Bienvenidos a Miami: Part I-- Thurs night and Friday

Well, theres a lot of fabulous territory to cover here... starting at the beginning. I (annie) will be posting in a different color just so you can all follow along without getting too confused on the joint-posting effort... thursday after work i went to pick miss park up from the airport. it involved me driving around in circles because (expectedly) miami international airport does not really have any signage telling you how to get back to the terminal once you drive through it. so after somehow getting lost in a small little restricted enclosed area where they were filming a movie, i found my way to patty.

Arrival to/at the land of hedonism!

Although by that point I was well in need of a serious cocktail, patty motivated me to engage in a beach-side run; the sun was setting, the air was warm, and we were on packed sand having a lovely time. (Well, ok, she was having a lovely time, i was physically unable to compete). Still though, way to motivate. We then took a walk to have some cuban food, fulfilling patty’s need for the luscious avocado salad and some mofongo-esque shrimpy dish, which i could not get enough of.

Friday patty had the day to herself: i seem to recall some beach time, pool time, and running-then-jumping-in-the-ocean time for her, while i jealously sat at my desk trying to research impossible questions and stay awake.

Monty's Raw Bar in South Beach.

Patty was brave enough to take the bus down to south beach in the afternoon, and I meet her at montys for happy hour. Although i knew it was ‘spring break’ time, i honestly did not know what we were getting into. The place was packed, knee-deep in random assortments of people: not just the normal old dudes in hawiian shirts (although trust me, they were there) but also younger people, ladies in sundresses with fresh sunburn-bathingsuit-tans exposed, and honestly, no one youd really want to associate with. Well, at that point anyway.

We managed to wait in line for our raw bar samplings and patty got to try her first stone crab- holler. Delishie, with fat gulf-coast oysters and tons of shrimp, not to mention pitchers of bud light.

Pre-raw bar platter =)

Post-raw bar platter =(

Me posing, with a tropical paradise in the backdrop.

Later, ashley & a bunch of friends from spain showed up at monty’s - there was a pre-bachelor party that was going on that her husband was involved in, and i had met a few of the guys before (including, i think, the bachelor? So hard to remember at this point). Either way, patty spoke spanish like a pro to ashley’s spaniard friends and i was wholly impressed. The evening somehow ended with take-out sushi and watching gossip girl on dvd. Kind of awesome.

Much seafood was consumed on this day.

Annie thinks I look very Asian in this photo. I wonder why.