The first two days in Miami were spent in the northern area of Sunny Isles, and we stayed at the Trump International Sonesta Beach Resort. Yep, owned by Donald Trump. I had to resist a strong urge to walk up to random staff and give them my best "You're fired!". Our first dinner in Miami was at the Noemi's Grill within the resort but it wasn't anything special, just a quiet dinner. We did get a nice suite upgrade to our room because V. told them it was our honeymoon, that usually gets us some nice perks. Our room was way up on the 25th floor and had a great view of the ocean and beach but it was pretty scary looking straight down. 
There isn't really much going on in Sunny Isles but they have their own nicely groomed patch of beach and first class service from the pool and beach staff. I managed to botch the sunscreen application and got sunburned the first day on the beach. Nice going. We spent some time shopping at Aventura and Bal Harbor to pass the time. It was remarkable how hot and humid it was, I couldn't spend more than a few minutes outside without breaking into a sweat. But maybe that's just an indication of how out of shape I am. We did discover one gem of a restaurant near Bal Harbor, an Italian restaurant called Cafe Ragazzi. V. raved about the paella she had, and I was content with a glass of Peroni and a plate of spaghetti.
On day 3 we said so long to Trump's resort and moved to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Downtown Miami. The MOH is actually on its own little island called Key Brickell, situated in Biscayne Bay between Downtown and South Beach. Once again, our "honeymoon" gambit scored us a nice room overlooking the water and Downtown. On the suggestion of some coworkers we decided we would drive down to the Floria Keys to enjoy some seafood and take in the sights, so we asked the concierge to book us a rental car. I decided to splurge a little since my birthday was coming up so we rented a Cadillac SRX which was pretty pimp, not as gangsta as the Escalade but very comfy and entertaining to drive.
Our initial plan was to drive only midway through the Keys, have dinner somewhere and turn back, but our early progress was encouraging and I suggested that we make the drive all the way down to Key West -- the southernmost part of the United States. Might as well, right? A quick stop for lunch at a Wendy's of all places, and then it was a race to beat the clock -- trying to make it to Key West in time to see the sunset from its world-famous vista point. We made it, and I have the photos and souvenirs to prove it. After a fantastic sunset we had dinner at the A&B Lobster House and the requisite Key Lime Pie. 
Then V. took the wheel of the Caddy for the long, dark drive back up to Miami. We thought we'd never make it but we did get back to the hotel around 1AM. Dead tired and ready to collapse into bed, we came back to our room and found the staff had decorated our honeymoon suite and bed with rose petals. Very nice!
The following day was my birthday, and we spent it at the Mandarin Oriental as a lazy day.
We had lunch at the hotel's Cafe Sambal which served Asian fusion which of course V. enjoyed. We passed the afternoon just hanging around the pool, and got dandied up for dinner at Azul, the hotel's premier dinner spot. But first we hit up the M-Bar, which featured several hundred different martinis. Since we were at the Mandarin I ordered the Absolute Mandarin Martini, and V. had a Lychee Martini. Dinner at Azul was pretty nice, V. had a massive chilled seafood platter and I had some great clam chowder and a study in lamb.After dinner I tried my hand at taking some night shots with my mini tripod. They didn't come out too well but this one looks ok in an impressionist sort of way.
Well that only covers the first 4 days, and I haven't even gotten to South Beach! I will have to cover that in the next installment.
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