Welcome to Miami

From Palm Beach, we drove to Miami's South Beach. We decided to book a hotel on Ocean Drive - right on the strip - to get the full experience. We got to South Beach around noon and walked around for a bit to get a feel for things. Miami is one of the best places for people watching - it's the place to go to see and be seen. We couldn't believe some of the outfits (some couldn't be called more than fishing nets) and personalities we saw! It was quite entertaining, and after walking up and down Ocean Drive for a while, we sat down to lunch at a restaurant where we could keep observing the sights. To keep this blog PG, no photos of witnessed outfits will be posted.

Lummus Park on Ocean Drive (beach is to the left)

Ocean Drive

If any of you ever go to South Beach, do NOT fall for the "buy one get one free" drink specials. They don't tell you that ONE drink is $19, and of course we didn't fathom one drink costing anywhere near that much. Really, it breaks down to $8 per drink which isn't bad, but the fact that they're throwing "free" at you means you think you're getting a deal. By 2pm, we'd blown the budget for the whole day...

the "BOGO" drinks

 After lunch, we headed over to the beach - right across the street past a little park (Lummus Park). It's a really nice beach, and the water is bright blue and very warm and calm. It was a Friday, so things were lively but not completely overrun like they probably are on spring break or weekend days. We spent the afternoon relaxing and people watching.

After bumming around on the beach, we checked into our hotel and cleaned up for dinner. This time, we were ready for the BOGO drink scam. However, our dinner somehow ended up being the same insane price as our lunch. Do not, under any circumstances, think you can stay on budget in Miami. It drains bank accounts faster than New York City. That being said, it's pretty unique and awesome, and Tom and I definitely want to come back for a longer stay some day.

After dinner, we walked around to see what new people and outfits the evening hours had brought out. There was also a really cool (and FREE!) photography exhibit in Lummus Park, so we spent some time there. After that, we hit a few of the bars and clubs (when in Rome...) and called it a night.

Saturday as we checked out, we were sad not to be heading back to the beach in our swimsuits... we definitely need to come back!

Up next: the Florida Keys - another spot on the "must visit again" list.