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welcome to miami! Print
Written by Tania von Barkenhagen   
Wednesday, 10 February 2010

Yeah!  Finally after flying through Miami every now and then on our way down the Caribbean we were finally going to spend a day there!  And with good friends!  Let the party start now....


Last year one of our vacation rental guests just happened to be Sarabelle and Ruslan and their three beautiful daughters.  They stayed with us for two weeks and probably the fifth day into their stay we were staying up late every night and going out for dinners together, practically inseparable. They gave us an open invitation to visit them in Miami and when Sarabelle heard we were coming there was nothing else said except, "I'll be there to pick you up at the airport." We were really looking forward to spending some quality time with our friends!

The girls whisked us away from the airport and soon we were in Miami Shores at their beautiful home.  Knowing my penchant for avocados, Sarabelle went outside to gather some that had dropped from the tree.  Check out the size of the trees compared to Sarabelle!

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No rest for the wicked; bags in the house we paused for only a moment before loading up the car again with us and the kids and heading out for a little tour.

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Neither one of us had ever visited South Beach so Sarabelle and the kids took us on a little tour.

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We parked a little farther in from the beach and then walked slowly through a wonderful pedestrian area with tons of shops I wish I would have had more time to explore. 

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Just Keith and the girls! When Sarabelle wasn't playing tour guide the girls did a great job of keeping us occupied.

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They are so cute! 

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Considering that Keith can sniff out a Mac store in any country in the world, it wasn't so surprising he stumbled upon this one near South Beach. 

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Sunset was beautiful here; the weather was colder than normal but I loved the palm trees, activity and all the people!

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Sarabelle led us into a Cuban restaurant and pretty soon we were sipping our first Miami mojitos!

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The only thing missing was Ruslan, who was still working and would meet us at home later. The sun started to set so we headed for home; Ruslan had planned a big Argentinean style barbeque for us for dinner!

I thought Alessandra would find this interesting; shoes come off just inside the front door, no dirty shoe marks allowed in this household!

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Finally, Ruslan was home, we were feasting on snacks and Sarabelle was working her booty off getting things ready for dinner.

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Ekaterina kept me entertained and the kitchen turned into pretty much a circus with all of us in it.

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Ruslan had brought home some freshly crushed sugar cane juice so that Keith could whip us up some mojitos.  

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There is nothing like a mojito with all fresh ingredients!

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Ruslan was running around like a madman putting things on the grill and teasing us with all the tempting meats he was barbequing outside.  Finally, it was ready!

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Ruslan opened up a fantastic bottle of Malbec and we all sat down to enjoy dinner with our friends.

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Everything was wonderful although I soon started not to feel good and had to leave the table. Unfortunately for me I had a severe case of food poisoning and had an extremely uncomfortable evening.  Apparently the dish I had at the Rome airport with raw seafood was not good and I was sicker than a dog all night long.

I'm happy to report that the rest of the group had a great time and plowed through a few bottles of great wine and Ruslan and Keith stayed up late arguing/discussing various things, something they both like doing.

Here's to hoping for a better tomorrow!

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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 10 March 2010 )
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