Bienvenido a Miami

 This summer has been such a blessing. James, my husband, gets roughly eight weeks off in the summer. He has some work he has to do from home, but mostly it is just a sweet time for us to be together as a family. And boy, has he been super husband and super daddy. He lets me sleep in every morning, getting up with Adoration, preparing her breakfast, and dealing with her morning crankies. And lots of days he's been taking her on special daddy-daughter dates to the pool, park, or beach, giving me some time to myself and time to rest. I'm soaking it all on, knowing that very soon, he will be back to work and I will be very busy with a two year old and a newborn.

We've had lots of beach days, a trip to NYC and to Delaware for a wedding, and the last two days we had a little stay-cation in Miami. We stayed in a cute little neighborhood called Coconut Grove, right on the bay. We stayed in, what was essentially a penthouse condo, 2 bedroom, with floor to ceiling windows and a wraparound porch, with a view of both the bay and the city. It was pretty sweet, and amazingly, it was FREE. Awhile ago, my husband ran a sprint triathlon In Miami. He and his friend found a place to stay through couch surfing. And to their surprise, instead of sleeping on someone's couch, they got an entire swanky condo (not your typical couch surfing experience.) James was able to meet the owner and she invited him to bring his family back anytime. Currently, she only lives in her condo part of the time, and generously let us stay there for a couple of days while she was out of town. The first nine floors of the building is a hotel, and the top floors are people's condos, sporting an amazing rooftop pool and hot tub.
I was curious and checked out the rates of the hotel, and the two bedroom places go from $500-$700 a night! So we were super spoiled. If I'm ever super rich, I hope I'm as generous and hospitable as the owner of this condo.

We spent most of our time relaxing by the pool, enjoying the neighborhood, and eating yummy food. For dinner one night, we ventured out of Coconut Grove, down to the design district for dinner at Michael's Genuine, which was sooo yummy. On Tuesday, we wanted to check out Vizcaya, an Italian style villa and gardens, that is supposed to be pretty incredible. It ended up being closed for the day, so we hit up the beach at Key Biscayne instead. Miami was a city I knew nothing about before moving here. I think I envisioned the whole city was like South Beach. In reality, it's a a really beautiful city that has a lot to offer. I think we will be visiting more often in the future!