A and I took a city break and went to Miami for my birthday during summer. He loves the beaches and I have never been to Miami so we both were pretty excited. We couldn’t concentrate on our work the day before our trip and kept texting each other how long the day felt.
Day 1: We arrived to Florida pretty late so we went to bed right away. Our first day, we just drove around Fort Lauderdale for a bit. It was beautiful morning. I could tell the day was going to be one hot day. I guess that’s normal for Florida. Fortunately we had a car so we could hop in and out for some AC! We eventually drove to Miami.
Our hotel had a partial ocean view. We doubted if we could even get a glimpse of the ocean but we ended up getting not just the ocean view but the marina view as well! It was just perfect!
Miami was crowded. It was apparently Urban Week and there were a lot people on the street. All the restaurants on the sidewalks were full and some even had live music. It was just a fun environment. Police blocked out a portion of Ocean drive so we couldn’t go to far.
House of Gianni Versace
Beautiful water!
We stopped by Havana restaurant for a quick lunch which is on Espanola way. Highly recommended! Good food and good service!
Miami city from a distance
Only in Miami!! Pretty cool though!
Touristy stuff, good food and sun can make you really tired as well. So we headed back to the beach to relax.
We ended the day by going to a club in downtown Ft. Lauderdale. How can you not right when you are in Florida? The best part, we partied with Elmo and Cookie Monster! Here is a blurry phone picture:
Day 2: Key West and Bahia Honda beach
Our initial plan was to get up early and drive to key west and be on the beach by 12 noon. Well that didn’t happen because we were out till late the night before. However we did get out by 10 in the morning which put us 2 hours behind our ETA! Additionally traffic backed up because of multiple car accident on the highway which put the traffic to standstill. It was funny because people started getting out of their cars and walking around because the cars weren’t moving. Luckily we were stuck close to an exit of a park. So instead of waiting in the stand still traffic, we decided to go visit the park just to know that we made the best decision ever! We found ourselves in one of the most beautiful beaches we have ever been to, Bahia Honda Beach! Later we came to know it is voted Key West’s best beach and also voted the best beach in North America in 2004! The water was so calm and clear and so freaking warm! I will just let you look at the picture since words would be inadequate to describe this place.
I thought this was interesting how they have electricity poles in the middle of water body.
And that is how clean the water was!
After that unexpectedly fun stop, we continued our journey to Key West as the traffic had cleared off. Once we reached our destination, we found out Key West was completely different story. It was very pretty. We kept debating if we should just ditch the rest of our trip in Miami and spend time in Key West. We already have plans of visiting here again in future.
Inside Ernest Hemingway’s home
There is something about Key West and Chickens! They are everywhere!!!
There is almost everything southernmost.
Where US 1 meets with US 1
And as the sun set in Key West…
Day 3: We decided to spend our last day at the beach soaking up all the sun while we are in the sunshine state. It was just the perfect day! As the sun started to fade and the water started to be a bit sandy, we decided to call it a day and head back to South beach for dinner and some “touristic” walk.
Day 4: The most funniest and unexpected thing happened on the day we flew back. While we were getting ready to check out from our hotel, the power went out. For a second we laughed at how weird it was until it hit us that now the elevators won’t be working and we have to carry our bags all the way from 13th floor! Thank god we were going down the stairs and not up..phew!
I am pretty surprised at how we could fit in so many things in just 3 days. I guess it is always good to plan and know what you want ahead of time. I enjoyed every moment from this trip and I can wait to make a trip Key West again.
