Bienviendo a Miami (and West Palm)

Day 1 - I continued the drive to Miami and landed myself at my friend Ashley's apartment in Hollywood. Sarah drove down from West Palm and we did some catching up as I prepared for the girls a version of a dish I like to make to throw on the grill sometimes. It's individual tinfoil packets with pieces of potato on the bottom, topped with andoullie sausage (sometimes I use chorizo) and then shrimp (usually I'll also put scallops on top of that but we didn't have any). Then I put some butter, garlic, white wine and dill on top of that and we took them down to the grill. Because I'm from the Chesapeake area, I also usually put old bay in there as well but this was an improv version of the dish. I don't think they use Old Bay in the land of the stone crab and spiny lobster.

We grilled out, had a couple of glasses of box wine and caught up by Ashley's pool, just  short distance from the beach. It wasn't a late night though, I'd had a long day already so we went to bed.

Day 2 - Ashley and I met up with her boss and went to a free yoga class at LuLu Lemon. The teacher was everything I imagine an attractive Latino yoga teacher in Miami to be. At one point in the class he instructed us to find our "sit" bones and joked that if we couldn't find it, he would come around and help us. I'm telling you, any woman (and maybe some of the men) in that class who deny that they weren't thinking in their head "Nooo, nope, I can't find mine, please come help me!" is a liar! My mat had been in the trunk of Doris the Yaris so I'd borrowed one of Ashley's and we cleaned it just before class. I was slipping and sliding all over that thing, so the store owner came over and offered me one of the mats in the store to use. At the end of the class, she turned to me, pointed to the mat and whispered, "this is a gift, I want you to have this." Once again, the generosity of a stranger. It's a really nice mat and because she gave it to me, I wound up giving the one I had in my trunk to Ashley. Just sharing the love.

After yoga we went to the beach and were eventually joined by Kim & Mark and their friends who were also in town. We hung out there for a while and agreed to meed later at the Hollywood boardwalk for dinner. We had dinner at a good sushi place then did some walking around.

Day3 -  The next day, met Kim at her place and went to a state park to BBQ some lunch and hang out on the beach. I was surprised by the beaches at the park, they were really pretty. At one point some people were digging in the sand in the shallows of the water and talking a lot in spanish. We went over to check it out, and one of them pointed to my feet and started screaming something in spanish. I started screaming as a result, and then they were all laughing, because they had tricked me. They were fishing around for a stone crab who had burrowed himself down in the sand and eventually they did get him out. It was my first time seeing a live stone crab up close.

After lunch, I made my way to West Palm to spend a night with Sarah at her place. Really nice area and a contrasting pace from Miami, but the drive there was terrifying. As Mark had said, driving on I-95 in Miami is like being in the Daytona 500 every day. I had a really fun time just taking it easy with Sarah and chatting with her and her boyfriend John, who said to call him Jack now and that it's short for John. I'm still trying to figure out how that makes sense. Sarah made us a big spaghetti dinner and it was really comforting and relaxing to have a hearty home-cooked meal. Then, Sarah forced John-Jack and I to watch 'The Bachelor' and I have to say I'm so happy I would be in India for the next week's episode because I found myself getting interested in the show and did not want to get hooked.

Day 4 - Drove back toward Miami and really wanted some cuban food before I left, so I made it my mission to get some. I'd wanted to try Versailles after seeing Anthony Bourdain go there on 'No Reservations' and then John-Jack's friend Eduardo said it was the place to go for cuban as well, so I decided this meant I had to go. I made my way to little Havana and entered the cafe part of Versailles, which also had a bakery part and a cuban coffee/cigar shop part. I ordered a cuban espresso and through a broken spanglish dialogue, the Criollo, which was some sort of sampler platter. It came with incredibly flavorful chunks of pork, an item that looked like a corn dog but then you dug in and it had ham and cheese mixed inside, sweet plantains, a tamale, some pulled beef in a tomato based sauce, and something that looked a little like slimy potatoes but tasted heavier. It was delicious.

Ashley's boyfriend was home for the day so I took the rest home to him. Afterward, we made our way to Ft. Lauderdale to the Elbo Room, a bar that has been so popular there for so long, it was recently declared a historical landmark. After doing some quality people watching at Elbo Room, we made are way back to Hollywood to a restaurant called Le Tub for dinner. It was a neat little place right on the waterway with tubs and toilets all over the place with various plants growing out. Ashley is in school for physical therapy and had just aced a test so we celebrated and on the way out, we went to say hi to a celebrity at the bar. Well, he's a celebrity if you're from Vienna, Virginia; the owner of Vienna Inn! What a small world.

Phew! Now I'm all caught up with my time up until India, which is where I am now. I may not be able to post any photos while I'm here because of the internet connection but I'll try to post something by this Sunday when I have my next block of "free time" from yoga teacher training. I can tell you that I'm loving it so far!