In southern Florida, we finally had a break in the weather. Hot and humid temperatures allowed us to experience the tropics and our friends took us out for some great dining.

Day  111 – 112
November 21 – November 22, 2014
Miles 14075 – 14421

For the first time since leaving Illinois, the roads had tolls, and our Virginia EZ pass wasn’t accepted. We arrived in the early evening at our friend’s condo in Miami. Rick and Dian live in a huge high rise complex on the water. The lobby of their building felt like quintessential Miami. Large oversized purple columns shot up through a dim room with silver accented furniture and red lights. Oversized paintings leaned against walls and long thin tables with carved stools ran the length of the room.

We happened to visit the same weekend as Rick’s sister, Jenny. The five of us went to Pubbelly, which is Rick and Dian’s current favorite restaurant in Miami. Pubbelly serves Asian fusion tapas. Our favorites were the pork belly, the duck and pumpkin dumplings, and the brussels sprouts however the entire meal was very good. Afterwards we went to get drinks at a bar. We walked into two bars and found them to be very loud and surprisingly cold. Instead we ended up sitting outside with mojitios at Havana 1957.

In the morning, it was warm and humid. Everyone, except me, took advantage of the weather and went for a run outside. Dian and Rick cooked breakfast for us. We decided to spend the day at South Beach and drove there. On the way there, we looked over at a chauffeured car in the next lane to see Jason Segel sitting in the backseat! South Beach is the iconic Miami beach. An expanse of sand beach is on one side of the road and retro style high rises is on the other side.

We walked straight to the beach and put our feet into the waters to officially reach the east coast. We walked down Ocean Drive facing strong winds until finding a restaurant for lunch. Cuban is very popular cuisine in Miami so we decided to try Larios on the Beach. It was okay, but compared to the rest of the meals we had in Miami, nothing special.

The ladies spent the next hour strolling Lincoln Road Mall, a mostly pedestrian shopping expanse, while the guys got a beer and watched football. We had purchased tickets earlier in the day for Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, which was showing in the theater at the end of the road. (I actually enjoyed the movie more than the book). On the way home, Rick and Dian took us to one of their favorite Thai Restaurants, Panya Thai. Having lived in Thailand they definitely know what to order and we had an excellent meal. Jon and I left Miami the next day after a leisurely morning.

Group photo after morning runs

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