Monday, January 2, 2012

New Year's Miami Style

As you may or may not have known, I spent the last week after Christmas soaking up the sun in Miami with my parents, brother and Eric. I was really looking forward to the vacation since December is a bit of a rough time in the world of teaching and I was fighting with a bad cough. Sadly, the vacation did not make it better (but Mucinex did!), but I did get in a lot of the relaxation I was craving so much.


Eric and I are usually big tourists when we travel, but most of this week was spent going for runs and walks, reading, eating amazing food and just enjoying the fact that Miami doesn't see the kind of winter that we do in Boston. We did enjoy a bit of what Miami has to offer though including seeing Million Dollar Quartet, which was really good! We also went on a fantastic sightseeing boat ride around Miami that helped us get a sense of where everything was, and of course see the beautiful oceanfront mansions of many famous people!




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The views of the city of Miami from the boat were also beautiful.




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Cities on the ocean will always have my heart. The best way to see them is from a boat.


Spending New Year's Eve in Miami was also wonderful. I mean, it's hard to beat eating outside and hanging out outside on December 31st when you are used to snowy cold. We started off our night by heading over to Smith and Wolensky for a drink at their waterfront bar. It's the perfect place to watch the sunset.


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Every New Years South Beach closes down Ocean Blvd. and the restaurants put their tables outside on the street. My family and I walked down the street and found a nice Italian restaurant to eat at. After dinner, we headed back to our hotel. We figured my parents balcony would be the best place to see the fireworks and we were definitely right! There was also a beach club next door to us that was celebrating the new year and they even had their own ball to drop. In college, one of my friends went to MIT and we used to watch the New Years and 4th of July fireworks in Boston from the roof of his dorm. This was great because you could have your own party, see the fireworks and not deal with the crowds. This was just like this except much closer, and gorgeous weather. Basically heaven.


While we waited for it to be midnight we decided to play Catch Phrase. If you don't know this game you really should, it's the best. We didn't have the real game with us, but we found a website to generate words for us and passed around Eric's phone. At midnight we had the best view of fireworks I have probably ever had...


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I also really enjoyed having a camera that can actually capture fireworks. I only wished that Caroline was there! :)


Yesterday we headed home and now I've got a mess of a house (that's what happens when you have people over for Christmas and then leave the next day) and a long, long to do list before it's back to work tomorrow.




How did you spend your New Year's? Do you prefer to do something big or have a more low key night?



6 comments:

  1. We always go the more low-key route on New Years. We were invited to a dinner/dance party with live music but the tickets were $50 each and we decided that was not worth it for us. This year we stayed in and made homemade sushi and drank martini's!

    Usually we're still in FSJ for New Years and then we usually have a board game night with family. Super laidback!

    Looks like you had a great trip to Miami! Are there any Dexter-related tourist things to see?? Hehe. Good luck getting ready for work today! I'm in the same boat!

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  2. We did dinner and a movie. We were home by about 10, watched some TV, and I was asleep by 12:05. I prefer a relaxing night as opposed to going out on the town.

    Our place has been such a mess because it's getting harder and harder for me to be agile enough to do laundry and clean, but yesterday John really stepped up and cleaned the entire apartment. It is so nice to spend our last day in a clean space rather than the mess it has been.

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  3. I always have a low key new Years and most years I spend it with my family - and we usually make it to midnight! This year I made it to 11:30. I was technically awake at midnight but was trying to fall asleep so didn't really acknowledge the new year. ;)

    It looks like you had an amazing time! I've never been to Miami, but it looks beautiful. And how cool that you saw such great fireworks!!

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  4. How fun! I didn't know you were in Miami for the new year. What a great way to ring in the year!

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  5. Wow, you were SO CLOSE to those fireworks! We had that on the 4th of July at the lake, we probably had the boat too close, but it was so awesome!

    On New Year's I'm a little of both! I hate the stress and the worry of going out on New Year's - also the expense. Covers are insane! But sometimes I like to go out. This year I had some girlfriends over and we drank wine, watched movies and ate pizza. It was lovely!

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  6. Jealous!! What a great way to ring in the new year. I am craving sun and sand right now!

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