Friday, September 25, 2009

Mom's visit!

Well, I kept Mom pretty busy on her visit. Here's the rundown of what we did!

Saturday we walking around Mary Brickell Village, which is about a block away from my house. Mom loved the area, and so do I! There are lots of restaurants, shops, a few bars, and a Publix! Yay! That night we had dinner with a few of my friends at Balans, which is in Mary Brickell Village. We walked down for dinner and drinks and had a great time!

From left to right: Mark, me, Ginny, Justin and Sierra.


Sierra, Mom and me. Sierra lives in my building, and we met on the elevator.



Ginny and her husband Justin, my two friends from the US Coast Guard.

On Sunday, we went to my favorite beach, Bill Baggs State Park on Key Biscayne. It's a short drive from my house, ten minutes or fewer. On the way there, the sky fell! The rain was so bad that we decided to stop at the Sir Pizza on Key Biscayne and have a Royal Feast while the rain poured. Once we finished our pizza, it was beautiful outside and we went on to the beach!


 
Sunday night I cooked a delicious chicken curry for the three of us, and we had a low-key night with good food and good company.


Monday Mark went to class and Mom and I headed over to Bayside Marketplace. We rode the Metromover, a free automated bus that goes around downtown above the city. Chelsea and William liked to ride that when they were here, too. And when Maggie comes in October we'll ride it to the museums and libraries, since she's the one that will hang with me there!


Having lunch and cold beer by the bay, watching the boats come in! Mom loved to talk to the tan, Cuban men and hear their accents. I think they enjoyed hers as well :)

These trees are all over Miami, and they're awesome! This is at Bayside Marketplace, too. After lunch, we shopped some and then headed back to my apartment.

Monday night we went to dinner on Miami Beach at a delicious Brazilian Steakhouse called Texas de Brazil.


At Brazilian Steakhouses, it's buffet style and one you pay one price. That's why our plates are so full and our tummies are bulging. But our mouths, they are so so happy!


This is the view from the window where our table was! Since it was on Miami Beach, we're looking at the city of Miami, the downtown area where I live, as the sun is setting. It was gorgeous!

We clean up nice!

The servers carry around large knives and delicious meat on skewers, and then they cut off pieces for you. There was so much -- lamb, prime rib, filet mignon, filet wrapped in bacon, chicken parmesean, chicken wrapped in bacon, sausage, beef ribs, barbecued ribs, pork tenderloin -- probably more, but that's all I can remember. Brazilian steakhouses are the best!!


Outside after dinner, stretching out our bellies. The restaurant overlooked the South Beach marina and downtown Miami.


So FULL!
 

After dinner we drove the Miami Ink and Mom took a pic in front. Unfortunately, her man Ami wasn't in the shop, but it was still fun!

Tuesday Mom and I went to South Beach and Mark worked on school work. We saw a few topless women and one pretty naked man. It was a fun time! It wasn't quite as busy as I've seen it other times, but I think Mom got the idea of the "South Beach scene".
 
 
 
Mom and me on South Beach!

After our beach day, we went back to Miami Ink and Mom bought a tank top from Ami's clothing line. I don't have the pic of her inside though, it's on her camera! Maybe she'll post it on here later...

Tuesday night Sierra cooked tacos for us in her apartment and I mixed some margaritas. We played with Sierra's new kitties - again, photos on Mom's camera, so I'm hoping she'll post them.

Wednesday we rode the Metrorail (the train) to University of Miami and had lunch by the lake on campus. We saw Mark's table he's working on and the recording studio, then we rode the train to Target (yay, shopping!) and then back home. Wednesday night Mark has classes late, so Mom and I met my friends at Perricone's for ladies night. You get three free drinks with the purchase of an entree. It's Italian, and it's very yummy!

Thursday before Mom left, we went down to the pool and hot tub, and Mom soaked up some sun.

She loved my balcony, and we left our zero-gravity chairs out for her to smoke in. I wouldn't let her smoke in my apartment. :) It was a great trip, and I hope she'll come back again, maybe with a friend so they can party together! :) Love you Mommy! 

MOM - POST THE PICS YOU HAVE, OR HAVE CHELSEA DO IT :)

Gracias!

Monday, September 14, 2009

My Lighthouse

Aunt Becky - everytime I go to my favorite beach, I think of you and your love for lighthouses. At Bill Baggs State Park, there's a historic lighthouse from the mid 1800s, and it's now the oldest standing structure in Miami-Dade County. I just finished my article on it for HelloMiami.com, and you can see it here. Oh, the beach was also voted one of the top ten in the U.S. It's so nice and relaxing.

But here are a few pics of my favorite favorite beach and the beautiful lighthouse! I didn't get to climb to the top and take a picture the other day; it started storming soon after I got there. When Mom's here, I'll climb it with her and take some pics.  :)  You're right Aunt Becky, she probably will need a wine IV heheheh.

Historic Lighthouse from the 1800s.
Mark fighting the current.

Clouds are concentrating...storm will commence soon!
Rain, rain, go away.
Alright, I'm off to read! Love you all.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Book Club Website!

My friends and I have a book club here in Miami. It was actually started by my friend Rebecca, and she just recently moved to Seattle for law school. She was one of the girls I went to Disney with. I wanted to share the blog I started for the book club girls, in case any of you wanted to see what we were reading and doing! We just recently decided to open up our group to other people, and I've had one woman respond to my Craigslist ad so far. (We are keeping the group Women Only.)

Here's the website: www.brickellbooklovers.wordpress.com

It's on WordPress, not Blogger, but I'm trying that, too. Since I am a writer, and blogging is very hot right now, I need to know both pretty well. I'm also starting a cooking blog about mid-twenty cooking, and I'll share that as soon as I add a little more.

Miss Shelby looks so so sweet! I just saw Aunt Becky's new pics on facebook (3 day pics), and she already looks older and sweeter! I can't wait to meet her :) I'm so proud of you KK.

Also, Mom is coming to visit me in less than a week! Everyone please keep her calm about the airplane :) heheheh. Love you all!

For fun, pics when the Bank of America tower was PURPLE! (It was SO AWESOME!!!) It's usually white, and sometimes for holidays they'll make it red/white/blue (like Labor Day), or sometimes it's different colors for sports teams winning various things. But I could not figure out why it was purple the other day! Still, purple is my favorite color!


Sunday, September 6, 2009

Pool Daze

So, without further ado, here are some pictures from my lazy pool days at the Axis in Brickell.





Hope everyone's having a great Labor Day long weekend! :) Mom's coming to visit me in less than two weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! =D

Friday, September 4, 2009

Everyone has it -- WeDDinG FeVeR...

Except me! Hahah, so Mark and I were in TN in July for his brother's wedding, and then I was recently at Zach's wedding (one of my very good friends from Hume Fogg). Here are some photos of the festivities!


This is Mark and me dancing at Ally and Scott's wedding in July. I ordered this one. :)

And this is us being silly before the ceremony! They took quite a few of us laughing.

On the way from our hotel to Zach's reception, Corey and I carried this cooler, our wedding gift to the couple. Everyone gave us very strange looks, but it was on their Target registry! Apparently everyone thought we had filled the cooler and were bringing it with us to the party...

Here is Dawn, Elizabeth, and me at the reception. Dawn is my friend Aaron's fiance (they are getting married in a few days, again, the FEVER), and Elizabeth is my bestest friend from Meigs/HFA!

Me and Liz, looking a tad sweaty from all the dancing...

Corey and I are showing off the cooler, Price-is-Right-style! Gotta love it! :)