Oh, Miami. How I love thee I got into Miami late Wednesday night after a particularly grueling day. (I had been eating gruel all day)
They gave me this huge car. Some sort of Chrysler land boat with a trunk the size of my apartment - Miami expressways feel my wrath. Somehow I found the hotel without any issues, which was pretty unbelievable since it was around 11pm and I was about to pass out from starvation. The hotel, like most of the buildings in this Miami beach area was all nutty and art deco-y looking... Cool place. The Park Central. I give it a thumbs up.
Oh, so the first night there I get in late and starving (even after all that gruel). I ask a hotel fellow for a recommendation for food and his heavy accented answer I can barely understand. I do understand these bits: 1. There is a TGIFridays that way. 2. There is something else the other way.
So, I go the other way and find this possibly obnoxious retro 50's diner on Ocean Drive. I mean obnoxious because it was bright and had that 50's theme going on. I ordered a beer and burger, and the burger, my friends, was smashing. It was also nice to sit outside, near the beach, in November and enjoy the breeze.
Did I mention I had a really hard time finding my actual hotel room? The Park Central, while a fine hotel (it really was) has a wonky numbering system sometimes (go ahead, I dare you to find room 217 late at night when you are exhausted).
Mrs. Robot arrives She flew in Friday night to join me. I picked her up at the airport like lovers do and drove her out to the hotel in my golden land boat. We had a fine time, and by fine time, I mean "sitting on the beach" and "walking on the beach" and "sleeping in the big bed". South Beach was just lovely. It hurt to come back to StinkTowne.
I have photos. I'll get them up ASAP.
we ate well in Miami. Cacao in Coral Gables Two of the folks at dinner were from Venezuela, and the chef here is apparently a bit of a celebrity there. He came out to the table and talked to us about his favorite things on the menu - it was great to see someone who just totally loved what he did. We all were a bit jealous. It was a great meal full of lots of modern interpretations of South American cuisine.
Yuca in Miami Beach "Modern Cuban fare" We started with lobster croquettes, and then moved onto tuna and grouper - everything was delicious. Mrs. Robot loved the mojitos.
Dogma in Miami We had lunch at Dogma on our last day. They do hot dogs. They do hot dogs very well.
Joe's Stone Crab in South Beach One of the participants at the training session thing has family in Miami and they were going to Joe's and raved about it - figured that was a good enough recommendation. Joe's is a huge, touristy operation, but they serve some awesome seafood. Mrs. Robot got this plate that was something like 5 tons of various fish, crabs, oysters, mussels, lobsters, and did I say crabs? Yea, crabs. I had the crab cakes which about rocked the mutha-f*ckin crab house.
Help. Coffee. The past few months I have been hanging out in various office parks around this fine country and I have come to a conclusion: all those automated coffee machines just suck. Even worse, most of the offices are so far away from everything that you have to drive and drive for a simple cup of coffee.
I feel your pain office workers of America.
TV commercials Why do local businesses use their children in their commercials? "My dad promises the lowest prices on custom flooring" Do these kids get beat up by other teens afterwards?
Song I wrote god said to noah, you're gonna build an arkie arkie. giraffes and cougars and doggies that go barkie barkie.
