Weekend In Miami

Our cruise docked in Miami on Friday morning and we spent two days in Miami. We stayed at the The Clinton South Beach. It's a cute boutique hotel two blocks from the beach. The front desk staff was great and very accomodating. Check in wasn't until 3 and when we arrived around noon they held our bags for us and we took a walk around the neighborhood. Our hotel was next door to the Dash store (as in kardashian) so we went in. I was hoping to be somewhat impressed. Not even a little bit. They had security at the door to let you in and the door was locked behind you. The cheapest thing in the store was their book. I wasn't impressed with the small selection but I'm not a fashionista so what do I know? We did quite a bit of window shopping on Ocean Drive. And then when it started raining we headed back to the hotel. Thankfully the room was ready. I don't have much to say about the room. It was nice enough I suppose but we won't be staying there again. South beach is old and this building is no exception. While you can tell they've done some renovations you can also tell they did them poorly. Honestly it would be best to tear it down and rebuild it. It was shoddy construction to begin with and the renovations didn't do it any favors. Enough about that. It was just barely good enough to sleep in. Which is all we really needed it for anyways. After we got checked in we went to Yardbird Southern Table and I highly recommend checking it out. It was a 1.3 or so mile walk from our hotel. It was also a fairly warm day... So by the time we got to the place we were hot and hungry! The decor was great. Lots of chalkboard paint art all over! On the backs of booths and walls. And this one was my fav! In case you can't read it - "God gave the angels wings , he gave us bacon"!

Southern food meant to be served family style. I had some of the most delicious fried chicken I've ever had and some yummy Mac n Cheese - Torchio pasta, 5 artisanal cheeses,

crispy herb crust and Hubby had the Smoked Brisket Sandwhich - Our signature pickles, house-made ketchup melted swiss cheese, grilled country bread. Huge portions! So we shared the Mac as our side. It was on husband's places to eat list and it was great. After that we walked a few blocks over to Lincoln Road Mall - Unique, upscale shopping and lots places to eat. There was this amazing bookstore - Taschen They had an original playboy magazine - would you believe I've never seen one before? And TONS of books. I could have very easily stayed there all day. But that was one of our first stops and there was so much to see. We stopped by Dylans Candy Bar. I was very proud of us, we didn't buy anything! We stopped in a few more places. Just window shopping. We really didn't have the space to pack anything else anyways. So we walked the entire place and then headed back to our hotel. We probably walked a good 4-5 miles that day and then did it all again and then some on Saturday. Saturday we had brunch on Ocean Drive. That is clearly a very touristy thing to do. If you haven't been to south beach before - walking up and down Ocean Drive is something else... Every restaurant has outdoor seating and the hostesses stand outside and you are bombarded at each one with promises of good food at good prices. Breakfast was decent. We ate at the Deco Grill. Outside on the deck but there were tables on the sidewalk if you really wanted to be a couple of steps closer to the ocean. 

About to enjoy some breakfast. Whole wheat waffles, eggs, bacon and wheat toast. Delicious! Wish I had taken a pic of it, excellent presentation. They also served complimentary Mimosas - decent but for some reason they use Oj with pulp. Not my favorite but it did taste fresh squeezed. 

In front of a hotel on Ocean Drive - You can almost see the ocean in this pic.

And there's the driver!

We also saw a TON of very expensive cars riding around. Husband must have pointed out a dozen or so - he was in luxury car heaven. 

After breakfast we strolled down Ocean Drive and then headed back up to Lincoln Mall in search of The Frieze Ice Cream Factory. This place had amazing reviews and we happen to love ice cream so we stopped in. The ice cream was pretty good. The champagne sorbet was amazing! Another place to check out when you visit. While we were looking for the ice cream shop, we passed by the duck tour vehicle. When went back to the hotel, we called to see about taking a tour later that day. We made reservations on the 5 o'clock tour and after grabbing a HUGE slice of pizza at one of the many pizza shops, we walked back up to Lincoln Mall to board. It was pretty cool. Learned some Miami history. I don't remember as much as I'd like - I remember seeing lots of celebrity homes, anchoring your boat in the marina we entered the water at is free and apparently people from other states do just that during the summer months. And the reason Miami is stuck in the Art Deco era of design is because years ago a law was passed that any new buildings commercial or otherwise had to adhere to the Art Deco standards. Which is why it looks EXACTLY as it does in the Scarface movie and other movies set in Miami Beach during that time. Anyhoo they do duck tours in various cities. If there is one near you, you should check it out. Very touristy but fun and you'll probably learn some new things. 

Duck tours South Beach - also learned that south beach is just the nick name. The city is actually just Miami Beach. After the duck tour we made one final stop at the Ice cream place - I mean where else can you get a champagne sorbet? It was so refreshing and perfect for our walk to the hotel! It was also a great way to end our vacation. We had a 7am flight Sunday Morning. We had arranged for shuttle transportation - they picked us up at 330 - we the 2nd of 4 stops. And we were at the airport by 5am... Talk about exhausted. Oh and hungry. None of the airport restaurants were open that early so on the way home we stopped at Golden Corral for brunch. It was great. And then we came home to rest. We had an awesome vacation. And it only took me a few days to feel as though I had recovered from my vacation! And I gotta say, I really missed the kid so it was nice to get back to work!