Ah, Miami. I definitely had a good trip, but as I mentioned in this post, there are a few things I wish I would have known. The weather was really good for the most part - it rained a little one night and was so so windy another, but overall not too bad. The thing that suprised me the most though was that it is a little bit of a dirty city. Now, I'm not trying to hate on Miami, but I just didn't expect there to be such a huge difference between the cleanliness of Ocean Drive (the street lining the beach) and the rest of the streets. Granted, it could have been the area that we stayed in. I was also really taken aback by how in-your-face the restaurants on Ocean Drive are - all they do is heckle you to eat there! And most of them are pretty much the same restaurant - similar atmosphere and food, so they all offer you happy hour deals. I'd skip these, to be honest. 

     Playing the silverware game at a restaurant called The Place. That game's such a mind trick. We had the boys going for a good hour, and some of them all night. As for the restaurant - definitely pass on this one. I had a burger and fries, which was really good, and the salads look pretty big, but the pasta dishes are around $13 and they don't give you very much food at all. All of the boys ordered pasta and were still hungry when we left. 

     Wet Willie's ended up being one of my favorites.  The food is typical bar food, but still good. There is an entire wall of cocktails, with TONS of flavors. They're famous for their "Call a Cab" drink that is incredibly strong -- one friend joked he needed to call an ambulance after. One good thing to know - they only take cash!

     Lincoln Road has a ton of great stores and a lot of restaurants - sushi, pizza, more upscale places, etc. It is also home of Shake Shack (my roommate introduced us to this after visiting the NY restaurants) and it's delicious. Their burgers are pretty typical of any that you'd find at a diner/shake place, but their concretes (aka flurries, Mcflurries, whatever you want to call them) are amazing. Each location has unique flavors - the Shark Attack (peanut butter, chocolate custard, chocolate sprinkles, cookie dough, dark chocolate) is sooo rich, but so good. I liked the Key Lime Pie Oh My. 

The famous News Cafe! It's open 24 hours and is home to the infamous Cuban coffee and egg benedict below!

So, so good. The hollandaise sauce is made with cream cheese!

     Some friends at Mansion Night Club. Mansion is huge and incredibly nice, but definitely pricey in comparison to clubs at home. You can tell there are a lot of tourists, but we went on a weeknight so I can imagine that it'd be pretty crazy on the weekends. 

     I had a great time in Miami, but I'm not sure I'd go back for a while, just because there are so many other places I love more and would still like to go. Next up on my list is Las Vegas and back to New York...

     Hey friends, I'm back from Miami. Actually, I've been back for a few days now, but my stress level has skyrocketed so my blog has fallen a bit behind. Miami was a great time and now that I'm back to thirty degree weather, the beach pictures seem like a dream.

     This was my first time to Miami, and - oh man - there was a lot that I'd wish I'd known before going. But there was no drama and no major disasters (besides one friend missing his flight there) so everything went well. I'll just share a few pictures tonight, and I'll do a more in-depth travel post later this week featuring great food, the places to go (and not to go!) and a few tips. 

First day on the beach...

Ocean Drive

Boyfriend!

Amigos

Dash Miami (located next door to our hotel)!

Good morning! I'll be in Miami for the week, sorry for the lack of posts (midterms were killing my soul)! 

     For the long weekend my boyfriend and I went to Chicago. I had been before, but it was his first time, and I had an awesome time showing him the city and finding new restaurants together. One of our new favorites is Billy Goat Tavern (right off of Michigan Ave.), and for anyone who's from Ann Arbor, it's kind of similar to the atmosphere at Blimpy Burger. We did some shopping, and ending up scoring awesome seats (fourth row!) at the Friday night Blue Man Group performance - student rush is definitely the way to go for that show. Of course I was craving dessert after the show (I have a serious problem), and we got crepes at La Creperie. Its an adorable little French restaurant that serves mostly crepes - I had the Banana Sara and Brett had a strawberry one. They give you huge crepes that are just to die for. On Saturday we visited Millenium Park and the Art Institute of Chicago, did a little more shopping, and ended the night at the Red Bar Comedy Club for their one year anniversary show. It was my first time going to a comedy club, but it was just hysterical - Red Bar only has a $10 cover charge so it's worth it! We left Sunday afternoon, but we grabbed breakfast at the Grand Lux Cafe (owned by the Cheesecake Factory) and wow, best breakfast ever. Red velvet pancakes with cream cheese frosting?! Yes, believe your eyes. Delicious. Go there immediately.

Denim shirt with lace - Nordstrom, necklace - Topshop

Best pancakes ever.

      Next time I'm there, I'm finding the Meatyballs food truck (mostly just because it's called Meatyballs, let's be honest) and getting Chicago-style pizza since the wait was about three hours this weekend.

Traveling Chic

     I'll be doing a lot of traveling in the next week and a half and I'm getting so excited. I've been making lists in my head, and here's a few travel essentials that I'm lusting after: 

$8.50

I know this isn't a travel necessity, but it's the PERFECT shade of purple. It's classy but still fun for a summertime vacation.

$13

How cute, right? Maybe this will make up for the lack of stamps in my passport, hah. 

$7 each

Something about stripes gets me every single time. They're the perfect size, and they don't just have to be for makeup.

$19.99

Conair has finally made a hair dryer sassy enough for someone who loves leopard print, AND it's small enough to fit in your carry-on.

$53.90

I would love to carry this bag around the city during the day or use as a carry-on for the plane.

$70

I tried these on a few months back at Puma, and I still regret not buying them. They are incredibly comfortable. So cute for still being somewhat of a tennis shoe!

Don't forget to enter the giveaway before Thursday at 11 p.m.!