Hi to my amazing readers! I’m back!

We made it home safe and sound from our vacation to Bogotá, Colombia. We had deemed this vacation as an extended part of our wedding anniversary celebration. We had a layover in Miami, so we planned a couple of days in South Beach to enjoy the weather and relax before heading to Bogotá. We had the greatest time while we were away.

I am going to start the recap of our trip and do my best to condense our day and a half stay in Miami into one post today. It might be a dooooozy! You have been forewarned.

Miami Recap: Day One

Wednesday morning we flew out of Minneapolis and began the journey to Miami. Coffees in hand were necessary being we were up at 3 am.

Bienvenido a Miami. We stayed at the beautiful Hilton Bentley right on south beach. We were greeted by the friendly staff as well a complimentary bottle of Prosecco. Our room was gorgeous; complete with white robes, a kitchen, living room, and a stunning beach and city view.

The weather was perfect the entire time we were there; about 80° F and sunny. I was anxious to get out and enjoy the sun and we were both pretty hungry at this point, so we changed into our swimsuits and shorts, heading down to the walking path by the beach, and walked to a restaurant called The Front Porch. I couldn’t help but keep singing Vanilla Ice’s,  Ice Ice Baby lyrics, “the block was dead yo, so I continued to A1A Beachfront Avenue!”

I ordered the chicken satay omelett which was made up of eggs of course, basil, grilled chicken, mozzarella, spinach, and a satay sacue made from peanuts, red curry paste, coconut milk, cilantro, and lime.

It was such an unusual combination that I never would have imagined but it was AMAZING.

The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing and enjoying the sun. We laid by the pool, went in the hot tub, enjoyed our Prosecco, and later headed out to explore more of Miami.

On our way to dinner, we made a pit stop at Kardashian’s DASH Miami to check it out and who knows, maybe run in to one of the girls?! No such luck with the celebrity spotting but it was neat to go inside. I really liked the clothing but it was slightly out of my price range!

We ate dinner at Larios On the Beach along Ocean Drive. The restaurant is owned by Gloria Estefan and has excellent Cuban food. I ordered Ropa Viejo which is shredded beef with onions and peppers in tomato Cuban criolla sauce, served with plantains, and rice and beans.

I am a huge fan of Cuban food. My goodness that dinner was great! While enjoying dinner we also were highly entertained by passerby’s who were dressed up in their Halloween get-up.

After dinner we headed over to Lincoln Road which is an area lined with shops, bars, and restaurants.This is where the action was. People were packed in the streets and sidewalks, and the majority were dressed in costume. It was insane!

I was completely overwhelmed as I walked through this area, trying to weed through the crowd, yet also notice each and every costume and take it all in. The energy was incredible, but I was definitely happy once we were clear of the chaos. I should have packed my costume! What was I thinking? Oh well!

I think we calculated about 7 miles that we had covered on foot for the day. The combination of that and being sleep deprived put me right into a sleep coma as soon as we made it back to the hotel.

Miami Day Two

I did my best to follow a gluten-free diet while away on vacation. I gave in a couple of times but for the most part did a pretty great job. On day 2, we ate breakfast at the hotel and I managed to keep it very GF friendly (that’s gluten-free not girlfriend btw). 😉

Eggs, bacon, sausage (not a fan), fresh fruit, and coffee of course.

After our protein-packed breakfast, we laced up and headed out for a long walk to scope out more of South Beach. We made our way to the beach, and to a long boardwalk. We then curved around and covered foot on more of the “city” area as well.

Absolutely stunning views.

We rented bikes for the afternoon and drove down towards Lincoln Road again to scope out a place to eat lunch. To give you some idea of how well our breakfasts held us over, we ate breakfast at about 9:30, and we didn’t eat lunch/weren’t hungry for lunch until around 4:00 pm. That’s the power of protein! So really we were out on the prowl for late lunch/early dinner….Linner.

I was overwhelmed by the number of dining options, but knew I was in the mood for some veggies. We peaked at the menus and decided on a restaurant called Nexxt. They served just about everything you could ever want.

I must have been in a Thai food mood while in Miami because I ordered the Thai Cilantro Cashew Chicken Salad (the day before I ordered the Thai peanut omelett). But really how can you go wrong with peanut sauce?

I took off the fried tortillas and really went to town on this thing. It was monstrous and I was so glad because I was loving every bite of it. I walked away feeling satisfied. We hopped on our bikes and made our way back to the hotel.

One last trip to the hot tub. I felt like it was our own private hot tub because no one was in there either times we went! VIP baby.

Since we ate a late lunch/early dinner, and neither of us our ones to stay up too late, we decided against going to dinner. We headed out though around 8 pm to walk the city one last time, and to grab some frozen yogurt. Our phones guided us to a frozen yogurt shop about 10 blocks up from our hotel only to lead us to what was now a travel agency of some sort. Thanks a lot. Oh well, at least we had a nice walk.

We headed towards the next location on the map. It was closed. I believe there was a third stop in there. It was open but didn’t look too impressive. Maybe we weren’t meant to get frozen yogurt? Okay, let’s try the very last one on the map. Apparently frozen yogurt isn’t too popular in this area yet. The last attempt led us to a gelato shop called 4D. Hey, they were open, and although it wasn’t frozen yogurt, at this point we were more than ready for a cool treat.

The not-so-friendly gal behind the counter served us up a nice two scoop cup of gelato (caramel swirl and chocolate hazelnut for me), and we walked out of there smiling. Mission accomplished!

Nothing beats Italy’s gelato though I tell ya. Nothing. We headed back to our hotel, packed up our room, and called it an early night. Our flight was taking off early the next morning and we wanted to be well-rested for the next leg of our journey.

I would absolutley recommend visiting South Beach. There is so much to see, it is a great area for people watching (Halloween or not), the weather is unbeatable, and the food is incredible.

We so enjoyed our time in Miami and the Hotel Bentley was wonderfully accommodating. So that’s our Miami vaca in a nutshell. Next up, our trip to Bogota to visit my brother Jeffrey. It may take me more than one post to fill you all in on that portion, but it will be coming soon!

It’s bittersweet to be back. Although I was only gone for 6 days, I missed everyone at home, but now it’s back to reality. Time to make more money to fund our next vacation! 😉

I hope you all are having a great week so far. Happy hump day and happy no more Presidential ad campaigns! Wooooo!