Trip #7: Miami - SOUTH BEACH

February 29th, 2007

I slapped on some sunscreen & lounged on the beach all morning. Amazing. We spent the morning doing just that. Those who know me know that I LOVE to nap...and I have to say this was the best place to nap by far! With the sun radiating on my face, it was wonderful!

Apparently I'm afraid of water...(probably cause I can't swim so well) yep, so I didn't venture too far.Here is a "Halle Berry out of the water" pose - yah right! I think you can see my fear of the water in this pic. Afterwards we changed, and caught a city bus from our hotel to South Beach (the tourist - southmost point of the island). There were clubbing fashion stores everywhere, Miami is sooo different! We made our way to the beach area - the beach is lined with condos & hotels with cafes and restaurants that open onto the streets. Historical sites included: the mansion where Versace was gunned down..

Oh & we spotted MIAMI INK!!!!-
It's a tattoo parlour famous for it's reality show on TLC...Here's a pic of me infront of the parlour! I LOVE that show even though I have no tattoos haha...I think i received a few bad looks from the people in line. yep.


South Beach is one of the hot spots on the island. I took a break there, picked a spot in the sand and just enjoyed the scenery...That is until we noticed "Hey, there are an awful LOT of guys on this beach..." & "Weird - are speedos a fad right now? Cause ALOT of people are wearing them" Then we look up there were two men spooning & making out directly across from us. Somehow we managed to pick the gay area of the beach for a break. haha. Grrreeeaaaat.





This quickly motivated us to start wandering again, we found a market area & had a spectacular dinner out in the patio at an Italian restaurant, (Jess enjoyed the "service" haha - see pic) & they had a live Italian band playing too :)

Trip #7: Welcome to Miami - Buenvenidos a Miami

February 24th, 2007

Enjoy my Will Smith lyrics?....man I could not get that song out of my head the whole 8 hour flight there!!!

So we touch down in Miami, Jess & I grab a shuttle and get a beautiful tour of the city as the driver dropped off other passengers. We passed the venue where Justin Timberlake was performing that night **tear**...alas it was not meant to be :( (plus we would have been way late) Our Tahitian shuttle driver, - very cool - said that Miami was THE place to be, work & live. He also tried to speak to us in spanish which didn't work so well...Our hotel was AWESOME! Casablanca was literally RIGHT on the beach (just as I had google mapped it) in the southern section of the miami beach island! Wow. We checked out the restaurant in the hotel and had cuban food with mohitos!!! yum! While watching a local "Miami Idol show" hosted in the lounge. One guy did an amazing counting crows cover!

Trip #6: Rain in the desert.

February 19th, 2007

So today we were determined to use the pool. Apparently it wasn't warm enough for anyone to test the hottub, but we're Canadian eh, so we jumped right in - the pool guy thought we were crazy....it started to RAIN(at that point we looked stupid). It rains, in the desert...of course...when I'm there. haha.

We walked around and found the fashion show mall...It had a Forever 21!!!!! Wow is that store ever AMAZING! Poor Jess was probably sick of shopping by the end. We walked around the casinos some more, it was Chineese New Year on the weekend! So there were still red decorations & lanterns everywhere for good luck...these casinos go all out....Oh yes and it year of the boar ; my year! - and so far, things are going a LOT better than the last one. :)

We had our last monorail ride and alas...it was back to the airport the next morning...I officially HATE airplane smell by the way. ick. Just one last long trip to go!


Here are some random pictures:























Can you spot me at the Venetian in this picture? I felt dwarfed.-yes yes i know that's a setup for a joke...ha.
















Goodbye Las Vegas!

Trip #6: Sin City....ok NOW I get it.

February 18th, 2007

Wow this city really feeds the indulgences...

Today was strictly 4 shopping! I think the best part of the afternoon was going to the IHOP! And no, I'm not mentioning this b/c of the food....maybe it's just the ones in Vegas but wow. did it ever seem TRASHY...and yet there were all these beamers parked in front...what a crazy mix. ha.

We said goodbye to Anita, Tara, and their friends, so the next couple of days it's just me and jess. We check in to the Sahara (on the north end of the strip) and try to find a ticket venue to catch a show in the evening...we tried walking to one just a street off the strip, and it was soooo scary!!! We walked thru a busy street and got honked at, hollered at, and one SUV stopped right beside Jess and told her he liked white girls..Then we literally RAN back to the hotel. haha it was the middle of the friggin day! Another thing we noticed on the walk there is that porn is freely available in newspaper dispensers on every block...no real journalism, or anything remotely close...just porn It's gross...but I'm definitely beginning to understand the whole Sin City thing...

Speaking of which, we found tickets to Cirque de Soleil!!...uh..Zumanity - the R rated one that will definitely NOT be aired on CBC anytime soon. Let's just say that the host was a transvestite....a very funny one! The acrobat acts were amazing! And with this show they tried to embarrass people in the audience a lot. So it was interactive...which probably sounds really bad since I just told you it an R rated show.

From there we wandered around the casinos, all of which are themed, inside New York New York are streets lined with fake apartment buildings, the Paris is an Eiffel Tower on the outside and has a painted blue sky indoors, with street lamps and cafes! The Bellagio has tigers in the front lobby! Everything's soooo extravegant! The lights, the shows, the money! (None of which I saw....and I became TOTALLY addicted to playing the Big 6....my bad) I think I got Jess addicted too...& got coaching from
a couple experts at the table :)


Check out the pic below...if you click on it you can zoom in and read the hotel sign. Who would have thought they could fit all THAT on ONE sign?!?! I had to take a pic....note to self...never stay at the Frontier...EVER.