688. South Beach

Where: Miami, Florida
When: November , 2007
With: Chris, Mikey, Brett

Despite having gone to college in Florida, and spending years vacationing in Fort Lauderdale with my grandparents, I had never been to Miami. Miami is a very polarizing place: people seem to either love it for the beaches, the food and nightlife, or hate it for the traffic, crowds, and nightlife. When my friend Nicole was going to get married in Coral Gables nearby, I figured this was a great opportunity to see which end of the spectrum I landed on.

The city of Miami sits on the mainland of Florida, whereas Miami Beach sits on a strip of land opposite the city and separated by the Intracoastal. South Beach is the southern tip of this strip of land. I ended up booking myself a hotel in North Beach, a bit far from South Beach but still right on the water. While it wasn't the glamorous Miami hotel, it still had some gorgeous views.

I was able to round up a couple of my friends from college to come and join me on this Miami exploration. While I waited for them to arrive, I took a walk on the beach and enjoyed that beautiful turquoise water. 

By the time they got in, it was pretty late. So we stuck close to the hotel, found a super divey bar, and proceeded to have a good college reunion evening which involved a lot of drinking. 

The next morning, whenever it was everyone woke up, the day was absolutely beautiful and again, I couldn't believe how turquoise the water was down here. I don't remember Fort Lauderdale looking like this!

Our main activity of the day was to go and explore South Beach. Chris was all ready to go, looking cool and hipster.

Made it.

I'll admit I was young and still sort of new to traveling on my own, so I didn't do any research on what to do. Not that it would have mattered when wandering around with three guys in their early 20s: the only thing on anyone's minds was where the cheapest beer was located! But there were palm trees everywhere, lots of pastel buildings, and it felt a bit like being back in the 1960s. 

We ended up heading over to the beach pretty quickly. 

The beach was an interesting array of people. Ok, pretty much, the most interesting thing was that topless bathing was a normal thing. There were boobs everywhere. And my guy friends were definitely enjoying every minute of it. I was more interested in the color of the water, which was still shocking to me. 

Chris, in his "locals garb", enjoying the beach. 

That evening, Mikey and Brett had to head home, but Chris was also in town for the wedding, so we decided to live it up South Beach style. Someone recommended that we head to a place called Mango's for a good South Beach nightlife experience. Boy, was it ever.

Mango's was massive for starters. It was a huge space with multiple floors and the center cut out so that each floor had a balcony looking down onto a stage on the first floor where a live bland played Latin music. On each floor, there were several rooms shooting off the balcony that each had a live band playing a completely different genre of music. 

Looking down from the balcony. We spent a good amount of time wandering the several rooms and checking out the various styles of music, but the best party was that center floor. 

After Chris showed me how to drink a "loaded Corona", which was basically pouring a shot of tequila into the neck of the beer, we were ready to dance it up like the locals! Chris is an excellent dance partner and couldn't have been a more willing person to bring to a place like this.

The next morning, it was time to head off to the wedding. While our time in South Beach was short, I'm happy that I got to spend a day getting a taste of Miami flavor. I would definitely go back to get more of the experience, but hopefully next time, no loaded Coronas.