Welcome to Miami, Blah, Blah, Blah

November 7: I enjoy traveling and every once in awhile I get to do something I've never done before, so when a group of friends wanted to go on a cruise, I was in! I had never been on a big cruise ship before and about 30 friends were excited about this Carnival Imagination cruise. We were also going to celebrate a friend's birthday and a good friend of the birthday girl hooked us up with all the accommodations.

We were going to depart from Miami on Monday the 9th, but most of us departed from the DC area and arrived in Miami the afternoon of the 7th. Yes, we've heard all these "Welcome to Miami" songs and we were ready to get past the welcome and get into the city life. After we settled in to our rooms in our hotels, the guys walked over to meet the girls and we decided to hang out at Maxine's Bistro & Bar just before sunset. It was a cool place to chill and there was even an art show going on by John Kissee at the Maxine Lounge.

After dinner we walked the streets of South Beach and came upon a park next to the beach with an acrobatics show going on, so we got up as close as we could to watch the show. Then some of us got some ice cream and then we headed over to Mango Mike's for some dancing till late.

It turns out that Saturday, Nov. 7 at 6 p.m. until 7 a.m. was the Audi Sleepless Night event which offered 150 free arts and entertainment programs that were presented at 80 different locations throughout the city. What a good night to be in Miami.