Northwest 2nd St, West Flagler

N.W. 2nd Street in Miami is a ten minute walk from Little Havana and a street that I rode down almost daily on my bike to get to the local convenience store to stockpile up on candy and pop during the summer months when I was growing up. The street has a family oriented casual Latin Style atmosphere quality, and a lot of the same families that I knew in the area growing up still reside in their original family homes, including my own parents just a few streets down. The street is also the (former) home of Elian Gonzales (2319 NW 2nd Street). The house is no longer occupied by the Gonzalez family, but the area in front of the house and along its fence is an evolving and improvised shrine to the young Cuban boy. Along the way you can't help but notice a towering, inflated bright yellow sculpture at Happy Face Auto Sales at NW 22nd Ave.