Hey, just so you know ... this post is now about 12 years and 1 month old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

My wife had business in Miami this past weekend so my daughter and I tagged along for a quick weekend getaway.

We were on the road by 4pm on Friday, heading south on I-275, over the Sunshine Skyway, and then continuing onto I-75 all the way to the east coast of the state. We encountered very little traffic but the trip still took a little longer than we expected and by 9pm we were checking into our hotel in Coconut Grove. We had a little trouble initially finding our room (1808) as we stepped off the elevator on the 18th floor:

(answer: it was actually to the left, before room 1800 … go figure)

After a late breakfast at the hotel, my daughter and I left my wife to her business meetings and drove over to the Miami Metro Zoo. The day started out overcast (the forecast called for scattered showers) but by lunchtime it was clear skies and full, hot sun. In hindsight we should have rented one of the Safari Cycles to pedal around but I thought we could handle walking it. I had no idea how large and sprawling the zoo was, though, and we burned some serious calories as we walked around the entire park. The zoo was very impressive and we got to see a lot of the animals, including Asian and African elephants (see the gallery below for some selected photos).

By 4:30pm we were tired and hot so we headed back to the hotel to clean up and rest. I ended up taking a refreshing nap while my daughter played around on the laptop with her Scratch project. My wife was still tied up in meetings so we were on our own for dinner. My original plan was to go to one of the restaurants over at CocoWalk but my daughter didn’t want to walk “that far” after the afternoon at the zoo so I used Yelp on my iPad to find places closer to our location. Across the street at the Grove Key Marina I found a local joint, Scotty’s Landing. The Yelp reviewers didn’t have high praise for the food (typical bar fare), but did like the atmosphere, and the menu had a veggie burger which was important for my vegetarian daughter. We ended up sitting outside with a view of the evening marina and live music from a local band playing Foreigner, Survivor, Blue Oyster Cult, etc. (“old man music” my daughter called it. :-o). We had a good daddy/daughter dinner and snagged Starbucks and a light dessert in the lobby of hotel before retiring for the night and watching “Clone Wars” on my iPad back in our room.

The next morning, we checked out of the hotel (as a family, my wife having finished her business late the night before) and drove over to the historic Art Deco District on Ocean Drive. We had breakfast at the Front Porch Cafe and almost got caught in a sudden rainstorm as we were walking back to the car.

Driving towards South Beach, we saw the setup for Food TV’s SoBe Wine & Food Festival but didn’t spot any celebrity chefs. There was a brief break in the rain which gave us a few minutes to actually walk out to the beach to check out the blue water and watch the surfers cruising the ways as the bigger storm clouds rolled in.

After that, around 11:30am, we started on the road home. By the time we got to Alligator Alley the clouds had broken and we were driving eastward in the Florida sunshine (which gave us the opportunity to gawk at the large number of alligators along the side of the highway … it lives up to the name!). The drive back to the Tampa area was uneventful and we were back home by 4:00pm.

This was my first trip to Miami and it was pretty quick. I’m looking forward to going back (for a little longer) to see more of what the city (and the area) has to offer.