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Florida 00: 5 Sports in 5 Days!
Five in Five, Part 2: After a successful trip last year, we were ready to take on the sunshine state again. Due to the way the sports schedule worked out, the tpc sawgrass golf didn't fit into our trip this year. So we went to the ericsson tennis tournament on two days! We also saw a spring training game (baltimore orioles vs.st. louis cardinals), hockey (champion dallas stars vs. florida panthers) and basketball (champion san antonio spurs vs. miami heat) at the new american airlines arena.
official schedule of events
tues | wed | thurs | fri | sat | sun
Tuesday, March 28: Day 1
We took an evening flight from philadelphia and checked in at the bay harbor inn, miami beach. In search of some late night food, we stop in at a local irish bar. The kitchen was closed, but the bartender and his friends ordered a pizza delivered to the bar, and we got a couple of free slices.Wednesday, March 29: Day 2
We started the day with a continental breakfast at the bay harbor, then we were off to the ericsson open tennis tournament (now called the nasdaq 100). We saw mary pierce in a doubles match, followed by andre agassi vs. tim henman in a quarterfinal thriller (see my tennis pics). Agassi won, 7-5, 1-6, 7-6 (12-10)! I even got amanda coetzer's autograph. We left key biscayne and headed for the arena up in sunrise, home of the florida panthers. This stadium is perhaps the finest in the country. That night, they took on the champion dallas stars.The stars showed why they're the champs, winning pretty easily. After the game, we were off to fort lauderdale for dinner. I got talked into sushi rock, a funky little place with old record album covers on the walls, some of which were also laminated and converted into menus. But I chickened out and had the shrimp tempura. We also stopped in one of my favorite fort lauderdale bars, mangos, for some martinis.
Thursday, March 30: Day 3
Another breakfast at the bay harbor, and then we checked out and headed north to jupiter's roger dean stadium, home of the st. louis cardinals and montreal expos. We were going to once again see big mac, this time against my stinkin' orioles (see my baseball pics). Last year we saw the mets, but this year they were already in japan for the season opener. Our seats were just behind first base. Before the game, we even got eric davis' autograph.
After the game we headed back to miami beach, stopping for a late lunch at the waffle house. We checked in at the cavalier hotel right on ocean drive in the heart of south beach. At night we went exploring, stopping first at the delano (now known as the delano south beach hotel; see the email!) for a belvedere martini, and then dinner at an sidewalk cafe restaurant on collins ave., where I sampled for the first time some delicious escargot in garlic sauce.
Friday, March 31: Day 4
We started with breakfast at the famed news cafe, and then headed up toward fort lauderdale. Eventually we found our way over toward the lauderdale beach and the casablanca cafe for a late lunch. We made a quick stop at tommy bahama, and then rushed back to key biscayne for the night match between pete sampras and lleyton hewitt. Finally, we had just enough time to get over to south beach and into joes stone crab restaurant for some great stone crabs. We first went to this place last year, and it has quickly become my favorite restaurant in miami beach and a must stop whenever I'm in town.
Saturday, April 1: Day 5
We had breakfast at another place on ocean drive (the name escapes me), and headed out to the beach for an hour or so before we checked out of the cavalier. For our final night in town, we were staying at the world famous fontainebleau hotel. After checking in, we headed down to the pool for some lounging and rum runners. Late afternoon we stopped in at their "tapas under the trees" outdoor restaurant for some sangria and paella (and some more stone crabs). We walked next door for dinner on the ocean at jimmy johnson's three rings bar & grill (since renamed aquatica?), which was okay at best.Then we hopped a cab to hit south beach at night. We started out at some new club that was offering free mixed drinks until 2:00 am. The catch? The cover charge was $20, and after about four of these "drinks", we came to the conclusion that there was zero alcohol in them. Since every mixed drink also contained tonic, soda or juice, I decided to test our theory by ordering a black russian, which should be pure alcohol. I was told no black russians, only white russians. Suspicious. We checked out the goings on up and down ocean drive, and settled on the outdoor clevelander bar, which included a live band playing rock and roll. This place was just excellent in every way. We stayed until around 4:30 am, stopped in at the news cafe afterward, and got back to our room by about 6:30 am.
Sunday, April 2: Day 6
Still a little groggy from the night before, we checked out around noon and headed down to the news cafe for breakfast. Our final sports event of the trip was the champion san antonio spurs at the miami heat in their brand new american airlines arena. But when we got there, the place was deserted. It turns out that nbc had rescheduled the game for 4:00. People were screaming at the ticket window. We decided to kill a few hours over at the bayside mall across the street, including a stop in at hooters for some grouper and the sampras vs. gustavo kuerten final on tv. We could only catch the first half of the basketball game, and then it was off to the airport for our flight back home.
