Our Trip To Miami, Part one

Last week we went on our babymoon to Miami.  When we found out we were expecting and Mr. J heard of the "babymoon" idea he was in.  In fact he was adamant about taking a little vacation.  After going over some possibilities we settled on Miami for three main reasons.  First we had never been there.  Second, it was relatively easy to get to being on the east coast.  And third, it was so far south that it was sure to be warm.

We landed just after noon a week ago Sunday and immediately went out in search of food.  We headed to Little Havana and stopped in Versailles.  A tourist and local joint this place was like a big dinner Cuban style.  We both got two different sampler platters and munched away. 

After lunch we walked around the Little Havana area seeing lots of old men smoking cigars.  There wasn't too much to do on Sunday afternoon but it was great to stretch our legs and see all of the unique buildings and stores. It definitely felt like another country. 

Before leaving we got the best ice cream at Azucar ice cream company.  It was so good and I would go back just for that ice cream.

The next day we took off for the Everglades. It took about 30 minutes to get out of Miami in the morning but once you were out of town the landscape immediately changed.  We were so excited to see our first alligator we turned around twice to get a better look.

Little did we know that within another mile we would be seeing alligators all over the place. I would guess we easily saw over 50.

We didn't plan any activities ahead of time but after stopping at the first Visitor/Ranger station we had a good idea of what we wanted to see. We did a short 1/2 mile boardwalk trail into the swamp.  This was perfect as I wasn't ready to venture longer than a 1/2 mile being pregnant.  Even more important though was the raised boardwalk. There are alligators, snakes and all sorts of other creatures that I was not planning on getting close too. 

After our little walk we headed toward Everglades city stopping along the way at one more Ranger station.  

There are very few places to eat besides in Everglades city.  After a quick google search we ended up at Camellia Street Grill. It was right on the river causeway.  We had a great lunch; the salad was amazing and watched the airboats go by. 

We continued on to the tip of the ten thousand island Ranger station and got tickets to do the island boat ride. Here we saw lots of mangroves and dolphins. Mr. J got way better dolphin pictures.  I think I was too slow. We saw two different pods, over 20 dolphins.  They put on quite a show and got much closer to the boat than this picture shows.  

After the boat ride we headed back toward Miami.  We ended up doing a back road loop to go back into the swamp on the way home.  This allowed for way more opportunity to get out of the car and walk around. I didn't really participate but Mr. J got out quite a bit. I would watch him closely through the mirror making sure he didn't get too close to the critters. 

The following day we checked out the Biltmore hotel and golf course.

Another amazing stop was Michael's Genuine Food and Drink in the Design district. 

We got two snacks - deviled eggs for Mr. J and homemade potato chips with fried onion dip for me. The chips and dip were out of this world. 

I got a short rib pizza with dandelion greens.  For dessert we split the chocolate cremosa. It was like mousse and ice cream in one.

I have one more post about Miami before we move on to real life.