Miami, FL

Miami South Beach Evening meal cuban 11-20-2008 7-32-23 PM
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2008-11-20

Ian was up early the next morning as the boys headed deep-sea fishing. They decided to spurge and it was the four of them on a boat with the 2 fishermen. They started by fishing for small fish that they would use for bait for the much bigger fish. There were points when they could reach into the water and just pick up fish they were so plentiful. In the afternoon, Ian managed to catch a barracuda and Steve caught a Kingfish. They were to the only 2 to catch a fish longer than an arms length. Paul kissed some fish for luck, but this seemed to dry up the rest of the fishing for the day. Meanwhile, Lori, Emma and Kirsty had a late lunch at Jerry’s Famous Diner in the Miami art deco district and then Lori drove the girls to the local mall. They got their fill of shopping at the cosmetic and clothes stores. The girls finished their shopping with smoothies at Macy’s. They met the boys down at the beach in the early afternoon. That night, the group went to dinner at Puega Suaga, a Cuban restaurant. Some of the food was really good (the black bean soup, tamale, and spicy rice), but other items we ordered were not as nice and we were left not overly impressed by the place. After dinner, we stopped and played pool for a few hours. Ollie and Paul played with some locals and were hustled out of a few dollars. Most of us finished the evening off at Ocean’s Ten with a cocktail, but Ollie and Paul continued their night out as it was Paul and Kirsty’s last night in Miami.

They made it to the beach, much to Lori’s delight, in the early afternoon and spent a few hours soaking up some rays (of course with sunscreen on).

Miami South Beach Clay hotel balcany 11-21-2008 3-25-20 PM
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2008-11-21

After being near a beach and not being able to enjoy the sunshine, Lori wanted to spend the day there. Ian and Lori had breakfast at Jerry’s All American Diner and then ran a few errands. They mailed the keys to Terry and Lorraine that they forgot to give them before leaving Sanibel and picked up some supplies for breakfast and dinner as they realized they needed to start taking control of their spending as they had 8 and a half more months to pay for things. They made it to the beach, much to Lori’s delight, in the early afternoon and spent a few hours soaking up some rays (of course with sunscreen on). They managed to make it back to the Clay Hotel in time to see Paul and Kirsty off. Emma, Steve and Ollie had driven to Fort Lauderdale to the outlets and managed to purchase Emma’s birthday gift; the Cannon G10 just like Lori and Ian’s. When the three of them arrived back, we attempted to consume all the wine and rum that we had been given by Terry and Lorraine in Sanibel. We had a good effort and finished all the wine and half a bottle of rum. All was enjoyed over several rounds of cards.

Miami south beach Clay hotel view 11-21-2008 5-49-36 PM
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2008-11-22-24

Both these days were spent relaxing and saying goodbye to people. We said our goodbye to Ollie, Steve and Emma. The rest of our time was spent wandering around Miami south beach enjoying the scenery and the beach. A few hours were spent watching the kite surfers on the beach making impressive leaps over waves. On the 24^th we arranged a late check out from Clay Hotel, who were very accommodating. All in all we thoroughly enjoyed our time in Miami. We felt South Beach was a great place to be located. The Clay hotel is a perfect location to stay at and whilst the rooms are very small and basic and the air-conditioning system is probably the noisiest I have ever heard it is a nice place to stay on a budget. After check out we headed to the airport to catch our plane to Houston, Terry, Lori’s Dad was kindly picking us up.

Miami South Beach Leows hotel view 11-21-2008 11-59-41 AM
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