Lovin’ life in the 305
Since last weekend, I’ve enjoyed so many different aspects of life in South Florida. Restaurants, events, parks, the beach, museums. I have so much to tell you so let’s get started.
Vance and I at the Celebrity Cruises event on Miami Beach.
Gorgeous view at the Celebrity Cruises event.
The weekend started off with a bang last Friday when Vance and I had a jam-packed afternoon and evening. We started it on the sands of Miami Beach behind the gorgeous Loews Hotel at a Celebrity Cruises pop-up event. The cruise line set up a replica of their newest outdoor dining venue Orange Peel Bar & Grille debuting aboard Celebrity Beyond and Celebrity Reflection ships. We were thankful for the afternoon breeze as we nibbled on bite sized versions of their food offerings (burger and chicken sliders, grilled cheese with tomato soup and mini hot dogs) and signature cocktails at the bar. I got a great orange and white-striped monogrammed Celebrity Cruises beach towel (at their on site monogramming station). Overall it was a great event, I mean being on the beach is never a bad thing.
Edna “E” Mode, a character from “The Incredibles” Pixar movie on display at The Frost Science exhibit.
Just one of the many displays at the Pixar exhibition, this one featured drawings from the “Wall-E” movie.
From there, we drove over the Causeway to the Frost Science Museum for the Members Preview of their new exhibit “The Science Behind Pixar” which I mentioned in last week’s blog. We did have to wait in timed entry since they were limiting it to 20 people at a time. Once inside it was all Pixar in this somewhat immersive, behind the scenes look at how the world of animation comes to like and the people that make it happen. “Monsters, Inc.,” “Up,” “The Incredibles,” “Wall-E,” “Toy Story” and so many more beloved Pixar movies are represented in this exhibition which by the way, will be on display until April.
Nick at first base.
On Saturday, we spent the morning at Fletcher Park in Broward watching Nick get a few hits and do some decent fielding during another Special Olympics exhibition game. Next, the team is headed to Orlando in November for the state competition. Then that night, Vance and I went to Dania Pointe in Dania Beach, for a dinner and a movie date night. After watching “The Social Reckoning” (a continuation of the film “The Social Network”), the first one telling the story about the beginnings of Facebook while this one focused on the company’s legal troubles, we had dinner at Mister 01 Extraordinary Pizza where we tried their famous star-shaped pizza filled with ricotta and topped with spinach, zucchini and roasted red pepper puree and it was really good. Light and airy, it was a nice change from traditional pizza with a thicker crust. Afterwards we stopped in to Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurant where we sat at the bar and had an after dinner drink and dessert. I had a refreshing peach sangria and we shared the S’more Budino dessert, a caramel custard with Ghirardelli chocolate mousse and brown-butter toasted graham cracker.
Monday, after Vance helped me with my food rescue run, Vance and I dropped Nick off at his girlfriend Sabrina’s house and we had a day date. We started with lunch at the iconic Tropical Chinese Restaurant in Westchester where we had dim sum and rice noodles and after, went to walk it off at Tropical Park before picking Nick up and heading back home. Then that night, I went to a meet & greet/book signing event at Books & Books in Coconut Grove hosted by Chef Mika Leon for her new cookbook Cuban Soul. I went with my friend Janet and while we waited in the long line, which was worth it, we caught up and enjoyed great cocktails made by Gio “Chat Chow” Gutierrez, Miami’s best known Havana Club Rum ambassador. It was a great event and saying hi to Mika and the huge hug and her recognizing/remembering me was pretty cool. I’ve been following her since she had her Caja Caliente food truck in Wynwood and I love her story and how she always cooks with her Mom and all her recipes are inspired by her and other family members. I’ve already made her arroz con pollo recipe twice, even before owning the cookbook and it turned out fantastic both times. What a fun night.
The Smashing Pumpkins team smiling for the camera, happy with the first place win. Each week, trivia host Heather takes a pic of the first and second place teams then shows them up on the screen the following week.
Wednesday night at trivia our team, we called ourselves “The Smashing Pumpkins” this week, won first place! It’s always a good time at Old Tom’s Cafe with the trivia gang.
The Nourish Miami crew today enjoying lunch prepared by the best cook ever, John the tall guy on the right. He made two delicious lasagnas.
And finally on Thursday, I spent most of the day volunteering with Nourish Miami, which I’ve been doing for a few months now. We prep food and prepare boxed meals with donated food from amazing places like Capital Grille, Turnberry Isle and Cook Unity. We work hard to fight food insecurity in Miami and have a lot of fun doing it. It’s back breaking work but all worth it.
Now you know I’ll be back next Friday with more news but for now, Nick and I are gonna be islanders for the weekend, Merritt Islanders. We love a road trip up to the townhouse and giving Vance a break from driving to Miami every weekend. I also can’t wait to see Elizabeth.
I leave you with a picture I snapped of the sun shining through this glorious tree at Ed Burke Park. Now go have a great weekend!
