Let’s travel to Miami, South Beach, to celebrate my 50th birthday. Miami has great weather and exceptional beachfront hotels with incredible amenities and attractions. I know! I know! Miami South Beach is known for its nightlife, but Miami is still a great place to visit if you are like me and you are not about that club life. Fort Lauderdale is roughly 35 to 40 minutes from Miami. If you like to save a dollar, you may compare flights from Miami to Fort Lauderdale. I flew into Fort Lauderdale. The weather was perfect, at 78 degrees. I was overheated in my bright orange turtleneck from leaving the cold-snowing climate in the Midwest. It was about a twenty-minute drive from the airport to the restaurant. We stopped, ate then headed to Miami. Traffic was stopped and go around 3:00 in the evening. We checked in at the Holiday Inn Beach-Front. We checked in our room.

We claimed our beds, sat our luggage down, changed clothes, and headed down to the beach until night. We went back to the room, showed changed clothes, and went to Monty’s Sunset Beach Waterfront Restaurant for Dinner. The restaurant atmosphere and weather were perfect for an outdoor setting, but the food was not on point. We went back to the hotel to change clothes and head down to the pool. We drove to the mall the following day to take the double-decker city tour bus. During the tour, we stopped in Little Havana Art District.

The restaurants and gift shops were owned by Cubans that did not speak English. I wasn’t sure if I gave them too much money, but I did not get any change back. We hung out in Little Havana Art Distract for about an hour. We sat in the restaurant and listened to a Charlie Chaplain impersonator. Then, we walked the strip and viewed the stunning artwork. We walked back to the bus, waited about 15 minutes for everyone to board, then we headed back to the mall. We ate lunch at Largo Bar & Grill near the boat dock. I noticed gratuity was automatically added to the bill. The weather was perfect, but the squirrels were out of control. We barely finished our food before a squirrel jumped on the table to attack scraps on our dish.

We boarded Queen Cruise to tour the million-dollar waterfront homes. The tour lasted more than an hour. The houses were breathtaking. The tour guide featured Will Smith, Sean “Puffy” Combs, and Jennifer Lopez Beachfront vacation homes. Next, we toured Brickell Island, the people who live on the island commute by ferry to shop and do their business in town.

After the tour, we shopped for souvenirs and ate dinner at Segafredo Miami. When we got back to the hotel, we passed out. I loved the outdoor dining, but the squirrels and birds were out of control. We had plans to go to Key West the next day, but we were too tired to get out of bed. I guess that’s what happens when you turn 50 (laugh out loud). Later that afternoon, we did a little more sightseeing. It was blistering hot in January. We went back to the hotel and chilled in the pool until dinner. We ate steak dinners in the hotel restaurant. The following morning, we were headed back to cold, snowing St. Louis.