Miami, Florida: Day 3

I guess it’s really fitting that recovery comes with the smiles and the kindness of family. I have the smallest family out of the group I’m with, but I still feel that caring big family vibe when I decide to count my extended family and my friends, and their families, and I think this sort of inclusion, if sometimes grating and bothersome as families can be, was wholly invaluable to our activities yesterday. I mean, the first thing we did was go to the mall on a Sunday.

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Dolphin Mall is gigantic and gorgeous and sure, it’s ultimately a shopping mall, but it also has a Dave & Buster’s, a bowling alley, a mini-golf course, and a movie theater alongside its dozens of sit-down restaurants and food court. It is the largest value retail shopping center in the Miami-Dade County. Plus, I needed a swimsuit that wasn’t from Goodwill. (And a top and two skirts from Garage, which basically doesn’t exist where I live.) Which reminds me, I still don’t have clothes for St. Patrick’s day. I need to fit that in somewhere.

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Miami, Florida: Day 2

We hit Miami Beach yesterday, which was gloriously comfortable and warm, and seriously full of gorgeous people. I honestly haven’t seen this many beautiful people in one place at a time. The beaches in Miami are wholly different from the Jersey Shores I’m used to; the sand for one is much softer, and there doesn’t tend to be seaweed at your feet. And the water is somehow saltier, which is kind of gross when you’re surprised by a wave and you get a mouthful, but it was lovely nonetheless.

There were also tons of really expensive cars and lots of dogs. I have yet to see a Mercedes G Wagon (my favorite), and there were no big dogs in sight. I just want to see a rottweiler, damn it. I love those.

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