Bienvenidos a Miami

With LeBron James greedily, embarrassingly, and hilariously hogging all the attention the media seems all-too-willing to give him, the city of Miami, Florida has been in the spotlight of late.

I have friends who've lived in Miami as well as friends who have visited, and everybody seems to speak glowingly about it.

But I'm not too impressed with everything I've seen and heard. From what I gather, Miami seems to win people over with its fantastic nightlife, a scene in which I could not have less interest.

There just doesn't seem to be much about Miami that's appealing—at least to me.

Warm weather and beaches can be found in a lot of places, so what's the big draw? I hate clubbing and the culture that accompanies a strong nightlife scene. I'm sure there are other things to do in Miami, but I don't know what of these things is appealing enough to warrant a vacation there.

I briefly entertained drawing up a list (since I love them so much) of popular places that I'm not dying to visit. But I quickly realized that Miami's pretty much the only city for which that statement holds true.

An honorable mention goes to Los Angeles, California, though. Yes, technically I've been there before, but I haven't spent much time in the city itself, much less to do touristy things. I've seen the Hollywood sign and I've been to Universal Studios, and that's about it. And I'm not losing sleep over not having done more. The city of Los Angeles itself doesn't have a whole lot to offer, other than atrocious rush hour traffic and an annoying airport. And the awesome Venice Beach. I guess there's the Walk of Fame and other things of that nature, but I'm not particularly interested.

It's the surrounding areas that host some of the more appealing attractions: Anaheim (Disneyland) and Santa Monica (the Pier), for example.

I will say, however, that I'd love to see a Lakers game at the Staples Center and that I really want to visit Griffith Observatory.

Miami can kindly remove itself from the list of places I want to visit, though.

Although I do concede that seeing the Super Bowl there in February would have been fun.

Also, yes, the title of this post is from the Will Smith song. I unashamedly adore the nineties.