MIAMI! - PART 1

We did it! I went to Miami with my friends, Hilary, Caroline, Emily and Debby, for a whole three days.  We all went to high school together many years ago, and last year, we realized that we were all going to be turning 35 this year and will have been friends for 20 years (!) so we started planning for a celebratory trip.  We are all busy with work, family, life...so it felt almost miraculous that the five of us were able to coordinate a weekend where we could all get away, just us! When we all finally got to Miami, we kept marveling that it was actually happening, and the feeling all throughout the trip was that we were so lucky to be all together, in such a beautiful place.

It was my first time to Miami and I instantly loved it for the weather, the colors, the designs...and then eventually the food, the people, and the buildings and history.  I think it helped that we stayed in a beautiful hotel called The Confidante, which had amazing mid-century design details everywhere, great food and drinks, and an amazing backyard pool/bar/hangout situation that went right up to the boardwalk and the beach.

One of our agendas - besides spending time together - was to relax and rest (all of us had crazy weeks beforehand), and we did a really good job of that. We also got to explore south beach and a little bit of Miami as well.

I did bring my big camera and snap a few photos, but it was my phone that did all the heavy lifting on this trip and all these photos are from my iPhone (and edited on VSCO).  It's a photo dump because I want to document the trip here for memory keeping and for re-living.  There are so many photos I'm breaking it up into two posts. Here is part 1!

We could see Miami beach (that strip) from the plane window! 

This was the front of the building of the hotel. I was instantly enamored. 

All the details here were so good! The next few photos are just shots around the hotel that I thought were particularly inspiring. 

One of the first things I consumed: cortadito while relaxing under palm trees.

The backyard of the hotel starts like this and then expands into two pool areas, cabanas, a small 1930 house that is used as an event space, an outdoor bar, plenty of seating, games to play, etc. It was beautiful. 

The afternoon we arrived they were having an outdoor event in the backyard that included a braid bar, popsicles, a DJ, photo booth, etc. We had arrived just in time! We all got braids from the braid bar and hung out here for a couple of hours, soaking it all in, while we waited for our room. 

we got to our room and HELLO VIEW!

First things first: get into swimsuit.

I love a good watermelon and feta salad. This might be the best one I've ever had!

Also, this pineapple and jalepeno popsicle was amazing. 

For dinner, we crossed the bridge back into Miami to go to this sweet little spot - and it was so delicious! 

The place had a really beautiful outdoor seating area that really made us feel like we were somewhere far away.

Everything was so good, and I ended the meal with Turkish coffee. 

Do I need that rainbow phone case in my life?

We also made sure to spend some time on the beach, and also by the pool, as much as possible. Turns out, we are really good at relaxing!

This moment here was so relaxing.

This was the book I read during the weekend, and I LOVED it. More on this later.

Part 2 coming up!