My friend Terri came to visit me in Miami. It is always nice to have guests and I want to become a good Miami host, so this should work out as great practice. Terri is quite the interesting girl, a girl very different than I have ever met before, a girl I don't understand. She is one of those beautiful and very confident people, yet you feel like you have to get around this wall to ever really get to know her, but you know it will be worth the wait. She is a great person to talk to though and even though romantically she is not an option, she is a great person to know and it was great to see her.
So I start off the trip on a bad foot. I get bumped off my early flight, so the later flight I take gets me to MIA at 4:58pm. Well Terri gets into Ft. Lauderdale at 5pm. There is no way in 2 mins I can get my stuff, take a cab home, get my truck and pick her up, so she ends up having to take an expensive cab. I felt terrible about it, but there was really nothing I could do and I explored all my options, but I don't know too many people here and the ones I do know work.
Well I purchased a Frommer's Florida Guidebook as featured in Eurotrip so that I could learn all the touristy places to go. Weds night we watched Lost and Alias, two of her favorite shows and shows I had never seen. The were both actually good and I can see why there is such a following. We ordered food from Kitchen Chicken or is it Chicken Kitchen. Oh real quick... so when I get home I was so very happy to see Koki and Mia. Koki had lost weight, so I guess her weight management food is working. Koki was so happy to see me and I felt bad for leaving her, but my friend who took care of them did a great job. It is great to know there are people you can count on and it good to know those you can't. I don't know if I was more excited about seeing Terri or having her meet Koki. koki took a quick liking to her, it almost made me jealous to think it took all that time for Koki to like me that much and now she was all over Terri. Mia was still scared, but she was doing her laying down 3 feet away from us thing, so I'm letting her take that at her own pace.
Thursday we started the day going down to Coconut Grove. I have heard a lot about that area, but had never been there. We went to the Coco Walk and had a late lunch at the Cheesecake factory. It was nice talking and catching up. So much law school talk, I can't really help it, but it is what is going on in my life right now. After we walked around and bit and then drove over to South Beach. We drove down Ocean drive and then went to Lincoln Road. We walked around there and saw all the shops they had, but we didn't do too much exploring.
Once we got home, I went to buy groceries and then we watched the OC while I cooked dinner. We usually chat during the OC, so it was cool actually having her there to talk to about it in person. Since my cooking skill are less than minimal, I put together some hamburger helper and some chicken rice. I feel like it turned out ok.
At night I was going to take her out to Coconut grove, but instead decided to go to South Beach instead. We started off at the Delano, a very nice hotel with an outdoor bar near a wading pool. The place looks awesome and is a great place to have a drink and meet up with friends before going out. After we went to this club called Mynt. This was the same club where the velvet ropes would not move for me and my friends because we were guys in the past, but thanks to Terri, we got in with no problem. The club was nice and actually reminded me of Dragonfly in Dupont in DC. We had a good time and it had been a while since I had gone out and had fun.
On Friday, we slept in because we got in late. It kind of sucked because I wanted to get up early and go to the beach, but sleep always outweighs. We finally did get up and I took her to eat at Pollo Tropical. It is a Miami staple and I think everyone should eat there. It was 80 degrees outside, all 3 days were beautiful come to think about it, so we ate outside. After, we drove over to south beach. Of all the time I have been here, I had yet to see the beach, much less set foot on it. I learned from my guidebook that the sand is hard packed by the army corp of engineers and only a small strip near the water is soft. We took a walk on the beach and it was nice, but I think my expectations for the beach were too high. The sand wasn't that great, there was a lot of litter, too many men, and over all it was just ok. If I had to rank the beaches I have seen in my life, I'd say they would be Cancun (white sand), Puerto Rico, Santa Monica, South Padre, Daytona, Miami, Virginia Beach and Atlantic City. The sun was going down so I didn't have to worry about getting burned or even getting a tan.
Saturday I drove her to the airport. I was pretty quiet on the trip. I said goodbye and now life will be like it never happened. Just moments I guess, just a bunch of moments, some better than others, some eternal, these, they were nice. I learned some good things about myself during these few days, things that only give me more hope as I move forward.
Now that I look back and reflect on this trip, I feel like I am on my way to becoming a good Miami host. I am learning my way around more and learning where things are. I need to talk to more locals and find out the hot spots and fun things to do. It totally sucks that I didn't get to take pictures, but some people just don't like taking pictures, which means you don't get to have any tangible memories. Anyway, this is going to be my Miami semester where I really take advantage of this city, maybe even learn to surf. I hope it ends up being fun.
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