Map of Miami
Dan and I had a great time in Miami. We left late Friday night and arrived early Saturday morning. We stayed at a hotel that we Pricelined for $75 that night and the next morning, I found a fun little shopping place where I bought some jewelry and a cute purse (for cheap!). The amazing food we had during the trip started that day with the best salad I think that I have ever had. It was kind of like a shrimp chopped salad with avocado that was so yummy. I can't believe that Dan has finally converted me to loving shrimp!
After lunch, we went to Key Biscayne and enjoyed the beach there after spending a bunch of money at a CVS buying things we forgot--like beach towels, flip-flops for Dan (How do you forget flip-flops when you are going to Miami?), and a swimming suit for Dan (Again, Duh?!?!). When we left the beach, we stopped for dinner at this little roadside place that sold Cuban food. In addition to the fried plantains, shrimp tacos, and delicious Cuban fruit drinks, we also had to buy Dan some sunglasses there (Once more, DUH!!!!).
Here we are at North Miami Beach.
The next day, we went to North Miami Beach. When we got there, we decided we wanted to rent some chairs and an umbrella. One of the lifeguards told us that they were rented from booths at the north and south ends of the beach and since the north end was closer, we headed that way. After hiking, in the sand and hearing Dan's complaints about his sensitive feet (Yes, he has VERY tender feet), we arrived at the north end. As we approached the umbrella rental stand, we could see in the distance that some of the people seemed to be wearing very, very small swimming suits that turned out to be...their birthday suits--we had wandered towards the NUDE beach! Before turning around and heading down to the complete opposite end of the beach, we unfortunately caught site of numerous old, pendulous, and saggy body parts that should never be exposed to the beautiful Florida sun! We were REALLY tired and sweaty by the time we got to the other end (we probably walked 2 miles in the hot sand carrying all of our beach gear), but once we had settled into our chairs and sat for a few minutes under the umbrella, we quickly forgot about our trek and had a great afternoon swimming and relaxing in the sun. That night, we went to a fun Cuban restaurant by our hotel that had delicious ceviche and grilled shrimp.
Tanning my (clothed) backside at North Miami Beach.
The next day, Dan had meetings in downtown Miami. He went to this really high end Medispa located in the Four Seasons Hotel. He said that it was very fancy and everything was beautiful--especially the receptionists and nurses! It was a little intimidating at first, but they were all really nice and he enjoyed meeting them all. I went to the Bayside Market and had fun looking around and shopping. The time passed quickly and I made Dan late to his next meeting because I got on the MetroMover thinking that it would quickly take me back. It took me 15 minutes to realize that we were going in circles (Duh to me this time!). I finally found him and everything turned out OK. His next meeting was at this new, beautiful hospital (they told Dan that they had just closed part of the hospital the week before for the filming of a movie with Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson) and everybody was really nice there as well. While Dan was at the hospital, I enjoyed chilling by the hotel pool.
Don't you love the '80s collar?
That night, on the recommendation of one of the doctors we met, we went to Fort Lauderdale to this restaurant (15th Street Fisheries) that was really good. It was fun to sit next to the water, eat delicious food, and watch all the ships coming and going as dusk fell.
15th Street Fisheries. Don't we look like we're having fun?
Our last day there was probably the funnest. I went with Dan to the University hospital for his last meeting and, after being bored to death for 2 hours (there is nothing to do around the University of Miami hospital in case you ever wonder!), we decided to go down to South Beach just to check it out. It was AMAZING! We found metered parking right near the beach, stocked up on food and water, and walked over to the beach. When we got there, we rented an umbrella and chairs from this posh club. The water was amazingly clear and we could even see fish swimming around in the water with us. It actually kind of scared me to see the little school of fish swimming by me. We found that our guidebook was correct about South Beach--women really do walk around "casually topless". I kept thinking how I was really glad our kids weren't there to see that!
View from my chair.
Dan had two companions during the trip. His amazing wife and..."Home Study Course." This book came with him everywhere, but I'm not sure how much reading he actually got done!
Dan's other companion.
It was a great trip and we had lots of fun. It was so amazing, relaxing, and fun break. We didn't have to worry about the kids at all because we knew they were in good hands. Thank you Grandma and Lindsay for making it possible!
Do I HAVE to go home?
Click here to see all the pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/janieward1313/Miami2008
Pre-recital pics
This is a view of the mountains between LA and Fresno, I heard they call this "the vineyard". It was beautiful and this picture does not give it justice because I took it while going 75 through a car window. Oh, don't worry I wasn't driving and taking pictures. Dan was driving see picture below of Dan--driving. Try not to be too jealous of the TWO (yeah, we only took two!) really great pictures that we took while in California. 
At least we were both in the picture--look into his glasses and you can see a little miniature me taking the picture of him.
Jake's Mother's Day artwork--I love it.
Jake made me such nice things for Mother's Day. Grandma said he spent hours coloring this tiger picture--what a cutie.
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