Wow!

That's all I can really say... Wow! Miami was so different than home.

Here is the medium length version of our trip (of course I can never keep things short but I'm trying not to be long winded)

First we have a lay over in Orlando, FL and we sat in the plane on the run way for almost two hours. That delayed us getting down there. I think we finally arrived some time after 6:00 p.m.

We get to the Fort Lauderdale airport and hubs asks, "How are we getting to the hotel?" My response... "I dunno!" I did know, but I didn't know. I knew there was a shuttle that serviced the South Beach area and that it wasn't related to our hotel. I just didn't know how to find it. The hotel website said there was a kiosk by the baggage claim. We're at the baggage claim and no kiosk, so I call the hotel. They tell me that it's outside by the taxi desk. We find the "GO Shuttle" people and arrange for transport to the hotel.

We got in this van with two single ladies (traveling separately) and two older couples traveling together that have a cruise the next day. The company is nice and we talk the whole way. We're trying to ignore the erratic driving of the guy driving. We finally get to the hotel about 8:00 p.m. Friday night.

Our hotel is a cute little boutique hotel... Hotel Clinton. We walk inside and it's very pretty, very, what's the word... contemporary. A lot of the hotels there are older buildings that have been refurbished so that being said, we get in the elevator. It's big enough for three people which I expected since an older building. What I didn't expect was the white walls with the black lights in the ceiling. I'm thinking "we're in a murder movie!" Then, we get off the elevator onto our floor. The hallway is dark with small lights at the floor every few feet. I'm expecting a mobster from the Dick Tracey era to step out with an automatic gun and start spraying bullets every where. I'm laughing to myself.

Next, we get to our room and beside the door is the placard with our room number on it. Not abnormal until you realize there is a silhouette of a naked woman on it! I'm dying even more. We get into our room after fumbling with the electronic key multiple times. The bathroom has glass enclosing a portion of it so you can see from the room into the bathroom and vice versa. We knew this and expected it, but I also expected the toilet to be in a closet-esque room with a real door without see through walls. No such luck. It is in the bathroom visible to the whole room. The only thing separating you and giving you any privacy is a sheer white curtain in the window. There is a nice walk in tiled shower though. Very nice!

The rest of the room is cute and modern. Platform bed with all white bedding and down comforter. Very comfy. There's a window overlooking the pool. A full length mirror on the wall that is laced up at the bottom like a shoe. Regardless, a nice room.

We change and head out to dinner. We're walking around on Ocean Blvd where there is restaurant after restaurant and we're trying to figure out which one to eat at. We finally go by one and like the menu. The fact that they had buy one get one free drinks didn't help our decision! We have a weekend away from the kids so of course we're looking for a few good cocktails. We enjoy a great dinner and are expecting a bill around $60 - $70. A splurge for us. We get the bill and it's $122!!! Imagine my surprise. Evidently his mojitos were $39.95 each. Granted the glass was bigger than normal, but it was not $40 big! My martini which was in a normal glass was $15/each. Luckily for us they were buy one get one. They automatically added in 17% gratuity which is not outrageous so I didn't fuss about this. We paid the bill and left.

We are doing some more walking and he sees a shirt he likes so I tell him to check it out. We are on vacation and are using money we received as wedding presents for this trip, so nothing out of our "pocket" so to speak. He looks at the tag on the shirt and about falls over. $169.00! He asks the sales lady if it was supposed to say $16.90 and is met with a WTF expression. I laugh but look around anyways at the women's stuff. Very cute, but the dress I really liked was almost $400! That's almost both of our car payments each month. We leave that store.

We end up at a cute outside bar/club type of place and order two beers, $13. Oh well, we kind of expect that at this point. Then we sit down at a table and are told by the server that it's a service table so if we need anything else we need to order from her. After a while we order two beers and two shots (it's my birthday and we're walking so why not?), $26. We stick around there for a while watching people make fools of themselves by trying to dance. Always a good past time. We decide to go walking again.

A guy we walk by offers us paper bracelets to get into this club for half price. Me being money oriented is always thrilled for a deal so we check it out. The place is called Bed. Even with half price it is $40 for both of us to get in. Inside they have beds lining the right side of the wall and down the center. I threaten the hubs with bodily harm if he touches one of them much less sit down on one, scared by what may be on them... gross!! We hit the restrooms and then order two cranberry and vodkas... $23. They are in little plastic cups, not even a big red Solo plastic cup. I'm beyond commenting on the prices by this point and try to enjoy myself. We dance a few times and decide to go back to the room and get some sleep.

We pass a pizza place on the way back and decide that a big greasy meal is in order before we get some shut eye. The pizza lady's english was thick with an accent I didn't catch. I thought she said $31 and something and I hand her $32. Imagine my surprise when it was only $13 and change. The best money we've spent yet. We get back to the room, eat and go to sleep. Hubs is extremely tired at this point because he worked all Thursday night and got off work at 6:00 a.m. Friday morning. He napped until about 10:00 and then his mom brought him to my work where we took my car to the airport to start our trip. He was extremely spent by this point.

Did I forget to mention that the bars and such down there are open until 5:00 a.m.?!?!

Or the fact that there was a serious transvestite working at one of the restaurants we passed? I was tempted to ask if we could take a picture with him/her but didn't know if that would cause a bad reaction or if said transvestite would take offense. I'm sure that wouldn't have been the first time someone asked, but why take the chance of infuriating him/her?

Oh well... that's enough Miami tonight... maybe more tomorrow...