cement images and memories of places I  have been and sights I have seen.

Here are some of my visions of Downtown Miami over the holidays. Apparently the arrival of black vultures from around the southeast signals the winter season for Miami. I saw hundreds of the large winged birds soaring around the skyscrapers in Downtown Miami. Watch out for your rental car if you leave it alone with the vultures in the Everglades.

Metromover is just like Disneyland, except no admission fee, more stops and free wifi.

The Flying Trapeze School in Bayfront Park.

The Spindle (1981) – artist Henry Moore (1898-1986) Made of travertine marble and 18 ft. tall. The piece was installed by helicopter and the InterContinental Miami lobby was constructed around the art work. This is the largest Henry Moore sculpture in private ownership.

Architectural patterns.

Beam me up, Scotty.

Lobby in Epic Hotel, a Kimpton Hotel

Crossing the Brickell Bridge over Miami River.

Conrad Miami Hotel and Residences

Hyatt Regency Miami

The Pelican briefly resting over the Miami River outside the Hyatt.

Architectural survivors.

Freedom Tower was originally a 1925 newspaper office for Miami News that folded in the 1950s. The building was used by the U.S. Government to process Cuban immigrants in the 1960s.  The building abandoned in the 1970s was derelict, vandalized and occupied by vagrants. In 1997 the building was purchased by a Cuban-American, restored, and now houses a Cuban-American Museum and archives. 

Freedom Tower, Miami

“The man with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still.” – Beatles

This tree stump truly brightened my day.

Art to live by.

Metromover passes by this house covered in art. The peace symbol seen on the roof from Metromover was a pleasant sight to see yesterday on Christmas Day.

I also heard Happy Xmas (War is Over) [YouTube link to official 2003 video and graphic imagery warning] playing in the elevator of the Conrad Hotel and then saw the 2-hour documentary film LENNONYC on Miami PBS last night.

Art and music smoothed out the rough edginess of spending Christmas day alone in Miami.

Thank You Rate for Hilton Miami Downtown started at $84 for travel over the December-January holiday period. I booked a King Junior Suite Bay View for $119.50 per night. Biscayne Bay View rooms for hotels where I stayed in Downtown Miami made a difference and were definitely worth the extra $10 per night at these rates. Miami without a view of the water is not that pretty a city in my opinion.

Doubletree Grand Hotel Biscayne Bay and Miami Marriott Biscayne Bay occupy the bayfront real estate blocking much of the view of Miami Beach from the Hilton. Skyscrapers in front of skyscrapers seems to be the main obstacle to an expansive ocean view in Downtown Miami.

The best part of the corner room view was the relatively unobstructed view of the heart of downtown Miami to the south of the Hilton.

Looking to Bayfront Park and downtown Miami from Hilton.

The Port of Miami is in close proximity to the Hilton Miami Downtown.

Port of Miami.

Hilton Miami Downtown junior suite corner room. The absence of a minibar refrigerator was the main thing lacking in the room. I used the ice machine regularly to keep cold beer and milk in the room.

The couch in the room was positioned with a mirror on the wall reflecting additional water views when looking out the window.

My room was on Floor 3, a low floor in the 21 floor hotel, with too much view of the top of the parking garage. The floor numbering system is irrelative in many Miami hotels. Floor 3 was about ten stories up in the air at the Hilton Downtown Miami where the Hotel Lobby is several stories up and requires an elevator ride from the ground floor Motor Lobby.

Hilton Miami Downtown lobby. Internet is free in the lobby or $9.95 per day in the room which usually meant the lobby seating was packed with guests on their computers.

The pool is deep at 8 feet.

The pool is accessed from the lobby which is one of my pet peeves in hotel design. At least this pool location is better than Conrad Miami where accessing the pool from guest rooms requires a walk through the lobby, three elevator rides and crossing the interior driveway of the hotel auto entrance.

Hotel view from pool.

View south from 21st floor. Club Lounge on 16th floor has this same view.

Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts is a theater with Knight Concert Hall seen in the foreground. Mary Poppins Broadway Musical is playing Jan 1-6, 2013.

The white building in the center is the American Airlines Arena where the Miami Heat plays basketball.

City view looking north from Hilton Downtown Miami. Bluish skyscraper at left is Paramount Bay, a Lenny Kravitz project.

Nearly 350 square feet of window glass from the junior suite corner room with floor to ceiling windows made the hotel a great location for viewing Downtown Miami. The sun during the day was intense and I realized on Day 2 of my stay why the room thermostat had been set at a chilling 60 degrees upon my arrival. The room baked without the AC running.

Transportation from the airport to Downtown Miami is as cheap as $2.00 if you take the Metrorail Orange Line (opened July 2012) to Government Center in Downtown Miami and transfer to the free Metromover to ride the Outer Loop Omni train north to the Adrienne Arsht Center stop one block from the Hilton Downtown Miami.

Miami Metromover is a free shuttle service with 20 stations for Downtown Miami locations. Hilton Downtown Miami is second to last stop at the north end called Omni Loop on the Metromover and Conrad Miami is across the street from the southernmost station at Financial District called the Kendall Loop. There are Inner and Outer Loop tracks and you need to transfer at specific stations to change between loops.

SuperShuttle shared ride is another transportation option to and from the airport for about $26 each way including tip for two people.

Publix full-size supermarket is one block north of Hilton.

Ric Garrido, writer and owner of Loyalty Traveler, shares news and views on hotels, hotel loyalty programs and vacation destinations for frequent guests. You can follow Loyalty Traveler on Twitter and Facebook and RSS feed.