No Rules Vacay

Just got back from a No-Itinerary vacation. It was seriously the best thing that's happened lately. We decided since neither of us had been to the Everglades or Miami, we should go. And it wasn't toooo long of a drive, so it seemed to be the best option for 2-3 days. I had done some research about a month earlier when I thought we were going, then plans seemed to change and I thought we'd end up staying at home during our days off. Then the plan to go to Miami came back on the table. I looked for some fun restaurants and cheap hotels, but looking at all those websites and facts really wears you out after a while. Ultimately, we decided we would just go there, stay at a place we came to, enjoy the beach, view the city, and come back. That was the basic plan, with no time limits or restraints, no reservations, no rules. Stop when you want, go when you want, wake when you want, just relaxxxxx.

First series of stops: the Everglades.  Really, it's nothing exciting to look at. Most of the views on the road we were on looked like wheat fields, though if you were to walk in those fields you would sink because it was all water underneath. We did decide that the next time we're up to driving down that way, we are definitely doing one of the airboat tours...they have shops for airboat tours every 10 miles or so. We did get to see an alligator at one of our stops! Yahoo!

he's huge! at least 7 or 8 feet!

I think he's trying to figure out which tourist will be his dinner

turtle with extremely long neck

no idea why there are black (burned?) palm trees in the Everglades, but the incoming storm makes for an interesting picture

Miami Skylines

Our first night in Miami, we ended up splurging and staying in a super nice hotel on the beach. Some people make that hotel their home and the hotel sells some suites/penthouses/bungalows for up to $9,000,000! It was a nice hotel but I can't imagine calling it home. 

interesting light in our fancy hotel room

a studio room with couch, 2 tvs, kitchenette area, and balcony with beach views. The shower was also very cool with 3 shower heads spraying you at the same time. The bed was probably the most comfortable hotel bed I've ever slept on.

interesting how much hotels charge for drinks and snacks; the m&ms cost $12! no touchy!

one view from balcony. Hard to tell but that is the ocean to the far left.

another view from balcony, view of the city

 The next day we did a multitude of things. When we woke up, we walked on the beach. We had a time limit until we had to check out of our room, so we didn't end up swimming that morning. After checkout, we drove around some of Miami. We were going to do one of those hop-on, hop-off boat tours that takes you around the city, but couldn't find where those were located. We did end up doing another boat tour that took us around the city and the different islands around. It kind of ended up being a celebrity tour. Apparently one of the islands is where a lot of the "stars" live or have lived. Honestly, I started feeling sorry for these celebrities who want their own house and land and all of us going on these tours are creeping around their own private lives. I didn't feel comfortable taking pictures of their houses, even though some of them were very pretty. My favorite island (I don't remember the name) is the one where the people who live there can only get there by ferry or private helicopter and they have to pay $250,000 a year just to live there. They have all they ever need on the island, so there's not much reason to ever leave.

The only time we ate at a "chain" restaurant was when we went to Bubba Gump's. It was super good but wow, super pricey too! It was fun though, and we were on vacation.

We stayed at a cheaper hotel the second time around and really felt it the next morning. That bed was hard as a rock! It also had cool beach and city views. The water on Miami Beach is soooo pretty and bluish-green. And the sand is that perfect soft sand you always dream about. A few shells here and there, but for the most part, it's really a great beach. We spent our last day at the beach all day until we were ready to make the long trek back home. If you know us, you know that we love the indoors and may be mistaken for vampires because we are so pale. My family loves to joke that they are more tan than we are and we are the ones living in the Sunshine State and near the beach. So beach day for us is always a little scary the first time around, because no matter how many times we apply our sunscreen, we always end up getting burned. 

The beach day was super windy and had a ton of waves in the ocean. The wind was really nice because we didn't end up feeling super hot like you normally do in Florida. And the water felt like ice when you first stepped in, but once you got in the water past your toes, it felt soooo good. It was probably one of the best beach days I've ever had....not too hot, not too cold, it was jussst right! And I didn't drown! Even though I thought I was going to a few times, I survived! haha, I'm not much of a swimmer and with those big waves, the only thing that kept me in the water was Ben and my foam board that I used to ride the waves in.

By the way, our mini vacation was a blast! But we ended up paying for it once we got home. We found out how sunburned we really are and for the first time in my life, my feet are super swollen! It's like looking down and seeing someone else's feet, it's the weirdest thing. And talk about walking! I can feel how swollen they are every time I try to walk. So today (our very last day of our vacation) has been spent by trying to stay off of our feet (which are also sunburned), watching movies, playing games, drinking lots of water, and by rubbing aloe on ourselves every so often. 

All in all, super fun vacay!