Mrs. H. Takes Miami

Every year the cold Philly winters leave us sick and depressed so we always wish for a trip to somewhere warm. This year I made the trip happen by booking Andrew a surprise trip to Miami for his birthday. I used points to book us three nights at the W South Beach,  booked Andrew's flight from Philly with points and I was able flex from Charlotte. Gotta love the perks of consulting! We got in around 9:00pm on Thursday night and, for simplicity's sake, went to the hotel restaurant, The Dutch.

The food was expensive but amazing, so we decided to call it a night. We were upgraded to a 1200 sq ft ocean view suite that was absolutely wonderful so it was easy to settle in for the night in the beautiful mini apartment.

Bedroom with a view

We woke up early Friday morning feeling well rested and ready to explore Miami. Several of my friends recommended breakfast at the Big Pink so we decided to walk the two miles down Collins Ave to get ourselves familiar with the area. 

Beautiful morning at the W pool!

The news was abuzz with Justin Bieber rumors and his very bad decision to drunkenly drag race cars through the Miami streets on Wednesday night. As we were walking we came across a big group of paparazzi and news crews, which we of course stopped to talk to. 

Bummer, Justin.

It turned out that Justin had rented out the entire hotel so the crews were waiting for him to emerge. We hung out for a bit but decided we were too hungry for the nonsense and continued on our way. I was more bummed that we didn't see my girls, the Kardashians, when we stopped at Dash.

Cute little store

 The Big Pink was definitely worth the walk. The menu was huge and the prices were super reasonable. Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day so I was super excited.

We grabbed a table in the sun and I ordered a cup of coffee which was served in a huge mug (also one of my favorite things). We had a delicious egg breakfast for $25, another Miami recommendation.

After breakfast we headed to Lincoln Road to do a little shopping. It was colder (and by cold I mean "only" 70) than we expected so I had to buy a little blazer to wear over the very little dress I was planning to wear that night. I also bought this amazing neon Miami Beach sweatshirt, which I ended up wearing all weekend.

Working it.

We were both pleasantly surprised at how nice everyone was to us. We stopped in Tesla and ended up talking to the sales guy, who told us about the best clubs to go to in Miami. We like to have fun but some of these clubs sounded insane! One club, Space, got started around 5am and you could party all day if you really wanted to! Maybe next time, Miami! We ended the day on the beach and then the pool, which was just heavenly.

 

I am so thankful for all the recommendations we were given since Miami has so many options. Friday night we were told to head to Doraku for sushi after drinks at Juvia. The rooftop bar at Juvia was fantastic, I would definitely recommend going.

Little model.

We were sitting at the bar grabbing a drink at Juvia when a group of guys in their mid-forties sat next to us and ordered shots. We started talking to them and quickly found out they were great guys in town for their annual boys' trip. The one guy's dad played in the Super Bowl and he let us wear his Super Bowl ring. They invited us to eat dinner with them, paying for our whole night.

After dinner they invited us to head to Story with them, where they had a $3000 table and bottle service for the night. It was insane. I called it a night around 2:30 when I had to drag Andrew off the dance floor.

It was a crazy evening.

The next day was painful. We met the guys (who were also staying at our hotel) for a ridiculously expensive breakfast by the pool. If we were in better shape, I would have never spent that kind of money of breakfast, but c'est la vie.

Morning by the pool

It was a very lazy day on the beach, only making a trip to Sbarro for some recovery pizza. We were moving slow. The guys then texted us around 3pm for margaritas by the pool, so we joined them for some very epic people watching. 

Cheap lunch to make up for the crazy breakfast

After grabbing drinks at the W bar, we headed upstairs only to fall asleep around 7pm. Poor Andrew got food poisoning and was in the bathroom all night, which I slept through and didn't come out of my coma until around 8am. Sunday was a beautiful morning and we felt great from our early night in bed, so we headed to the beach for our final few hours of sunshine.

Laying on the beach

All in all, it was a great trip! I have been having a really hard time with work and growing up in general, so it was a much needed trip. We will definitely make a trip back, as we only did a fraction of what we were recommended to do. 

Back to the cold weather :(

Bye bye Miami