Miami Trip

In honor of never-ending winter (we're supposed to get another 2-4 inches of snow in a couple of days, this on top of the 5-ish that was dumped on us Sunday, that fell on the several inches still lingering from the previous weekend, ugghh... come on, spring!) let's talk about our Miami trip so I can simultaneously reminisce and torture myself.

In July, Mark and I went to South Beach in Miami and it was Everything.  Amazing and incredible and wonderful and all sorts of perfection.

We were there July 2-6 and it was the second trip I've had to take on an airplane.  (My first brush with air travel was in 2008 for our honeymoon in the Dominican Republic.  Spoiler alert: I don't love flying.)

It wasn't so bad though.  Trap me on a vessel hurtling through the air with no kids, a book, and a little complimentary packet of pretzels to go with my bottled water and I'm not going to complain too much.

We arrived in Miami in the early evening and cabbed it from the airport (I don't like cabs either.  Hey, I'm from Ohio.  I'm pretty much only comfortable with riding in a car as far as transportation goes.) and made it to our amazing hotel.

We were located right on the beach and had a cute little suite, which wasn't all that much smaller than our house, and it seemed a generous size since it was just us.  It had a kitchen, living room, dining area, bathroom, bedroom, and a balcony overlooking the courtyard/pool area, with views of the ocean as well.

The beach was incredible.  Our hotel had it's own private beach with lounge chairs and umbrellas and drink/food service.  Pretty much my idea of Heaven.  The sand was white and the water was clear and it literally felt like swimming in bathwater.  I've never spent more time actually swimming in the ocean.  It was amazing!  

We spent the entire vacation just relaxing, eating great food, relaxing, hanging out at the beach, and relaxing.  Perfection.  

Our hotel had these strawberry mojito cocktails that were served with a splash of pink champagne (see bottom left).  Uhm, amazing. 

Everything was walkable, which was awesome.  It's such a melting pot down there so there are tons of great restaurants of every type of cuisine from hole in the wall restaurants with the best cubanos to upscale dining.  There's nightlife like I've never seen, shopping, drinks as big as your head and the beach.  Did I mention how amazing the beach is?  Because it's amazing.  

See that top left picture?  That's my Heaven.  That picture was taken on my birthday and it was was the best gift ever!

Notice in the top left picture, we both got some sun.  The sun down there is NO JOKE. I'm the kind of person who pretty much doesn't have to wear sunscreen ever and even I got a little pink while wearing sunscreen. Mark got straight up burnt while wearing sunscreen, sitting under an umbrella, with a t-shirt on.  Crazy!  Yes, we did a puzzle on vacation.  I love puzzles!  And yes, I watched fireworks on my birthday, on the beach, with my feet in the ocean.  Doesn't get better than that!

*Sigh*  Such a great trip.  It was so perfect, some days it just seems like it was a super nice dream.  But it happened and I'm so grateful we got to have such a wonderful experience.  Definitely the best vacation I've ever been on and I would love to go back!  Since that's not happening I will just keep looking at my pictures and hoping that spring arrives in Ohio soon.  I neeeeeed sun!