Miami, FL
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Welcome to Miami! Let's get this party started right! Let's get
this party started quickly! Right! Pack up the cars and drive! There were 7 of us on this
trip: Jon, Becky, Jenny, Leslie, Tabitha, Jeremy (Skrog) and myself. Good ratio!
We left Raleigh around 11 PM on a Friday night. With a 10 hour drive, a pleasant stop at Waffle House for a middle-of-the-night breakfast and some other breaks from the drive, we arrived in North Miami around 11 AM. We were looking for this awesome resort place that we were going to say at and we found it after some searching... only to find it wasn't as awesome as they had made it out to be. In fact, the picture on the brochure was a picture of a nearby resort. There's just something wrong about that! What made it even worse was that there was no office on this 'resort'. The doors were Secure-Key locked and we had no way of finding who had the keys for us. So we broke in. Cheap security. (Go Skrog!) We knew the suite number we had reserved, so we went up to it and found out that there were still people in it. We talked to them (very nice people!) for a bit and got the number for the owner. Called her and then found out that we couldn't check in until 4. So plenty of time to kill. We headed over to the mall that we passed on the way in and stopped for lunch at Johnny Rockets. (Jon was just having NO luck with service on this trip.) We were entertained by some of the workers doing a dance for us. (As pictured.) After the lunch, we hit the theater and watched "The Mexican". Long movie, but funny. We made it back to the 'resort' and were able to check in. The people who had left were nice enough to leave us some serious food leftover from their trip. Munchies! |
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The suite we were in had a nice view inland. Beneath us was the
bay where some nice boats travelled through. We were about 3 blocks from the beach. The building
did have a pool, hottub and grills for us to use. We also learned that we were among the few
vacationers in the building that actually spoke English. No other college students in the place
as far as we could tell. Guess we'll have to make our own fun.
So we did. The girls all wanted some sun. And so down to the pool they went! I put on some serious sunscreen and followed later. It made for a pretty relaxing few days. We cooked some food, soaked in the hottub, enjoyed a few drinks and just chilled. One day we hit the mall, one day we hit the beach. At night, some of them split to go over to another place (Robbie, Jon's friend, had come down for break as well) and they partied over there. At one point, the party ended up at our suite (I'm still trying to figure that one out!) and that didn't go over well with our neighbors.
Running through some of the pictures:
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The party went until about 5 AM or so. I wasn't into the
party, so I crashed in one of the bedrooms. Jenny was saying something about crashing
too, but then someone offered her $5 to drink a beer and since you can't just drink one beer...
Well you can guess what happened from there.
I woke up around 9 or so. There were people asleep everywhere. I learned the names of a few of the people that came over and wasn't too surprised to find them still at our place. I grabbed my camera and keys and left. I was planning on going to South Beach and just doing some sightseeing, but then I saw the Everglades on the map and decided to just do it. It was a 2 hour drive just to the entrance of the park, but I figured I would be back before the group woke up and got moving. I go to the entrance of the Everglades in decent time. I pulled into the visitor center and read some of the information and then sat and watched a nature video about the 'Glades. It mainly discussed the water problems that Florida has: too many people, not enough rainfall to support them. So I headed into the park... It's about 45 miles from entrance to Flamingo, which is the Southernmost point in the park. I think it is also the Southernmost point in the mainland Florida, but I'm not sure. Every 5 to 10 miles there was a turn off for one scenic sight or another. I passed several elevation signs that showed single digits. Never seen that before: "Elevation 5 feet above sea level". In between the scenic spots was flat grassland. This is the picture after the sign. The first scenic spot was an observation tower that let you get a 360-degree view of the grasslands. The next was a glade of tree's with a wooden path running through them. The further South I went, the more water there was. I grabbed some photographs from some of the more interesting areas and kept driving. They say that the real beauty of the Everglades can only be seen when you move off of the main path and further into the swamp. I can only hope so. Being from the mountains, the Everglades didn't really seem all that interesting. Lots of flat, with the occasional grove of trees. I reached Flamingo and took a few last pictures before heading back to the craziness of Miami. There's plenty to see in the Everglades. I didn't make the time to do much sightseeing, just a quick trip all the way through so that I can say "I've been there." It didn't impress me enough to plan a return trip anytime soon though; maybe I'm just too picky. Well, back to the fun. |
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After everyone recovered from their hangovers, the party continued. This
time we decided to take the show on the road. Key West was just calling our name and we answered. It's
a four hour drive (all depends on traffic) from Miami to Key West, so we took off before lunch. We stopped
along the way for some food and a couple souvenir shops. We even stopped at a "Swim with the Dolphins"
place because Tabitha was just dying to swim with some dolphins. After looking at the price ($40+) and
the schedule (which was booked for a few hours) we left without swiming with dolphins.
We cruised on into Key West and hit the Visitor's Center. They gave us all sorts of information on what to do around the island. We had a hard time making a group decision on things: take a sunset 'booze' cruise, hit the beach, go jet skiing, etc. I decided that I wanted to jet ski and I was able to talk Tabitha and Jenny into it as well. We split up with one group hitting the south beach and the three of us going to jet ski. As expected, riding around the ocean was pretty fun. We each took turns driving and trying to throw the rest of us off. The hour ended pretty quickly and we wanted to hit the party that happens every sunset on the West part of the island. The place that rented us the jet ski was located right next to a place that rented scooters. Tabitha and I grabbed a couple scooters and headed West. Jenny went along for the ride. We hit the strip and grabbed some dinner and walked around the shops for a bit. Jon and I grabbed the scooters and hit the Southern-most point on the island which is also the Southern-most point in the Continental U.S. We took the obligatory photographs and headed back to the crew. The night was awesome. The temperature was nice and the night was clear. We grabbed a table at a local bar and started into the karaoke. After a few drinks we all had enlisted in the singing ranks. The girls got up and gave a song. Jon gave a solo and then Jon, Skrog and I let out a little Bohemian Rhapsody. After a few hours of singing (and a little drinking) we started the trip back. Key West is worth the return trip. I'll have to make it back down there sometime. A cruise around the island is definitely in order. |
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Onto another party! Most of the group had tried going clubbing
on another night without much success. The South Beach clubs are pretty strict about admitting
under age people and with a few in the group, it made it extremely difficult to find some place to
go. They ended up wandering around the beach and seeing some sights that just weren't meant to be
seen.
With the help of some of the natives (namely Travis), we found a place that would let under-21 clubbers in, but to get in you had sign up for employment! It was called Atlantis and most of us got in for $15, but the younger ones had to sign all sorts of forms and paperwork for employment and still pay $20 to get in. The club had a couple dance floors, several bars and an outdoor pool. Being this far south, the name of the game was to pimp out as much as possible. Not my game but the music was still awesome at the club. Speaking of game... There was plenty of pre-gaming going on before the clubbing. Since I was DD, I couldn't really partake of the pregame. (Someone had to help those people stay upright long enough to get into the club.) It took a couple of hours for everyone to get in shape (or more likely to get out of shape) to go. We made it to the club with a few hours left in the night and we took full advantage of them. It was our last effort at partying. And we lived it up. That night went on for a while, but by the time we finished clubbing, there were some rather tipsy people. The ride home got pretty quiet with everyone passing out. At the end of it all, we managed to have an awesome time on the trip and everyone seemed to be ready to get home. I wouldn't recommend that 'resort' place to anyone, but it was definitely a fun trip. (Florida is just too flat for me to ever thinking about living there.)
And now for your moment of Zen. As the girls were primping for the party, there was a test of a new waxing kit. Skrog became the victim. So for the final picture for ya, we leave you with a picture of Skrog getting his leg waxed. |