being that our time here is coming to a close, we are being ever more vigilant about what we do every day, week, night etc. in order to fulfill all of our miami wishes. in fact, it makes me wonder why we dont do this kind of thing no matter where we live-- trying new things, keeping busy, exploring, laughing, doing things that no one else would rationally decide to do when all they want to honestly do is stay in bed...
friday night i started to feel guilty about my plans to do nothing (swim on the beach after work; sit and stare at the sky)
but as i was walking in the door, i managed to mangle my toe: totally rip it open on the front, bent back the nail half way. lets talk gushing, unexpected blood. or, lets not. needless to say, ive got it bandaged up.
my first thought was: owwww. my second: ewwww. my third: how am i supposed to go snorkling tomorrow???? thankfully, i wrapped it up good enough, woke up on time, ate some breakfast, and headed down to pick up abby, justin, and aimee for our drive down to key largo.
after about an hour and a half, barely catching the boat, we were there! i was worried about my toe getting mashed by the flippers, but thankfully it all worked out fine-- minus the 1-3 ft swells of wave that constantly got up in my snorkel, making my mouth pucker with insane saltiness (and this coming from a girl who loves salt)....
aimee & justin were the divers of the bunch and were obviously therefore in more scary gear. however, i remain skeptical that they saw more than we snorkelers did... including swimming in the midst of various schools of fish- zebra, tropical, flat fish, yellow tail... insane! so beautiful. a little scary. gorgeous. a small shark under the boat. i sadly missed the ray and the turtle. alas... we stopped at two different coral reefs along the way, totally gorgeous but exhausting.
afterwards? time for some florida lobster. abby had to go home w mark (my two snorkelers-in-crime), but aimee, justin & i grabbed our bites and enjoyed... oddly? the florida lobster has no claws. who knew?
that night we were totally exhausted but managed to rally in one of those moments where you dont know what youre doing (no one does, really), and we bopped from place to place: drink at justins, then shiso bar, then off to the W hotel bar (oddly closed at 1.30am), then off again to townhouse rooftop bar (closed for rennovations), over to rockbar (too long a line)... ending up with one drink at the shelborne hotel, "studio a"- their karaoke spot... so dirty, so gross, so funny, so many musical prop instruments for one to use. i cant believe it was the first time id been in that hole...
finally, off to bed... only to set the alarm & get up the next morning for a trip to the fairchild tropical gardens: abby justin & i stopped at whole foods en route, abby driving her convertible fast down all roads and causeways; we arrived in tact with cherries and other snacks, a blanket, sunblock, and tons of water for their free-admission sundays. i had no idea it was so huge, so varied (tropical areas vs. aloe areas vs. desert areas vs. central-park looking places). we spent several hours there- walking, laying in the grass, sitting and watching plants and snakes and lizards and iguanas, ponds, trees, flowers- sweating profusely the whole time but thoroughly enjoying it.
interpretive arm dances were done, it was so hot.
finally we were kicked out by an elderly volunteer on a golf cart, who drove us back to abby's car, and justin suggested we kick it again to another bucket-list event: jimbos, the bar that is like a trailer park. so off we went to play bocce ball in a dusty dusty court, watching other random people (from hipsters to grungeballs to old dudes who liked to impersonate mick jagger to people with one eye to free-range ferral cats and random dogs hanging about). i could not make this up if i tried. we bought $3 cans of beer from jimbo himself. with all this non-wholesomeness going on? you perhaps would have never guessed that flipper was filmed on the property. no. joke.
after an hour or so there, winning a 24-pt round game of bocce with our new friends oliver and bonnie, we all headed out: abby home to shower, justin & i a jump in the pool before we met up again shortly and went to dinner at joe allens. thoroughly exhausted throughly wiped thoroughly clean(ish) finally, and thoroughly fun. although we had high hopes of bingo, it didnt pan out that way, but we all got to bed at a normal hour... only to return to the office this morning thinking, wow. being a lawyer is boring.
still, an unbeatable weekend. the bucket list continues on...
xoxo
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