Miami (Part Deux) The Conch Republic and Orlando!!!

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So a very fortunate turn of events happened on the plane rides back to Miami from Costa Rica. Matt and I were sitting on the plane trying to figure out what to do when we landed, and kept hearing a dance beat coming from this guy’s headphones behind us. A light bulb went off above Matt’s head and he realized that the Winter Music Conference was going on in Miami when we landed! This music conference is one of the world’s largest electronic/dance music events, and we had originally been getting back to the states about 3 days before the event even started. Thanks to our extended Costa Rica trip, however, we were able to be in Miami right when the conference was starting! Needless to say we were both pretty extremely happy about this, and immediately made friends with the guy behind us listening to dance music. We gave him a ride to his hotel when we landed, and continued to hang out with him and his friends from Las Angeles for the next couple days.
The Miami WMC (Winter Music Conference) hosts thousands of DJ’s from all over the world, and has an audience that is just as diverse. There are over 700 parties in a six-day time period, so there is plenty to do. The first night, when we landed, we quickly found a comfy spot in a parking garage on South Beach and headed out to see what “free” concerts we could get into. We found one with Bennie Binassi that was $40 a piece, so we quickly turned our heads to that. We then continued to walk the streets, looking at random clubs to see who was playing and how much it cost. We met up with our new friend, Clayton, and then headed over to a club where one of our favorite DJs was spinning; Marcus Schulz. We got into the club at around 3 a.m. and had just missed him, but I did get a picture with him when he was on his way out the door!!!!!! I was pretty excited about that one. We stayed at the club for a couple more hours and then returned to our car to pass out at around 5:30 a.m. The next day we spent most of our time getting rejected to various pool parties. We did find one pool party that we got into, and bought a Redbull and a vodka lemonade for $28 total. That was the first and last time we bought drinks in Miami. After spending a little time on the beach, we were able to sneak into a pool party on the top of a hotel! This hotel was right on South Beach and had a real lounge feel to it. After a few hours up there, one of our favorite DJ’s, Deadmau5 walked right by us to start his set! Again, we were pretty excited about this one too! We didn’t stay too long because it was getting late and the speakers up there were HORRIBLE (they weren’t doing Deadmau5 justice). After this, Clayton was nice enough to let us take a shower in his hotel room and we then headed out again, party searching. We ended up staying at a pool party at another hotel that night for a few hours, listening to some really cool house music. Then while we were on the streets walking around South Beach, we spotted one of our favorite DJs!! As we were strolling down the street, Matt heard a thick British accent from a man walking the other way, he immediately recognized that it was Gareth Emery, an amazing DJ who we listen to all the time. We ended up talking to him on the street for a little while, it was pretty cool. Then Clayton and his friend came to hang out with us for a while, and we then decided to call it a night (there were no more free parties) so we could make it to Key West the next morning. We stayed in a hotel parking lot that night and were then off to Key West the next day!
Before I begin talking about the absolute magical beautifulness of Key West, we have a pretty good story that (I think) makes our road trip complete. So we have a carryall device on the top of Matt’s car that we are using to store all of our suitcases and other large items. We have had a hard time remembering to lock the carryall the entire trip, for some reason. So we were on our way onto a highway to head to the Keys from Miami, and all of a sudden I felt a huge jerk on the car, like a sail had gone up on the car or something. It pulled me over a lane and we quickly realized that the top of the carry all had lifted up and completely ripped off, scattering clothes and suitcases all over the on-ramp. I pulled over and Matt was able to collect everything off the road with the help of a good citizen. The man who helped us gave us a tie to keep the top of the carryall on, and we spent the next couple hours at Home Depot figuring out a good way to keep this thing in tact on the top of our car. Not necessarily the best of things to happen, but it’s a good road trip story for sure!
Here’s some interesting history for you about Key West that we didn’t know about. In 1982 all of the keys were being filled with Cubans since it was so close. The U.S. blocked off the Keys from the rest of Florida to keep the illegal Cubans from coming into Florida. This severly lowered the amount of tourism for the Keys, which is most of what they get their money from. The Keys decided that they should break off from the rest of the United States and become its own country because the U.S. Government wouldn’t cooperate with them and open up the Keys to the rest of Florida. The Mayor of the Keys declared war on the U.S. to become their own country. They were going to name themselves the “Conch Republic.” With all the media attention that this produced, the U.S. decided to open up the Keys again, and the Mayor took back his war declaration. Crazy right?
We had been planning on going snorkeling that day in Key West, but had to postpone it to the next day due to the carry-all incident. We arrived in Key West that night and walked around town and watched a few March Madness games at a local sports bar/restaurant. They have a lot of festivities and performances that go on around the dock, so we spent a couple hours walking around, taking in the town. We also enjoyed some “conch fritters,” (I know, it sounds like a bad word…) and some Key Lime Pie, both a local speciality. Ok now I am going to go off about how beautiful Key West is. I think that every person needs to see the Keys if they live in the states. It’s like a hidden gem. I felt like I was in a post card the entire time. The water is crystal clear and the prettiest color of turquoise I have ever seen. I just wanted to swim in it the whole time. We were determined to go snorkeling and see some fishies and have a fantastic aquatic adventure in this beautiful ocean. We made reservations to go to the coral reef there the next day on a boat with a bunch of other snorkelers. We stayed at the Fairfield Inn parking lot and woke up early the next morning for some great ‘norklin action. We arrived at the dock and got on the boat to head out when the captain informed us of some bad news. It was very windy that morning and he said that we were not going to be able to go to the coral reef because of how big the swells were there. He said there was only about 5 feet of visibility, so matt and I decided that wasn’t worth the $60, and took the walk of shame off the boat. We were disappointed, but spent the next few hours walking around the cute town of Key West doing some shopping and had a great time. I honestly think I could live in Key West; it’s a great town! Plus, we got an early start on our drive to Orlando.
After an 8-hour drive, we started seeing billboard signs for Disney/Universal Studios tickets on sale at this place called “The Ticket Stop.” We decided to see what this place was all about. We pulled up to this trailer on the side of the highway and before we knew it, we were pulling out or credit cards to buy two tickets to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure along with a one nights stay at a resort. The deal sounded great, it was about $185 for two, two park tickets plus a hotel room for a night! The tickets originally retail for about $90, so we were getting hotel room for free. The only catch was that we had to attend a two-hour time-share presentation in the morning. Great. But we decided to give it a shot. The resort was actually really nice, and we dragged ourselves to the 7:30 presentation in the morning. After feeding us a free breakfast, the sales associate started feeding us his high-pressure sales pitch for the next two and a half hours. By the end of this sales presentation, I was pretty on edge. We had been very polite and made the best out of our two hours being dragged around the property and being pressured into buying something neither one of us wanted, but by the end I pretty much went off. After finally getting it through to our sales associate that we didn’t want this property, he went to find his manager so that he could convince us to buy. The manager proceeded to try and make the deal look more appealing by offering us different payment options etc etc. Lets just say I let my less timid side out and the guy got the idea that we weren’t budging. I was pretty proud of myself. We then received our tickets and rushed off for a day of magical adventure at Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios!!
I’ve been to both theme parks many times before, my family used to go to Orlando once a year for my sister’s soccer tournament. So I was really excited to show matt around to all the big-kid rides at Islands of Adventure. This park has the most amazing roller coasters and fun rides EVER! We went on the Hulk, Dueling Dragons, Spider Man and Jurassic Park rides, withstanding the hour- hour and a half long lines. We had an amazing time. After about 7 hours there, we made our way over to Universal Studios right next door. They were having a big mardi-gras celebration there that night, so the park was open until 10 p.m. = more time for Universal magical-ness. We got there and rode the Mummy ride, the Terminator 3-D ride, the Twister ride and (the best of them all) the Simpsons ride! The rides at Universal were pretty much all 3-D type rides, and the Simpsons ride surpassed them all by far. We also got to watch a great Mardi-Gras parade through the park and listen to a free Kelly Clarkson concert! Ahhhh Kelly Clarkson! (Courtesey of 40 Year Old Virgin) We had a terrific time and left by closing in order to head off to Matt’s Aunts house in Ocala for the night. We arrived in Ocala at around 11:30 and got to sleep in a comfy bed in a very cute home. The shower the next morning was also very much appreciated. We spent the next day doing laundry and watching basketball games. Now we are on our way to Savannah Georgia for some Southern Belles and Southern Hospitality!
Our trip has been nothing but amazing and we are really looking forward to seeing all of our friends and family on the East coast! Until next time, stay classy!

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Photos

Conch Fritters!
Conch (pronounced Conk) fritters. Deep fried deliciousness.

Winter Music Conference
Kati and I at one of the many parties. I had my "I'm so super seriously cool" Miami face on

3-D Ride
Our super sweet 3-D glasses

Kati and Marcus Schulz
Kati and her favorite DJ Marcus Schulz!

Spider Man
We don't look as cool doing that motion of the web thingy.

Key West
Like a postcard