Thursday 7/8

We arrived into MIA around noon.  Our driver was about 20 minutes late picking us up due to traffic on the expressway, but we are on vacation and not going to let anything dampen our spirits.  We arrived at our condo in South Beach around 1 and since we had already been up 7 hours decided we needed to eat.

We walked down the street and found a really packed little cafe named the Tropical Beach Cafe. We figured with all the people, this must be good.  And it was! The food was in pretty large portions, and the bacon cheeseburger I got was bigger than a Whopper. After lunch we went down to the pool for a few hours.  Being the pool is private and required a key fab to enter, there were only a few people there.  The girls fell asleep so Heather and I took the short walk to the beach. The ocean water was almost too warm for me, but mom loved it.

After a day of the beach/pool, we came back and decided on Italian for dinner.  Being that we were worn down, we decided to UberEats from a place called Big Pink.  The food was ok, but my pasta had very little sauce.

After dinner we took an evening walk along the boardwalk towards Fontainebleu hotel and then came back and watched a little tv. We ended up getting wrapped into The Proposal movie. Afterwards I watched a little bit of Game 2 of NBA Finals (Suns vs Bucks) where the Suns took a 2-0 advantage.

Friday 7/9

We got up and had a light breakfast and then walked a few blocks to the Trolley stop.  We decided we were going to get on South Beach Loop A and get the lay of the land.  Several stops into our ride, a clearly drunk man boarded the trolley carrying only a leaking case of beer.  Of course, he sat down next to me and then tried to curl up on the seat and take a nap.  After a few minutes, I could not stand to sit there so I got up and sat in the back of the trolley.  Then the drunk man proceeded to lay down over the whole bench.  This was what set the trolley driver off.  

A yelling match ensued as the driver said the drunk man had to exit the trolley.  It was quite heated and I thought at the end the guy was going to throw a punch at the trolley driver. When the trolley driver stood up in his chair over the guy, it looked like it was on!.  Thankfully after a few more profanities, the man got off the trolley and laid down next to a building and proceeded to pass out.  Gotta love South Beach!

We soon got off the trolley and had some ice cream at the The Frieze Ice Cream Factory.  After our ice cream we walked down the Lincoln Mall Road from end to end.  It is full of a lot of retail shops and some good food places too.  We then took the long walk down the boardwalk back to the condo and then got changed and spent some more time at the beach and pool.  For dinner, we just ordered some Chinese with DoorDash.

Saturday 7/10

We got up and grabbed some breakfast and then headed down the boardwalk to rent some bikes for the morning.  We rode down the boardwalk past Ocean Drive down to South Pointe Park.  South Beach wasn’t very busy, but the drag queen show was going on some 12th and Ocean was packed with people. We arrived into South Pointe Park and went to the South Point Pier and then rode down by the marina.  There were great views of Miami, cruise ship row, and even some of the islands around Miami Beach. 

We then rode the bikes back to the Lincoln Road area and parked the bikes for a later lunch.  I wanted Havana 1957, but the girls wants Lobster Shack. So we all got our way. I picked up a great Cuban sandwich at Havana 1957, and then joined the girls in the outdoor seating area across from the Lobster Shack.

After another long day of shopping and eating on Lincoln Road, we decided to head back to the condo. However, while I was waiting on the girls to get through the fitting room line from hell, I found a unique milkshake place nearby.  So we all decided to go to The Market Milkshake Bar inside the Lincoln Eatery.  The Lincoln Eatery is actually 1 road up from Lincoln Road and it contains a bunch of food and drink places.  There was a nitrogen bar, live DJ, nice couches to relax on and had A/C.  Very cool place.  

So back to the Market Milkshake Bar… you have to check out the photos below.  Heather got a key lime milkshake which had a whole piece of key lime pie on the top. Tessa got a Nutella one which had a small bottle of Nutella on the top, and Tay and I got cookies and cream which had a large ice cream sandwich on top.  Needless to say, we elected to take the long walk back to the condo to drop some of the calories from those awesome milkshakes.

We then headed back to the pool to just relax. Trevor’s flight got delayed a bit, but he ended up arriving around 9p or so.  

Sunday 7/11

We got up and decided to goto brunch at a place Tessa found on Tik Tok.  Apparently it has been being promoted quite a bit there, so we had to check it out.  Great decision.  The place is called Bacon B1tch and it is just off South Beach.  Our family was greeted by the hostess with  “what’s up b1tches”, and our waitress introduced herself as “I’m Janelle and I will be your b1tch this morning”.  Aside from al the “b1tch stuff”, it was just a really cool vibe with outdoor seating.  The music started blaring, our waitress started twirking, and it was on.  They even had a spontanteous “it’s shot time b1tches”, where everyone in the restaurant got a free shot (not Tessa though).  The food was pretty expensive, but I guess you pay for the experience.

After brunch we walked back to the condo and then got changed for the beach/pool.  After a fun day of enjoying Miami’s awesome weather, we went back and got cleaned up for our dinner reservations at Prime 112.  We had planned to sit outside and people watch on Ocean Ave, but as we arrived a big windy rain began so we ended up eating inside.  The food was really good and REALLy expensive.  The Wagyu Steak was $35 oz and a minimum of 3 ounces.  Steaks are normally 8-12 oz so the math is pretty explanatory. 

After dinner, we walked down South Beach and stopped into Mango’s (my favorite spot on South Beach). However, instead of starting the show at 9, they moved it up to 8 and Taylor and Tessa were not 21 so were not able to go in.  We stopped at a few other spots and then walked the boardwalk back to the condo.  We got ready to turn in and RV came on the tv so we watched the rest of it and went to sleep.

Monday 7/12

We took our cruise of Biscayne Bay & Star Island.

Tuesday 7/13

Today it rained most of the day.  We had a lot of fun by hanging out in the pool in the pouring down rain. It was only the 4 of us, as Trevor flew back early this morning.  We took an Uber to the Espanola Way area and had a great dinner at Oh Mexico!

Went back to the condo and watched a new show on Netflix called Good on Paper.  

Wednesday 7/14

Today we hung out at the beach all day.  We then walked back to the Lincoln Mall area and had dinner at the Shake Shack.  We then had dessert at Morelia. Tomorrow we head back home to Cincy!