traveling

OUR FIRST TRIP TO MIAMI

January 14, 2022 /

The week before Christmas Michael and I are making a trip down to Miami because (very exciting news coming) we might move down to southern Florida once I finish grad school in the spring. When Michael and I visited Miami this past summer I had been twice before, but Michael had never been. Before we post about our visit at the end of this month I though we should catch you up on our first visit. So whether you are thinking about making a trip to southern Florida, moving there, or you would just like to see some photos and hear about our travels, here is our blog post about our first trip to Miami, our possible future home!

In the beginning of July Michael’s college roommate, and our friend, sent Michael a text to let him know he was staying in a sick apartment in Miami and we had to make a trip down there before he moved out in the beginning of August. Of course we took advantage of a free place to stay in Miami and we booked our flights. We would fly down the night of Friday July 30th after we both got out of work and we would get back Monday night in time for work on Tuesday. (this may not have worked as well as we hoped it would)

Friday July 30th I rushed home from work and my mom drove us to the airport. Michael took his final work call of the trip while we waited in the security line. The flight went smoothly; we made it through an episode or two of Outer Banks before landing in Miami. 

We hadn’t done a great job figuring out if we were ubering to our friend Collin’s apartment or if he was picking us up. After calling him a few times we decided he probably was not coming and we ordered an uber. By the time we made it to his apartment our calls had woken him up and he was there to let us into the building and up to the apartment. It was beautiful. A corner apartment in Brickell with a large balcony, a stunning view, two bedrooms with great big bathrooms connected to each, and a nice kitchen living room space where we slept on a big white couch. We took a shower and got to bed. We had a fun weekend ahead!

Our first Miami pool party and a fun night out

We woke up nice and early Saturday morning to get in a workout at the boathouse in Miami Beach. It was a beautiful place to workout with big windows overlooking the water. I attempted to keep up with the boys on the erg but got off early to do some stretching before me and Michael got a lift in. We were pretty hungry by the end so we met up with one of Collin’s high school best friends and went to get food. Miami has so many great places to get food. Trying new foods was definitely one of the highlights of our trip.

The plan was to go to a pool party that afternoon, so we went home and got ready. Our friend is from Florida so we were going to meet a lot of his friends from home. It’s interesting when you go to college how your best friend has a whole other life that you really don’t know too much about.

young couple in Miami

We went to the party and had a really nice time spent in the pool under an absolutely scorching sun. I killed it in pool volleyball and Michael had a lot of fun playing 3-on-3 basketball. By the time we got home it was time for dinner and we made reservations at a great restaurant. It was called Planta. Planta is a fully vegan restaurant that has a lot of different offerings and I am sure has changed countless people’s opinions on vegan food. We all shared a few plates and it was delicious. My favorite was the udon noodles, but we also enjoyed the sushi, the fried mushrooms, and the bang bang broccoli. If you are skeptical about vegan food or a bit of a hater you should try out Planta. 

I easily convinced everyone that we should get ice cream after our dinner. They were all into it. We ended up at an ice cream shop with some very unique flavors. My ice cream featured a combination of fun tropical fruits. Michael’s ice cream had chunks of creamy salty cheese paired with fresh raspberries. I guess some of them were a special Miami treat but I had definitely never heard of them before. There is something about ending a warm summer night out on vacation with ice cream that just gives me the best feeling.

Me and Michael were excited to do something fun that night and explore the city a little more, but unfortunately Collin wouldn’t be able to join us. We decided to go to Tribute to Tobacco Road. If you’re looking for a lowkey night in Miami this is perfect. Tobacco Road was an iconic Miami bar that, almost a decade ago, closed its doors after being open for over 100 years. This year they reopened it as a tribute to the original bar. The bartender was very sweet and the menu had a lot of fun mixed drinks and shots to try. We decided to get a few to share so we could taste different things. Definitely the way to go!

couple at Tribute to Tobacco Road
📍Tribute to Tobacco Road

We ended our night here followed by some wings that we got delivered back to the apartment. Overall, a really fun day partying with Collin’s friends and eating lots of yummy food!

Brunch in Miami, a trip to the beach, and a quick stop at the Wynwood Walls

By day two I had already felt like we had done so much and we had a packed day ahead. Day two was our beach day, but first we were going to get breakfast at a Televivian kitchen breakfast spot. It was called Abbale Televivian Kitchen; their food is a mix of food from Israel, Turkey, Greece, and Columbia. It was great. I started with a nutella and halvah babka which was so sweet and yummy. Everyone at the table said they did not want any when I ordered, but once I got it they all stole a bite. We ordered the Shakshuka, Steak & Eggs, and the Abba’s Breakfast to share. These meals are often made in a cast iron skillet and are so rich in flavor. Each comes with a fluffy homemade bagel coated in sesame seeds and you can mix fun ingredients from the dish together to try all different combinations. We had hummus, a spice filled red sauce, and a delicious creamy white sauce and each was so yummy to try with the different meats and veggies on the dish. I put a picture of our meal below to help you picture it!

I definitely couldn’t pick my favorite and I am so glad I got to try a little bit of everything. If we end up moving to Miami I will definitely be bringing guests here for a cute Sunday brunch (and maybe next time I can try one of their yummy sounding adult drinks).

After breakfast we made our way to the 64th street beach in Miami Beach. If you have seen girls on instagram posing in Miami in front of big colorful lifeguard stands than this might have been the beach. Miami beaches are stunning and although I love my Long Island beaches, they cannot compare. Miami beaches are lined with palm trees and beautiful greenery and the water is warm and crystal clear. Michael Collin and I went out far into the ocean and spent a good part of the afternoon bathing under the sun watching the occasional tiny school of fish swim by.

On the way to the beach we passed a pretty awesome playground and when I saw there were no children on it as we were leaving I knew I had to take advantage. This playground had the coolest swing ever. It was like a mini zip line across the park. So much fun!

While I was having my fun the boys found a big hermit crab baking in the sun. None of us knew much about hermit crabs but we had a feeling he was not supposed to be there, so we gave him some water and brought him closer to the beach placing him in the grass of the dunes. We weren’t sure where to put him, but the grass did look like a perfect home for the little crab.

After we left the beach we decided to do some sightseeing. I had never gotten the chance to visit the Wynwood Walls on my previous trips to Miami and we all decided it would be a fun stop to make before going home. The Wynwood Walls is an outdoor museum of really unique artworks inspired by graffiti and street art. It was only about $5 to get in as a college student and it was a really cool experience. They had live music playing and the artwork was so interesting. The pieces were huge and each was so different from the next. I will include some pictures of our favorites here for you to see! Also, make sure to stop by the gift shop on the way out because we had a lot of fun looking around in there.

For dinner we went to an authentic Spanish tapas restaurant, and if you only take one of our recommendations from this post, this should be it. Over the summer of 2019 Michael worked for a company in Spain and lived in an apartment in Madrid. He loved it! He had the best time and over the past two years he has expressed many times how much he cannot wait to share some of the experiences with me. On Long Island there are very limited opportunities to eat authentic Spanish food. I found a restaurant in Miami that I thought Michael would be really excited about and I made a reservation in advanced. I was right, he couldn’t wait!

Jambon Iberico Pata Negra Restaurant was the best! I had never had authentic Spanish food before and I love trying new food, so I was excited. Michael could not wait to remissness on all of the food he had missed dearly over the past two years. Me and Michael typically say that if a restaurant has a pitcher of sangria that is the way to go, and this night that was definitely the case! Oh my gosh, best sangria ever! We got the bubbly sangria and that is what I would order again, but I am confident that they are all delicious. We ate so much. I honestly couldn’t tell you exactly what we ordered but I will say everything was amazing. Every dish that we tried had so many different flavors and if you go with a group like we did you can order all different plates and get a bite of everything. We were so full even I didn’t know if we needed dessert at the end but we got some anyone and what a great decision! The cook even came out to say hi at the end of our meal, and he was great. If you are in Miami do yourself a favor and make sure to fit this into your schedule.

Spanish Tapas in Miami

Our friends were not able to go out again this night, however, me and Michael were still on vacation and still wanted to fit in as much fun as we could. We ended our night at Balan’s Brickell Hookah Lounge. Michael and I both don’t smoke at all but when we walked past Balan’s and it had a very cool vibe. We went on a pretty chill night but they had fun music playing with nice outdoor seating and it looked like the perfect place to end our Sunday night. I ordered a watermelon drink that came with a cute little watermelon slice and it was so great. We even decided, after sitting there, to order hookah. Hookah is not something either of us have had a desire to try in the past, but we figured if there was a place to try it this was it. They had over 16 flavors and we ended up going with our waiters top pic. He was great throughout the whole night. We had a really fun time relaxing here for the night. We felt a little less relaxed later on when we realized we had ordered drinks that were much pricier than we wanted and had tipped without noticing there was a tip included, however, because we were staying at our friend’s apartment, we saved a lot on our trip, and tried not to worry too much about our ridiculous bill.

Summer Drinks in Miami

Writing this I am reflecting on just how crazy this day was. We did so much! What a great day. I remember walking back to the apartment with Michael this night feeling so happy. We were having such a fun trip.

A slow morning in Miami

Collin had to return to work on Monday. Michael and I planned to meet up with him for lunch and he had also offered to drive us to the airport that evening. It was going to work out perfectly and give us plenty of time to relax before our flight. We had breakfast together at a little Venezuelan spot called Friend’s Market & Bistro. I had never had an arepas before but they were delicious. We followed up our breakfast with a morning by the pool. This day was a little cloudier than the rest, but the rooftop pool was beautiful. 

We headed to a spot called Suviche for lunch. This was another fun opportunity for me to try something new. Suviche is a mix of sushi, which I love, and ceviche, which I had never had before. Such a fun combo! 

Lunch was supposed to wrap up our trip. We went home and packed up all of our things and Collin came back to the apartment not long after. He drove us to the Miami airport and we took off on time and made it home as scheduled. 

Not!

Our Miami Airport Disaster

Collin dropped us off at the Miami airport and we made it to our gate with plenty of time to spare. We sat around waiting but time kept passing. Our flight was supposed to take off and no one had even started boarding. It was very strange. There was absolutely no communication about what was going on. We found out after a half hour of standing in line that all flights were being canceled. Or at least almost all of them. The buzz around the airport was that there was a strike but no one truly knew what was going on. We ran throughout the airport to talk to different airlines, stood in customer service lines, and made numerous phone calls. It was getting us nowhere and now we had been waiting for hours. It sounded like we were not leaving Florida that night.

A lot of people were still hopeful they would get home but Michael and I decided to book our new flight for the following morning on a new airline. We called Collin to let him know we would need the couch for another night. I emailed my boss during the uber back to the apartment to let them know that I would not be there the next day. By the time we made it back we were so exhausted we showered and went straight to sleep.

That was our little disaster. Looking back on it it worked out fine, but in the moment there was so much chaos at the airport the whole experience was so overwhelming. Because we had the extra morning we got to spend one last breakfast together eating arepas at Friend’s market.

Until next time

Michael and I cannot wait to go back to Miami next week, this time, to look for a possible first home together. I hope that you enjoyed hearing about our travels, and hopefully we have a lot of fun new stuff to share after our next trip!

Couple Out In Miami

If you would like to read about our more recent trip to Miami check out this post! Also, we have felt so lucky to have the opportunity to start traveling more as a couple, so for all posts travel related click here.

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