Miami, Your-ami: Miami Beach at Eden Roc

The rest of the week we spent at Eden Roc Renaissance Hotel in Miami Beach, a little island off the coast of Miami, separated by the Bay, with beautiful sand.  The bottom of the beach is South Beach, the famed partying place.  Mostly, we just played at the pool and the beach.  I am lazy and do not like taking pictures, especially when I am watching two little boys by myself near water.  So, this is it:

Some thoughts:

• Our hotel was nice but SUPER expensive.  But Katsu’s conference was right inside and, of course, the hotel will all be paid for.  But that is why we brought food.  Get this – a bowl of cereal and a banana - $10!  A dinner, more like $25-40.  An ATM fee - $7!  Using one of those beautiful beach chairs - $10.  Or an umbrella - $15!!!  Like, shouldn’t that come with use of the beach?!?
• There really isn’t much close by, but we did find some.  We found a hidden Subway not too far away that was only $25 for dinner (yes, even fast food is expensive here).  We also ordered in pizza one night.
• For breakfast and lunch, we dined on our poptarts, granola bars, canned fruit, apples, canned mac & cheese, and chef boyardee – so healthy!  Because, we also didn’t have a refrigerator.  Or microwave.  Sigh …
• The door to the toilet and the shower were swinging doors that don’t latch!  Imagine that with two little boys … lots of stuff in the toilet and lots of water escaping from the shower.  Not really made for kids.
• Katsu took an afternoon off from the conference, and we all went to South Beach.  We took a taxi there and then the taxi guy got mad at us for not having car seats and said no one would take us back because they could have a fine.  On the other hand, who really wants to take car seats and then carry them around … to restaurants and the beach, etc. etc.  Crazy.
• We enjoyed walking around the Art Deco district.  And then, we saw more when we took the South Beach loop bus to see the town (and also escape the rain).  And then we saw more trying to find a bus to take us home (took FOREVER).
• South Beach beach was pretty much the same as our beach but much wider.  Seth was not impressed and wanted to leave.
• We ate at a super cute diner that I just loved.  Like the 11th Street diner, or something.  And it wasn’t too expensive either.  The atmosphere was so cute – it was an art deco diner from Pennsylvania that they had transported there.
• Katsu went out to South Beach another day with friends from Michigan who were at the conference, too.  He didn’t get back until 1, I guess, but I feel asleep with the boys.
• The weather was really rainy most of the week.  We got soaked in the rain A LOT and I swear half our clothes were hanging wet around the hotel room.  Saturday was beautiful.
• At first, Seth was pretty scared of the beach and waves, but he warmed up to it by the end and liked to spalsh around in the puddles left behind.  He would stack up all the buckets and then throw random handfuls of sand into them.  Andrew liked to dig holes and then fill them with sand, sometimes getting other kids to cooperate.  Seth refused to sit in his little pool toy and Andrew refused to move around, even with floaties on, unless he was holding on to me.  So, I hated going to the pool.
• Most of the time, there were few kids around.  It wasn’t really a kid-friendly hotel.  Or location.  But we still had fun.