J ust in case you ever visit Miami…Or in case you already live in Miami (and if this is true, then we should be friends)…Or in case you really love antiquing and want to plan a trip to come to the most amazing treasure shop you’ll ever step foot in…

I MUST tell you about Stone Age Antiques.

Bobby and I have been in search of vintage crates. We want to stack them next to our bed for nightstands. We were told about this place and thought we’d give it a try before resorting to Ebay.

Well, we didn’t find the perfect crates but we DID find this alligator for $1,200! I think it’s going to give our living room that certain je ne sais quoi…ha. Actually, no. We did find some crates! (And decided to hold off on the gator.)

This is one of the crates we really wanted. It was $50, though, and we needed cheap ones. Old, good, but cheap. So we kept on exploring…

The owner of this place, Gary, has carved out a name for himself in the world of TV and film. He rents a lot of his finds to various movies or commercials that are being shot in the area. Of course, we have exquisite taste and wanted to buy everything that said “rental only”, like these amazing suitcases.

Much of their inventory is nautically themed, so Bobby and I felt right at home, seeing as we fell in love on Semester at Sea.

This was from an old ship. Can you imagine what a good conversation starter that would be if it were just plopped on your balcony? Gary had an array of these, so you could actually have one in every room. You know, just in case you’re REALLY big into the whole sailing theme.

Someday I want to have an entire set of mismatched, vintage silverware. Seeing as we are living a nomadic lifestyle between Vermont and Florida, now is not the time to amass said silverware collection. But when we are more settled, I’ll obviously know where to come.

Is this not the BEST gallery wall you have ever seen?!? Marilyn Monroe next to a huge lobster. It’s perfect in every way.

Here’s a photo of Gary in his natural habitat. He was GREAT. When we first pulled up and started to look around his outside area we told him how much we loved it. “How do you even know?” he asked dismissively. “You haven’t even seen the place yet.” Gary isn’t easily flattered. You have to earn his affection.

He thought we were CRAZY for wanting to buy some of the crates from outside (those were the only ones we could afford, since we might be getting rid of them after our 6 month stint here…). We asked him for the price on some of the crates outside – that were practically falling apart, mind you – and he was like, “you don’t want these! The bottom is going to fall out any minute!”

After insisting long enough that we actually did indeed want them, he told us they’d be $10 a piece. Good enough.

(If you look closely, you’ll see that a couple of them say Burlington, VT on them. So good! Maybe we’ll try to collect a crate from every state we’ve lived in…)

I guess Gary liked the crazy in us, because after we dug out these crates he completely warmed up to us. Told us lessons he learned from his dad about the psychology of smell and selling things, showed us a black and white photo of his dad next to a full-grown lion that was licking his face (“I love that picture because you can tell my dad is second guessing his decision of getting in the cage with that tiger. But he was a tough guy. Had to be. You know the lesson there? If you’re going to be dumb, you’d better be tough.”)

We had an amazing time talking with him. I’ve officially decided that I am bringing all visitors to visit Gary at Stone Age Antiques. It’s going to be a staple to the Grace Tour of Miami.

Goodbye, Stone Age! We’ll be back!