But take that same little camera to Miami Beach in the "magic hour" before sunset, and everyone and everything look fabulous.

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The food is very good, and the staff makes mealtime magic of its own, staging beach barbecues and, if the tide is low at dusk, drinks and dinner on a long, scorpion-tail sandbar way out in Copperfield Bay.

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Add the magic of Hollywood and later the sound of the Beach Boys' pop and cool West Coast jazz: no wonder the world thought California to be especially blessed.

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All of these nationalities have brought some form of South American epicurean excess to the Magic City (and somehow, despite said excess, they all maintain trim, svelte, beach-ready figures).

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