Day 4-
It’s amazing how much you can get done in a day when you wake up at 6 AM. We had a nice breakfast on the patio while watching the sunrise over the ocean. Unfortunately the bagels we got from the store were pretty gross but, at least, the hotel coffee was decent. Of course, Harper had her moo moo. Day 4 was our “Miami Day”, but we had some time to kill before heading in town, so we decided to go for a nice long stroll along the beach and then to the pool for a little bit. It’s funny how different the pool is at 8:30 AM vs. 11 AM. It’s only filled with parents and kids. All of the “20 somethings” and partiers come out a little bit later after they sleep in. The transition of life stages opens you up to new time frames and new people.
We got a great little spot in the shade next to a cabana so Harper wouldn’t get sun burnt. We put her in her little swim diaper and floaty and hopped in the water. Thankfully, the pool was heated so we don’t have to worry too much about it being cold. It’s really cute watching Harper kick her little legs in the water and splish splash around and amazing to watch her learn her body parts and explore what they do. We were at the pool for about an hour and enjoyed some of our drinks that we smuggled in. We even talked to some of the parents that were there about their experiences with their kids. Everyone keeps telling us to enjoy Harper while she’s so little because it goes so fast. We are trying to soak up every moment.
It was time to head back up to the room, get changed for Miami, have an extra feed and do a little pumping. We got all of our bags packed in the car called and headed out for about a 45 minute drive. We got to Miami around lunchtime so we decided to go straight to Little Havana to a Cuban sandwich shop called Sanguich to try some of the local fair. Sanguich at great reviews and was not as sketchy looking at some of the other dives. It had a long line outside for people waiting for the sandwiches and smelled delicious. We got a table pretty quickly and the staff was so nice, cooing all over Harper. We probably could’ve split the sandwiches because they were huge! We also tried potato croquettes because I heard those were also all the rage. My croquettes were a little frozen on the inside, which was slightly disappointing, but the sandwich was a 10 out of 10. The bread was so crispy and delicious. Was a very filling lunch and definitely something we wouldn’t be able to get in Dallas!
While the GPS showed only a 15 minute drive to the Perez Art Museum, there was crazy traffic backed up for hundreds of yards at the Museum drive entrance. Thankfully, we were able to scoop around the traffic because of the way we are coming in but it was stressful. We waited about 25 minutes to get into the parking garage and find a parking spot. I ended up doing some journaling in the car while we were waiting and Ryan was just relaxing at the drive. We finally made it into the lot we are pretty wowed by the building itself. It was right next to the Frost Museum of Science and both buildings were beautifully architected it had some really cool gardens around them. They also looked out over the wharf with 10 out of 10 views.
We got into the museum and started looking around. Harper was really alert and started looking at all the art. She had never experienced anything like this before and a lot of the exhibits were very bold with color. We found a bright green tapestry and Harper just started talking and talking and talking. She couldn’t stop looking at the art and was very engaged with it. Her babbling was absolutely adorable and you could tell she loved all of the colors and patterns in the artist’s creation. Of course, the color didn’t stop as we entered the Andy Warhol exhibit. It was pretty incredible; full of color and fun prints. The museum combined Warhol’s art with another artist that Andy was inspired by and it was really cool to see the different styles of art from Warhols color blocks printing to the other artist block style of art.
The other collections within the museum were also compelling. We were in the museum for about an hour hour and a half before it is time to hop back in the car. I had to do a quick pump in the car on the way to the Wynwood walls. Ryan was running out of steam and I was getting kind of tired too after a long day. We drove up the walls and the art everywhere was pretty incredible! The Wynwood neighborhood just has murals after murals after murals on almost all the buildings. The Wynwood walls end up having a cover to get in and it was really crowded. It kind of felt like DiBella Maria and Dallas with a very young hip five. We decided not to go in since it was so crowded and we had Harper in the stroller.
We walked around for about 10 minutes and I did some of the pieces that we could see. Literally there’s art everywhere! There’s so much talent in this area. We decided to hop in the car and head back to the hotel pretty shortly after because we were pretty tuckered.
It was Harper’s nap time but, every time we tried to put her down for a nap, she decided to start talking. She just lays in her crib and talks and talks and talks and then rolled around a bit. There’s a mirror at the back of her crib and, even though we put her in vertically as not face in the mirror, she somehow found a way to turn, look in the mirror, and talk at herself. It’s absolutely endearing! Of course, Ryan couldn’t nap while she was talking but how could we be mad? She’s just so freaking cute! We did get a darkening tent to put over her crib which helped her get to sleep, but I couldn’t help but go over and peak at her. Ever time I did, I got a big wide smile back. Ugh my heart just melttssss.
We did some relaxing for about an hour and a half before the rain rolled in. The winds were crazy and we watched the umbrellas and pillows at the hotel pool next to us flying all over the place. We plan the perfect getaway for our day Miami since the beach really wasn’t an option with the weather. Because we really couldn’t walk anywhere due to the rain we decided to go back to the C-stand and serve for restaurant downstairs. The food was excellent so it wasn’t no-brainer. Ended up getting the goat cheese croquettes again because how can go wrong with with fried local goat cheese in a passion and purée? We all tried the ba buns and a sushi roll. Of course they pass her table with this giant blonde cookie thing for dessert and couldn’t resist. It was probably one of those delicious cookies I’ve ever had with kind of a coconut E chocolate texture and vanilla ice cream on top with butter scotch. You could tell that cookie had almost a whole stick of butter in it because of how soft and Juliet was. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.
After being immensely full and watching the rain hit the water from our table we were really tired. We went up to the room and played with Harper a little bit before passing out for the night.
Day 5-
I couldn’t believe it was our last morning already on our trip. At 5 o’clock Harper decided to start talking and talking and talking. She’s usually sleeps in until 6:30 so Ryan got up and held her for a couple minutes and she went right back to sleep. Thank goodness!
We had our final breakfast on the patio enjoying the view and then decided to go for our morning stroll. It’s so nice to see all the people out running and we actually have started to see familiar faces that are at the same time is us every morning. We get so many smiles with little Harper in tow. After our walk, we grabbed our pool bag and went to the pool. You got our same spots as the day before and Harper was a little more fussy this morning. I think she’s just overall very tired since her naps have not been as consistent and cut cut short. We had her in a little floaty for a little bit and then suede in the water. And then we laid out a little bit while she took a nap on the lawn chair. It was all very relaxing and such a nice day!
Lunchtime when you are a parents is at like 9:45 AM. When you have breakfast at 6 AM you do get hungry for lunch really early! We ended up packing our bags up at 10:30, getting changed in the room, and headed back to our favorite Mexican restaurant down the street. I couldn’t get that lobster quesadilla out of my head so we went back for round two.
Along with some margaritas, we had a nice long lunch looking out at the water. It was a really hot day so Harper enjoyed a nice cold bottle of milk. I have to say, the food has been excellent on this trip. We’ve been so pleasantly surprised!
After lunch I was pretty exhausted. We went back to the hotel for a nice long nap and I just totally passed out. It was the heat of the day so we wanted to wait it out a little bit for to get cloudy so we can go to the beach. That plan ended up working perfectly because, by the time we went to the beach around 3 PM, it was overcast.
The tide was also out so there are some sand bars that we could go sit at. We sat there for about 10 minutes and put our toes in the water. Harper liked feeling the sand but she wasn’t really into it as she was little too hungry and a little too tired and a little too cold. We ended up making her a little fort in between our layout chairs so she could take a nap. I was actually kind of jealous because of how cool it looked.
Ryan and I just relaxed and enjoyed the sound of the waves and the people. We talked about how much we needed this vacation, how good it was to get away together, and how we’re such a good team. It’s really amazing to watch Ryan become a father. He is the perfect partner for everything we need to do for a little Harper and for managing each other’s stress in situations. If you can travel together, you can do anything together. If you travel with the baby together, boy you’re unstoppable!
Eventually, little Harper woke up and we went looking for shells. We walked along the seaside and enjoyed the water on our feet. Harper was wearing a swim diaper but those do not hold pee. I was holding her and had her wrapped in a towel, praying that she wouldn’t be on me!
We were on the beach until about 4:30 PM, until it was time to head to the hotel and get ready for dinner. We have to do dinner around 6 o’clock or else we get too close to Harper‘s bedtime and she gets fussy.
We opted to try a Peruvian place down the beach called Kousine. It had great reviews and we found out why pretty quickly! Our waitress was really nice and from Cusco, so we ended up chatting with her about our times in Cusco and our favorite milk shake ever at a place near the cat park in Lima. She brought us these crispy corn curnals with this salty seasoning to start. Ryan and I also shared this insanely good passion fruit, ahi tuna ceviche. The waitress also told us that there is quite a Chinese influence in Peru, leading us to try this almost fried rice style dish with sweet Peruvian flavors. It was so different and so good! We have been trying a lot of different foods than we would typically order this trip which has been so rewarding! So many new things that we now love!
After dinner, we walked back to the hotel, packed our bags, and watched Below Deck while finishing off the rest of the birthday cake Oreos.
The Impatient Traveler 