Welcome to Miami: South Beach Bringin' the Heat

It has never been easier to wake up at 3:30 AM but when a road trip to Miami is on your agenda, the sound of your alarm couldn't sound any sweeter. In order to beat the rush hour morning traffic, we hightailed out of Charlotte at a very early note and drove our way through South Carolina and Georgia, finally crossing the line into the Sunshine State around noon. We decided to make a pit stop in Orlando for some shopping at the outlets. Our legs thanked us as we were able to stretch out AND find some good deals! We were more than anxious to get back on the road though....only 3 more hours and we would be at our destination!

After many toll roads (we're not huge fans of those) we finally arrived to the the historic Majestic Hotel located in the heart of the Art Deco at Miami Beach. Little did we know, we were about to start our 24 hour streak of bad luck with the many groupons we had purchased (at least we tried to save money?).

We happily walked into our hotel, arms full of luggage, ready to unwind in our ocean view room we had been looking forward to for months. We semi-successfully checked in only to find out our room wasn't ready yet....even though check-in was at 3 PM and it was pushing 7 PM. We were told our room would be ready in 30 minutes. We were checked into a temporary room, still ocean view, but with two full beds instead of a king. It would do for the time being. We dropped our bags and quickly decided a walk on the beach was the best thing to do.

An actual beach lifeguard stand! Never seen one of these until then.

Our feet sunk in the sand as we walked along the shoreline gazing at the clear blue water and trying to scope out those barley there swimsuits (thongs or topless) that we had been told to watch out for. It was close to dinner time so there weren't many people on the beach (although, Miami didn't disappoint, we did catch 1 topless woman in the ocean on our walk) and the lifeguards had left their stations for the day. We watched the sun go down and then headed back to Ocean Drive to find a place to eat and watch Game 7 of the Miami Heat/Indiana Pacers game that was due to start any minute.

After walking up and down Ocean Drive and seeing what each restaurant had to offer, we settled on dinner at Boulevard Cafe. We enjoyed sitting under the inside/outside bar feeling the ocean breeze and being among the locals cheering on their team. It was a site you don't come across much in Charlotte. We just don't have that kind of support for our sports teams in the city.

We scarfed down dinner, watched the game and the buzzing streets of Miami. Yes, the streets were buzzing even on a Monday night. We even spotted a guy walking all willy nilly down the street with a LIVE snake wrapped around his neck. We made sure to stay clear of that guy. We weren't taking any chances. We soon headed back to our hotel but guess what....our room still wasn't ready. For all the grief, we got a free breakfast voucher for the next morning. Worked for us....a great way to start off our anniversary!

After many hours on the road, it was very easy to hit the pillow. Although we were in separate beds, and sad about it at first, it was kind of nice to spread out for the time being. Yep, we kicked it 1950's style.

Stick around for more Miami adventures coming up!