Welcome to Miami

This post is late but here goes. 

Last month I got to attend a conference in Miami. I was pretty excited 1) because February is a great time to go to Miami 2) I have never been to a Southern state and 3) beaches!

I also got to attend the conference with my work bff. We had one slight bump in the trip when we showed up to the conference hotel and our reservation was missing. Turns out when I called to make the reservation it was scheduled for the same dates in March - not February. LUCKILY, they had a guest check out early and we waited an hour for the room to be cleaned and it was ours! While we waited another guest tried to check in and the front staff turned him away. We actually got the last room. 

We stayed in Coconut Grove. It is a great neighborhood next to several marinas, city hall, and a great downtown area within walking distance of our hotel. 

Something I did not know about Miami is that it has LA-level traffic. We were 5-6 miles from the conference venue and it took 45 minutes to get there from the hotel. We spoke to staff at the venue and they said living 10 miles away took 75 minutes to travel to and from work. It was pretty crazy. 

Something else I hadn't thought about was the palm trees. Or maybe I never considered AZ palm trees and the difference between desert palms and tropical palms. All of the palm trees are totally different than the AZ trees. I always thought it was weird when a student visited campus and was blown away by the palm trees, but I was in awe of just how different the palms were in Florida. 

We were at a university in Miami and the campus was beautiful. They just built a fancy conference center on campus. It was fun because we were at a vendor conference, so we got to meet other people from universities also learning how to use a software program we have started using and we even got a free dinner from one of our vendors. It is fun to be the client. 

The conference was only a day and a half long so in the afternoon of the second day we decided to check out South Beach! We had brought bathing suits but figured we wouldn't get in the water so didn't put them on. We were both a bit sad that we hadn't - because the water and outside temperature was perfect! We still walked along the surf, and it was worth it just for the people watching! We also had to get a selfie in front of the Kardashian store Dash - we even went inside and bought some candles (cheapest thing in the store). 

And the food was amazing. I had seafood at every meal I could. The paella in South Beach was delicious! I had Salmon and ceviche another night. Yummy!

It was a great trip!