Skip to main content

Miami 2008

As described in my previous notes, September was a very harried month for our household. So it was perfect timing that I had arranged back in the springtime for a ladies getaway trip to the Caribbean for late September.


It was the first official trip for my newest meetup group, NoVA Travelers (http://travel.meetup.com/1256). I formed this meetup in early summer at the request of several of the members from my other meetups (http://cooking.meetup.com/343 and http://walkers.meetup.com218) who reported that they enjoyed the short weekend trips I'd planned for those groups and looked forward to longer adventures. The basic operating principles of the group are as follows - I take input from members on destinations they'd like to visit, coordinate that info with the marketing and promotions info I am receiving on a daily basis from various travel agencies, consolidators, and transportation providers (such as the airlines or railways themselves) to find great deals for group trips. Depending on the location we either book a tour with a predetermined itinerary - or I research and plan an itinerary that I lead us on. We have our second group trip this weekend in NYC. We're doing a culinary tour of NYC and I'll be leading the group through 4 city sections [Little Italy, Chinatown, Astoria, and SoHO] while giving a talk on the history of each section and NYC overall. There will be a chocolate tasting as well as tastings and full meals in each city section. Nine of us are going and it should be a lot of fun. My compensation for the work is having my trip costs paid by the trip fees charged to the remaining members, so it works out for everyone as the cost is still much lower than on a commercial tour.


Anyway, for the Miami trip, we began with a weekend in South Beach from Sept 19th- 22nd. We stayed at Le Fountaine Bleu which is an AMAZING luxury resort. We had a one bedroom suite and attached studio suite. Marble bathrooms, bidet, Private ocean beach, spicy cabana boys to bring us iced cucumber slices and fresh water at the beach,amazing views off our private balcony, 7th floor rooftop pool, and more (And the hotel was only $130 a night per room thanks to the arrangements I'd negotiated ahead of time- an extreme discount off the normal $400 nightly rates.) Service was amazing and we all fell in love with the place. We crammed a lot of activity into the weekend from sightseeing in South Beach (the restaurants, the shops, the nightclubs!) and the heart of Miami (we went to Jungle Island - a sanctuary for rescued tropical animals and Little Havana-good cigars!) and everyone had a good time. We even rubbed noses with the quasi-famous, meeting Christopher Nolan's (directed The Dark Knight) brother at The Big Pink (a popular Miami restaurant in South Beach).


Monday morning rolled around and one of our members had to defect home (alas, work was calling) while the rest of us boarded the Carnival cruise ship Imagination for a 5 day Caribbean cruise. We had a day at Key West, another at Cozumel, and the rest of the time at sea. It was very lovely and just the sort of relaxation I needed. In Key West, a few of us grouped together to walk the city while another member ventured off on her own and another took an excursion tour offered by the ship focusing on Hemingway. In Cozumel, two of the members went on their own to see the city while three of us enjoyed an excursion tour that focused on sailing, snorkeling and then playing at a private beach. They had a water trampoline at the beach and that was very awesome (you swim out to it and climb on it and jump jump jump). There were also hammocks, plenty of beach chairs, and horses for riding. The cruise itself was lovely with plenty of the normal cruise amenities - spa (we had their massages and they were great!), pool and hot tub on the lido deck, funky drinks, late night dance clubs, fancy tea parties, formal night, tons of great food and music, and cheesy shows. I really hope to get an even bigger group assembled for our next cruise in the winter (a short and affordable Bahamas cruise).


Although the trip was fun, getting back home to see my husband was nice too after 7 days apart. And slowly I started to slip back into the regular patterns of life at home, although it took me a few days to adjust my sleep schedule and settle for just 3 meals a day. Heehee. :)


I think you are really going to laugh at the pics from the Miami trip - especially the ones from our cigar factory experience. You've got to see those! I've put them in a public album here:

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=62528&l=b4345&id=603259739


So that pretty much wraps up September. Now you see why I've been out of touch since August- busy busy busy. But things are settling down now. Other than this weekend, we've got no trips planned until November and no major projects or interruptions. Just the peace of ordinary life.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Board Game Review: Hues and Cues

Last week we received Hues and Cues from The Op Games. We recently finished playing through Scooby-Doo Escape from the Haunted Mansion (a fantastic game in The Op Games catalogue designed by Jay Cormier, Sen-Foong Lim, and Kami Mandell that you should absolutely pick up to play with your family) and wanted to give another game from the same publisher a go. I picked Hues and Cues because I’ve been pleasantly surprised by other “test whether our minds think the same way” games such as The Mind   and Wavelength. In Hues and Cues , players gather around a large central board comprised of 480 graduating colors of the rainbow surrounded by an x-y axis and scoring table. White and black (which are technically not colors) are conspicuously absent as are shades (mixtures of color + black; e.g., grey) and tints (mixtures of color + white; e.g., cream).  On each player’s turn, they draw a card with four colors and the x-y axis codes of those colors depicted and they select one. They are in the

Board Game Review: Obsessed with Obsession

I'm completely obsessed with Obsession! I received a review copy of the updated second edition along with all the expansions (Wessex, Useful Man, Upstairs Downstairs) and from the moment I took everything out of the boxes, my excitement was over the top. Actually, that's not even the half of it - I remember I was already quite excited before the game even arrived. I'd wanted to get my hands on a copy as soon as I learned there was a game that brought the lifestyle that we all fell in love with watching Downton Abbey to the gaming table. Back in 2021, I was having a great time at the Dice Tower Summer Retreat and a new friend Bonnie sang the praises of Obsession. She had seen me eyeing the box on the shelf and gave me a summary of the game mechanics as she owned the first edition. She explained that the theme is centered on running an estate in Derbyshire and competing against others to have the best home, reputation, gentry guests, etc. Based on her enthusiasm and descripti

Board Game Review: Anno 1800

Whenever Martin Wallace designs a new game, I am all over it. This is because I absolutely love Brass Birmingham (another MW designed game); in fact Brass Birmingham is my #1 board game of all time. Over the years, his other games I've tried have been pretty good, but not necessarily amazing must-buys. Still, I keep trying each new release of his, searching for that next star performer. That's why I'm excited to report that Anno 1800 is, in fact, a star performer, and an amazing must-buy board game. Anno 1800 was adapted by the publisher (Kosmos) from a Ubisoft video game of the same name. In the board game, players take on the role of industrialists, charged with developing their island economies and exploring other islands. Each player begins the game with a personal industry board with trade & exploration ships, a shipyard, and industrial goods tiles printed on the board. A starting collection of workers (wooden cubes) of various types to produce the goods is a