Sarasota Y Miami

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Hey Ya’ll, it’s Matt. I’ll be writing about Sarasota and Miami and Kati is going to take care of Costa Rica. It has been a couple weeks since we have spoken but we have a ton to write about. So grab a drink of choice and a snack and enjoy our vacation with us!
We left you at Destin, Florida. After leaving Destin, we headed down the scenic route through Florida along the coast towards Sarasota where some old friends of my Mom’s (Barb and David) were waiting to take us in for a few days. We had only planned on staying in Sarasota a day or two, but due to the amazing hospitality, the homemade food, and comfortable bed we decided we would spend 3 nights here and relax before heading to Miami and Costa Rica. Kati and I had spent the 4 previous nights in the car so we were ultra ready for a big spacious bed. I don’t know if we have really described the sleeping situation in the car, so I will briefly describe it. We are driving a 2007 Honda Cr-V and have the back seats folded down. We measured the space back there as 58” long and 37” wide. Needless to tell you there is really not that much space for 2 people and that sleeping like this several nights in a row starts to get irritating. So the point here is that we were excited for a comfortable place to stay. Kati and I have been really lucky so far on the trip with the kind of hospitality that we have been shown and the willingness of the people we have been staying with to really take care of us. It has been awesome. Here we were able to do some work on the Internet, wash laundry, swim in the pool or hot tub, or come and go as we needed. Really there is not anything to awful exciting to write about, but there were some interesting things to point out about our time here. First of all, there are Chick-Fil-A’s everywhere down south and we loooooooove it. It has pretty much been a every other day dining experience for us. Secondly, if you are looking for young people and nightlife don’t go to Sarasota. I’m pretty sure this is the old person’s capital of the world. Lots of super dark tans, Mercedes, and Tommy Bahamas’ stores. Kati and I hit the two main beaches here. The first one we just wanted to run along and check it out. It was gorgeous with white sand and a lot of people. This was the most popular beach I’m pretty sure in Sarasota. Unfortunately, the whole time in here I had to wear long sleeve shirt cause I was terribly sun burnt on my stomach. This is what happens when you come down south from Colorado in the winter and don’t wear sunscreen. The second day Kati and I rented a couple chairs and a large umbrella for me to sit under. This is where maybe the funniest part of our trip happened. Kati made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to eat on the beach with some chips and drinks. We laid on our chairs, pulled out our sandwiches and started eating. I got through my entire sandwich which no issues, but Kati was on her last couple bites when all the sudden I look over at her, and as I am about to say something she is dive bombed by a Seagull who in one quick swoop came over the top of her from behind and steals half of the remaining sandwich. Quite possibly the most hilarious thing I have ever seen and had I been videotaping I’m pretty sure I would have $10,000 from America’s Funniest Videos. It was great. Almost like it happened in slow motion. We watched some sunsets, saw the movie “Milk” in a local artsy theater, and saw a huge sculpture of the famous picture of the guy from the Navy kissing the nurse. We really enjoyed being here with Barb and David and it was a great few days of relaxing.

We left on that Friday the 13th from Sarasota with lunches Barb had made for the road and we were headed to Miami! Neither Kati or I had ever been to Miami so were really excited about what we were going to see. Our flight for Costa Rica was the next day at 6 AM so we knew that tonight there was no sleep for us. We were going to hit South Beach hard. South Beach is everything that the show Nip/Tuck told us it was. Lots of fake boobs, tummy tucks, Ferrari’s, Lamborghini’s, rich pretentious people, and a lot of diversity. It was a super sensory overload for me. There was just so much going on. Here is how I described it to Kati when she asked me what I was thinking about (I just sat and watched everything in awe for about 30 minutes). “I look over and there is a Lamborghini followed by another bright pink Lamborghini, followed by a Ferrari, followed by a 1970 beat up Cadillac with 22” rims and blaring music from it’s muffled radio, followed by a couple (very very rude) yelling at the waitress and complaining about everything, followed by the 3 girls who just walked by in thongs, followed by the 4 guys behind them with muscles I didn’t know existed, followed by 3 girls who really looked like girls but were actually men.” It was like nothing I had ever seen. Just a totally eye opening experience and what a fun place to people watch. Kati and I decided we wanted to have a somewhat nice dinner towards the beach so we walked along a strip where restaurants lined the sidewalk with hostesses telling, not asking you to come and sit, they had a table ready for you. We did find one restaurant that looked good and the hostess said the had 2 for 1 drinks. What a deal! We needed a couple cocktails to get the night started. The waiter comes over and asks what we would like to drink. He also mentioned that with the 2 for 1’s there is no sharing. He told us the drink specials and right as I’m about to order my 2 for 1 rum and coke’s I get the lightbulb to ask how much drinks are, “$25” he says. The 2 for 1 special didn’t seem so special anymore. “We’ll have to tap waters then please.” It was pretty hilarious. We ate, listened to the horribly rude couple behind us complain about everything, I have never seen somebody be so rude as these people were. They ordered 6 different drinks, all of which they made the waitress take back. This is the feeling we got from a lot of the people here. There are a ton of clubs along South Beach, but the one we heard was a lot of fun was called “Mansion.” Plus there was a flyer for the club tonight which read in bold letters “Girls Gone Wild Tonight at Mansion!” I was sold. We needed to get dressed up for the night. Kati found a Subway bathroom and I got ready in the car. Not the most elegant of ways to hit the town. It was funny to because the Subway bathroom was a multi person unisex bathroom. So there’s Kati getting all cuted up while a guy comes in and takes a pee a few feet away. It was hilarious. I wish we had taken a picture because Kati put on a little yellow dress and looked really really good. We really needed some drinks after the debacle from earlier, so we went to a pub right down the street and had a few shots, a few beers, and a few cocktails. We were ready for “Mansion.” By this time it was 11PM and the line was well established to get into the club. Some guy had given us bracelets earlier that said “VIP,” but pretty much everyone had em so we weren’t really that special I guess. It was funny though because we were walking to get in line and one of the bouncers tells us to stay towards the front near the door and hold on. We waited a few minutes and he led us to the front of the line. Now I would like to think that this was because I looked really good, but it was the looks of Kati in her little yellow dress that had pushed us to the front. The inside of club was enormous with a huge screen behind the DJ that read “Girls Gone Wild” and several cameramen filming the drunk girls on the poles around the club. We moved up towards the front to dance a little and watch these girls put on a show for the camera guys. The camera then moved towards Kati for a few minutes and Kati ripped open the top of her dress and flashed the whole crowd. PSYCHE! Ha that would have been hilarious, but she held her ground and the camera guys moved on. We stayed here for a few hours and went to another little bar for a drink before having to leave for the airport. Don’t worry everyone I was well under the limit to drive, thank you for the concern though. We arrived at the airport around 4AM and were ready for the long day’s trip ahead of us. So long U.S. and A. and bienvenido Costa Rica!

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Photos

Sarasota Sunset!
Dont let the beautiful sunset take away from the two hot bods in the foreground...

So sweet
Remember this photo? Such a cool statue

Ahh the retired life
This is what I have to look forward to when Im an old lady...cant wait!

Comments

[marissa]

drink of choice-cinammon dolce latte, snack=none
The bird thing would happen to me...outside of the CB...and it would poop on me somehow too. Im loving your blogs and I wish I could have seen Kati's yello dress ;}