Sunday, February 21, 2016

Miami - February 2016


South Beach Miami
Keith had a conference in Miami so we decided to make a weekend of it.  Since we have SWA companion pass, Shawna few with Keith and his work colleagues on the Wednesday night.  We rented our own car to get from Fort Lauderdale airport to the Trump Doral, the site of the 2-day conference.  Shawna was able to work out of the room for the Thursday / Friday as Keith was at meetings - though she did venture out and crashed the Thursday night dinner at the pool.

Pool at the 1 Hotel
Keith wrapped up his meetings at 2pm and Shawna had to leave the room after checkout so we went over to our South Beach hotel for the weekend: the 1 Hotel.  We had chosen it for the pool area, and it did not disappoint.  We discovered that the hotel was formerly the Gansevoort which we have visited before.  Dinner on Friday was at Pubbelly.  The food was incredibly tasty (tapas) - we shared the crude, pork belly, brussels sprouts, stone crab fettuccini, and conchinillo.

Beach View from Hotel
On Saturday Keith ran down to the cafe and brought back yogurt and coffee before we went for a walk up the boardwalk for an hour.  The rest of the day consisted of relaxing in our rented cabana (#2) and reading.  It was a bit cloudy which was good - no sunburns.  Dinner the Saturday night was at The Bazaar - another high-end tapas restaurant - food was very good.

Our Cabana - Home for 2 Days!
Sunday was a copy/paste of Saturday - breakfast, walk (this time to the south), then the day relaxing in the cabana at the pool reading.  Our flight was not until 6:30pm so we were able to get almost the whole day at the pool again.

Stroll on the Beach
We definitely should do this once a year! It was a nice reprieve from the winter!

Sunday, February 7, 2016

Suppa Club in NC - February 2016

Lunch with Steph
Now that we are only a quick flight away, we decided to head to North Carolina for a Suppa Club - this one was the Mardi Gras celebration at Joyce and Phil's.

Shawna and JoAnna
Since we had a few things going on, we decided to fly out the Saturday morning and fly back on the Sunday.  Stephanie picked us up from the airport in time to take us over to lunch at Brixx in Brier Creek.  We decided to kick it off with a couple of beers over lunch - with the upshot being that Keith was able to have a nap once we got to John's.  Shawna and John went shopping so they could both make appetizers while Keith was sleeping - he was "wrecked".

Kim and Kate
Before heading to Suppa Club, we had a couple of beers at John's house.  We then went over to Phil and Joyce's house - it had been quite a while since we were at their house.  Also in attendance were Keith/Kate/kids, Teresa/Brandon, Kim/Jonathan, and John/Jo.  We had a few dips for appetizers and then jambalaya and rice and beans for dinner.  Dessert was of course King Cake which Kate had made from scratch - Shawna was quite impressed.  It was awesome!  It was great to see everyone and of course to celebrate Mardi Gras with friends.

John
We got an early flight back on the Sunday so we could get some work done at home.