Miami Nice

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Trip Start May 21, 2007 Previous
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  South Beach, Florida, United States
Friday, June 1, 2007

We took an early morning flight to Miami from a very sunny Annapolis, and found ourselves arriving right in the middle of tropical storm Barry. I wasnīt sure what the deal is with storms as I thought only hurricanes were christened, but I was glad that this rainstorm had a name after spending 24 soaked-to-the-skin hours in Miami. It felt good to give a unique identity to the curses we heaped upon Barry when I realised that the small amount of tan I had acquired in Annapolis was in serious danger of being washed off....

We met up with Denis of Allbran in the airport (an old college friend of mine now living in California who was joining us for the weekend), and picked up a car - booked with great professional aplomb by the skinny blister, Judy. Denis took the wheel and drove us to our hotel, the in-appropriately named īTropics Hotelī on South Beach.

How Judy should be taking Poppy around

South Beach in Miami is a tricky place when itīs raining. Everything is geared around the beach, and the bars and promenade-side cafes obviously arenīt used to a soaking. But braving pneumonia, we strolled around and started checking out the art-deco buildings along Collins Ave and Lincoln Ave. Itīs strange seeing places first-hand that youīve seen a million and one times in the movies or on TV (or on the PS2!) , and you wind up with a deja-vu feeling as you stroll from street to street. In truth, with the weather as it was, I felt like I was playing  Grand Theft Auto III in the shower.

Naturally enough on the first night we hit the town pretty hard, and after a few beers, we found ourselves a local diner where I wolfed my way through a rack oīribs and a few more scooby-doos. Afterwards, we were lured into a sophisticated bar by their blackboard shouting īRainy Day Special - Mojitos $ 6`. (sophisticated & īspecialsīdonīt sound like they belong in the same sentence...but there you go). As we sat there watching Barry in full flow, we were joined by a strange couple in their 20īs. She was from Leeds, and he was from Dallas - they had met online 3 years ago and arranged to meet for the first time in Miami. A funny pair of people, good craic and well up for a chat about their love of īMiami Inkī, their favourite TV show (about a tatoo parlour) and the reason for their choosing Miami for their first meeting.

However, the guy made one fatal mistake. He asked 'are you guys big drinkers?' before buying us a round of tequila shots. Easily dispatched of, it set off the secret weapon we had in our midst - Denis of Allbran. Few people I know have the capacity for hard whiskey and liquor as this man, and when we left them to it at around midnight, I think Den was only warming up.

The next morning, a very seedy looking Denis took us through the final hours of the previous night. 4am finish. More shots. More cocktails. Mucho texan puke. Denis broke the poor man, and in the process probably damned the Miami Ink-ers budding romance to all hell.

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Lifeguard Hut, South Beach

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