Miami Beach

Frozen to the core by the NYC winter, we escaped to sunny Miami for a long weekend at the end of February.  We landed in 83 degree sunshine and couldn't wait to get out to the pool! We threw our bags into the room at the Raleigh Hotel and grabbed the first lounge chairs we could find.

Ahhhhh... :)

The first night we went to the South Beach landmark, Joe's Stone Crab. All the staff was incredibly professional and extremely helpful. Our waitress even helped us out once she found out we were from San Francisco by comparing the Stone crab to Dungeness so we wouldn't be lost when we ordered!  We ended up getting the Stone crab (of course), the lobster mac and cheese, asparagus, and the local-favorite fried tomatoes. Everything was fantastic and we would highly recommend a trip for anyone visiting South Beach.

Getting back late and after a day of travel, we decided to stay in at the hotel and visit the lobby bar for a nightcap. As we found out, it's known as the Martini Bar and is one of the most well-loved hotel bars around.  It's also endorsed by Anthony Bourdain (a man who knows a thing or two about bars) and has a truly classic ambiance.  And although we could barely understand our friendly, 30-something year-old Hungarian bartender, we enjoyed swapping traveling stories with him over a drink!

We took a couple shots of the lobby because we were really digging the classic feel of the hotel

Day 2 started with a run north along the boardwalk to Mid-Beach to see some of the fancier resorts (The One Hotel, Fontainebleau). After, we headed to Lincoln Road, a pedestrian mall with shops and restaurants, to get breakfast.

Deco everywhere!

We found a little Havana-themed cafe that was fun and felt like a blast from the past. Meg loved her "Cafe Havana '57'"(three Cuban-style coffee drinks combined!

As the day got warmer the beach called to us so we grabbed some of the chairs set up by the hotel and soaked it up!

We were amazed by how clear the water was!

That night we headed up to the roof of the hotel at sunset and caught a true beauty! While we were up there we saw a large tent set up on the beach for an event. We realized it was for the South Beach Food & Wine Festival that just happened to be going on that weekend.

View of the tent on the beach. It was at least 300 feet long!

The view inspired us to do a friendly 'model shots' competition

Meghan definitely took the win! Gorgeous!

A better view of the pool. The design is so unique.

After our "photo shoot" on the roof we went to another rooftop, this at the One Hotel which is home to the new restaurant, Prey. The menu was seafood/water based and was BY FAR the most unique offering we'd ever seen. We were feeling on the adventurous side and ordered the massaged kale and avocado salad with Miso dressing, ginger and guava baked Carp ribs, and roasted pork wrapped in potato skins topped with quail eggs. Quite the variety....but delicious nonetheless!

We'd never seen open-air rooftop bathrooms before but we weren't complaining with these views of Downtown

Next up was the Matador Room, at the Edition Hotel, for the famous "Pineapple" drink, served with a flaming sprig of rosemary inside a copper pineapple.  The drink was delectable and the hotel itself was truly spectacular.

Day 3 was spent exploring the "scene" along Ocean Drive.  We wanted to sample some authentic Cubano food so we set out down South Beach and took in some sights along the way.

Streets lined with hotels and fancy cars, sidewalks lined with outdoor cafes

Like stepping through time!

We made it down to Las Olas Cafe, a highly recommended authentic restaurant known for it's famous Cubano sandwiches. They were so amazing we almost went back the next day for Round 2!

The counter line-up was intimidating for us Gringos

On the way back, we wandered by the beach tent set up again. It was like Off The Grid but on the beach!

Dinner that night was at the Raleigh. This is a picture of the outdoor restaurant during the day so you can see the cool tree canopy.

After dinner we set out to capture the iconic lights and energy of Ocean Drive at night. We had seen pictures before and took some ourselves but nothing quite captures how amazingly vibrant it is firsthand.

Yes, that IS an all-chrome Lamborghini parked in front of that nightclub (Mangos).

There's even some go-go dancers as if the lights and music weren't entertaining enough

Another beach front Food & Wine Festival event, this time at the pool of one of the hotels!

Our flight didn't leave until the evening so our last day started with another run, this time south the the tip of Miami Beach and in toward the harbor.  The water never ceased to amaze us with it's color and clarity. The harbor was also home to some of the largest yachts imaginable!

Finishing off the run with some more authentic Cuban food at the Playa Cafe. Muy delicioso!

And a couple of Cafe Cubanos to go :)

With our time drawing to the a close in Miami, we decided to leave the beach and see what the rest of the city of Miami had to offer.  Our research led us to two very interesting and VERY different neighborhoods that were just a short walk away from each other. So we hopped in an Uber and headed inland to our first stop, the Miami Design District.

Shops so fancy shops we didn't recognize half of the designers names. Beautiful architecture and layout though.

Swings everywhere!

After getting our fill of stores with security guards in suits and valets for the exotic sports cars, we headed down to the polar opposite neighborhood of Wynwood.  Wynwood is a hipster's paradise with graffiti street art on EVERY building, public galleries on every corner, and beer gardens at every turn.

This was a outdoor public gallery consisting of painted garage doors with a sister-gallery of painted walls, all by local artists

Hey, that's New York!

Meg soaking up sunshine at the R House

Found a great beer shop called Box Elder

Spending our last few minutes of sunshine enjoying some craft beers and talking with a friendly couple from Boston about, what else, beer.

With long faces we checked the current New York weather and called an Uber to take us to the airport. We stopped at a light as we left Wynwood when Meghan pointed out the window and said, "there's us at work tomorrow..." 

And she was absolutely right.

Christmas/New Years!

Christmas and New Years were a whirlwind of activity for us this year. The week started off on a rain-soaked Wednesday night with a flight back to SF that was delayed (which is becoming an unwanted tradition it seems). Fortunately, we had access to the United Club so our holiday spirits weren't dampened in the slightest!

Pictured above: holiday spirits

We touched down at 2:30am on Christmas Eve (thanks for the ride, Kathleen and Dave!) and headed back to Lynch Court for some much-needed travel recovery. That afternoon, we went over to Steve and Phyl's for the Augustus Christmas Eve Dinner. It was great to see everybody and catch up! The food, as always, was amazing and the wine superb!

The bartenders for the evening

Gregg setting the table. "This Cab goes riiiiight here."

Eating outside in December?! We miss this West Coast weather!

On Christmas Day, we packed up our stuff and made the long trip over to the other side of town to the Irvings. Another delicious, gourmet dinner (back-to-back Tenderloin, yum!) and we found ourselves thinking, "Who needs New York City food?".  We sorely missed Sean and Gail who were out enjoying a White Christmas in Kansas. But we did send plenty of pictures and videos back and forth!

"We miss you, 'Shail'!"

On the 26th, we had a brunch at the Irvings with Grandma Harris, the Schafers, and Bryan and Marcia. We watched more sports than Meg could imagine while we visited and enjoyed each others company. The following day we met up with the Drennans, who had just returned from Newport Beach, at the Country Club for one more meal before heading back to the airport.

Missing from the pic, Dave, was already on to his next adventure of retirement.  He and brother, Steve, were headed across the country to Nashville to drop of Hayley's car.  Hayley, Meg's cousin, is finishing her last two years at Belmont University!

Meg also managed to meet-up with her gal-pals (while Gregg packed!) at the renowned Sisi's Caffe in Moraga before the final departure. What fun!

After getting back to New York we had plans to see old friends who were out for a celebratory trip (happy birthday, Alex and Skyler!). We met at their hotel, the amazing Nomad, for cocktails, ventured out to Beecher's Cheese Cellar for appetizers, then returned to the Nomad Library for dinner.

Enjoying an incredible birthday crunchy chocolate ice cream cake contraption

For New Years, Sean and Gail planned an extension of their Kansas trip to meet up with us in NYC! They arrived on Wednesday evening and we went straight to the best pizza spot in all of New York, Lucali, for a pie and a calzone.  With that, the list of family members we've taken to this neighborhood staple grew to eight (Kyle, Sean, Gail, Kelly, Kathleen, Dave, Grandma, and Gran Gran) and Brad felt even more left out despite his best efforts (closed for renovations during his last visit). I guess you'll just have to plan another trip out!

The next day was New Years Eve, so Gail and Meg did a morning Pilates class while Sean and Gregg jogged in Brooklyn Bridge Park to kickstart the celebration.  Since we had late reservations for New Years Eve dinner (9:45pm), we decided to get a late lunch at Jolie Cantina, a Mexican-French fusion spot, and watch a little college football.  After getting our fill (and then some), we went down to a new microbrewery in Carroll Gardens to try some crafts.  Other Half Brewing is a literal hole-in-the-wall, one room shop but with a great selection of tasty beers, the guys were in heaven!

Then it was finally time for the main event.  Our plan for the evening was a late seating at a highly recommended restaurant in Nolita called The Musket Room.  They offered a 5-course tasting with a champagne toast at midnight which seemed like the perfect fit for this crew!

Flashing furs through SoHo

The glasses came from a pyramid stacked in the corner of the room. Because of his history with stacked glasses, Sean got nervous just looking at it.

Gregg's defective noisemaker, alternating between a shrill squeal and a dying duck. He made sure the whole restaurant knew his was different :)

On the First, we went to Friend of a Farmer for brunch and thoroughly enjoyed watching our waiter Aleks (very Russian) learn how to manage a table on what had to have been his first day on the job, or maybe even his first in the country.  The food was great though!
And on Sean and Gail's last day, we went in to the City and enjoyed some old favorites of the East Village: McSorley's and Momofuko.  Not a bad way to end the trip!