My colleague Kelly also came on the trip and she was a wonderful travel partner, I'm so glad we get along, because or else it would have been a LONG 3 days. On Wednesday, we went straight from the airport to the district office, which is in Kendall. We arrived, met everyone in the office (so nice) and started setting up for the Hispanic Heritage Reception. The event was a success, with 60+ guests, there were even photographers and the most delicious food! After the event we checked into the hotel, showered/changed and two of our colleagues took us out for a night on the town. We went to Brickell, which by the way, quick tidbit of information, has the largest concentration of international banks in the United States. But also, restaurants, bars, clubs, etc. We went out to the Blue Martini, where it was ladies night and they had a fabulous band. We did not get home until around 2:00am. As you already know, I do not function quite well after the sun sets, so you can only imagine how I felt the next day. I felt like I had been run over with a truck, although I guess I do not know how that really feels, so that is not the most accurate description, but you get the point. Tired, Miserable, Muy Sleepy.
On Thursday, we went to the office and we were taken on a tour of the district. It was really helpful to gain more of an understanding and a visual of the areas our congressman represents. We mainly visited Doral, Hialeah, Miami Lakes and also visited a Senior Center. These are very common and popular in South Florida, not sure if they are elsewhere. These are centers where people over 60 can go and spend their mornings and have lunch, but they do not live there. There is so much to do--knitting, billiards, arts and crafts, exercise, etc. It was very special to be able to visit and everyone kept saying "the youth is here, llego la juventud". We also got to have lunch at a popular Cuban restaurant, La Carreta, where we had a delicious and very filling meal, I had 'palomilla' which is a grilled piece of lean meat with rice, beans and plantain. Very light for the middle of the day, I know. Kelly and I took it easy that night, after all we needed to get some rest after the previous evening. So, we went to a sushi restaurant near our hotel and then watched Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice. We agreed to wake up early the next day (today) and head to Miami Beach, it was our last day and we were lucky enough to have the morning off. Someone recommended we go to Lincoln Road and have brunch at Van Dyke
Cafe, which was delicious and after two days of rain, we were graced with perfect weather. It was beautiful, so beautiful that Kelly is sure she wants to move there on Monday. After eating, we headed to the beach, shopped and walked around until it was time to head to the airport. On our walk we saw a movie/TV show being filmed, but we did not catch the name, a board said something about "Black Ops" but who knows...all I saw were a bunch of cameras filming a beautiful, tall skinny, green eyed woman eating at a restaurant. Then, near the beach, we saw a homeless looking woman being interrogated/almost arrested, allegedly for changing her clothes in public three times and taking a shower at the Ritz Carlton pool. Doesn't sound too shabby, she kept saying "I needed to get ready for work and that seemed like a good place". And, if that was not enough excitement for one morning, we also got to go to Dash, a clothing store owned by the Kardashian sisters!! It was so funny to be there, after seeing and hearing about the store on TV, too bad I had to resist temptation and left empty handed :(
Now I am home and Matt has the sniffles, pobrecito. My friend Marianna, from Mexico, is in DC for work, so we are going on a "special pass only" tour of the White House gardens on Sunday. I'll let you know how that goes, hope you are all happy, healthy and well.
More pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/sofocampo/Miami
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