Good morning, my friends! How were your weekends? Mine was a whirlwind – as you know, I was in Miami!
I was lucky enough to be invited down to Miami for an adventure with Nokia/Microsoft’s PR team to test out their new Nokia Lumia phone, which we were gifted with last week. (I know, we were extremely spoiled – rough life.) The phone is really slick – the one they gave me is all black and so far I love it. It takes really nice clear photos, too!
I was especially excited about this trip because my friends Monica and Kath were going! It was fun to catch up with them. :)
And with Caitlin, too, who was in town for the BlogHer Food conference (we were at the same hotel).
I got in late on Friday and headed straight to the welcome cocktail party, which was held on Touche Restaurant’s rooftop. It was such a perfect evening for an outdoor party!
We were out until about midnight but I was up bright and early on Saturday morning to go for a nice long run with Monica!
I love traveling with runner buddies – great to have company (and accountability) for morning runs on trips like this.
I was originally planning to do a 4 or 5 miler both days, but Monica wanted to do a 10 mile run at some point while we were in Miami. 10 miles? Okay, let’s do this! I’m up for a challenge…
I need to make sure to keep my mileage/training up for the Runner’s World Festival in a few weeks, anyway (I’m doing the Hat Trick, because I’m crazy).
The two of us met up at 7 a.m. for the adventure, and while we both felt a bit sluggish, we were rewarded for our efforts with gorgeous views.
We were staying downtown at the Hilton, but since we were doing such a long run we realized we could run all the way to the beach and back – fun!
Hello, South Beach!
I love the ocean – the waves are so calming.
I carried a water bottle with me since I knew it would be hot; Monica forgot one so we stopped at the Starbucks in South Beach so she could grab some water. I grabbed a banana – I had one before the run but I’m used to eating more before a long run (e.g. toast with nut butter & jelly) so I was getting really hungry! This did the job.
We took our time with the run, stopping a lot for photos. :)
Check this guy out!! Florida is cool.
10 miles – done! Great run thanks to the company and scenery, even though my legs weren’t 100% in the mood for it. ;)
I pounded some room service breakfast and coffee (which I had the foresight to order the night before so it would arrive when we got back from the run – best idea ever) while I got ready… (that bowl contains 2 poached eggs – YUM!):
…And then met up with the Nokia crew for an exciting adventure: airboating at a place called Gator Park in the Everglades!
We had an absolutely perfect day for it and I was SO excited we were going airboating – I’ve always wanted to! What a cool opportunity.
Being on the boat was such a blast – it moved really fast, actually, and it’s cool that since there’s no motor you can go over grassier areas without getting stuck!
I was hoping that we would see some alligators while out and about – ask and you shall receive! This guy’s name is “Scarface” and he is HUGE.
Eek!
We saw some baby gators, too. They were adorable in a still kind of scary sort of way. :)
After our gator adventure, it was time to eat! We were treated to lunch at the delicious Smith & Wollensky on Miami Beach, which was beautiful – we got to sit out on the patio with lovely views of the water. I think the Nokia Lumia phone takes especially gorgeous food photos – I took all the photos below on it and they came out so crisp and clear!
Delicious lunch! We all shared, so I also had some tastes of people’s steak.
After lunch, we had a really fun swing dance lesson – I wish I’d gotten photos, but I was too busy having a blast! So instead, I’ll share some dinner photos. :)
We were treated to dinner at 1826 Collins on South Beach, which had a really cool, fun atmosphere and AMAZING food.
I had the fish entrée – it was SO good; very light and fresh.
And I chose the chocolate dessert – no photo since it was really dark in the restaurant by then, but it was great, too!
As for Sunday, Monica and I squeezed in another run before I headed off to the airport. We met up at 7:15 a.m. and set out for a nice 4 mile jaunt.
Another gorgeous morning for a run! We had great weather in Miami – never got above mid 80’s, low humidity, and the mornings were in the 70’s. Definitely warm but not crazy hot at all!
Goodbye for now, Miami – I’ll miss those palm trees! A huge thank you to Nokia for having us down this weekend and covering all our trip costs. It was an honor to be invited. :)
Have a wonderful day, everyone!
Have you ever been to Miami? Matt actually worked on site at a Miami client’s office for work for awhile while we were living in North Carolina, so we spent a few weekends down there. It’s a really fun, lively city!
Tell me about your weekend running adventures!
Wow what a fantastic opportunity! Those pictures came out great considering you took them with the cell phone!
Did at any point you get to meet with the technology folks behind this product, and get some intel to pass on to your readers? I hope you don’t feel this negative comment is directed towards you, you were approached by the company for a trip and took them up on their offer. But I often wonder why companies feel jetting off a few bloggers to a fun locale for a weekend should make me want to buy their product? If anything, it annoys me that they spend their marketing budgets in this way (and in turn the cost gets passed on to me, the consumer). Did Nokia or Microsoft explain any of the features of the product to you to be passed on to your readers aka potential consumers of the product?
Not negative at all, Tracy! Thank you for reading my blog and for sharing your thoughts. :) We did get quite a bit of time talking to their team about the tech aspects of the phone and it was great to have experts at our disposal as we got used to all the features! The point of the trip was not to share the product with our blog readers (when I asked if there were posting requirements, they made it clear that it was totally up to us whether we wanted to blog about the trip or phone at all – and a few of the people on the trip with us didn’t even have blogs, they were just social media people), but to test out the phones and share our thoughts/feedback with their team, since we are all people who use technology and smart phones quite a bit for our jobs. That said, they obviously took us to especially beautiful areas of Miami so we could show off the photo abilities of the phone on social media if we chose to. :) Anyway – if you are interested in this phone and have any questions about it, happy to answer them or find the answers for you via their team!
You look super gorgeous in those pictures! I meant to tell you that before but I was busy sipping my mojito. So.so.much.fun.
Aw thanks my dear! So good seeing you! Thanks for the great runs :)
you both looked great in your fancy dresses! I love seeing runners dressed up. (or in HRG’s case seeing her in jeans rather than running gear almost startled me. LOL!.
Seems the whirlwind weekend opportunity was quite the memorable one. I am an avid iPhone user but I’m so dissappointed in its camera/video capabilities. Makes me think maybe I should at least entertain some of these other phones that boast much better photo quality.
So jealous that looks amazing!! I miss Miami!
Awesomely awesome! What a great weekend. Well done!
looks like such a fun trip! cool phone, too. do you think it’s small enough to run with and carry? one of my favorite things about my iphone is that it’s so tiny that it doesn’t bog me down when i’m running (and photo-taking!) on the run… but i’m in the market for something new :)
It’s pretty large – definitely wider/a bit longer than the iphone, so if you want a small phone probably not the best choice. I think it’s thinner than an iphone, though, although I don’t have an iphone for comparison. :)
Sounds like it was an amazing trip- great pictures! I could be wrong but it looks like we have the same running shoes.. asics kayanos in the same color- I absolutely love them for running!
Yes, love the kayanos! I normally wear Brooks but I left my Brooks out in the rain by accident right before the trip. Oops!
Gorgeous ladies!!! LOVE your two dresses! You have such great taste! That salad looks DIVINE!
Thank you! :)
The tuna tartare looks AMAZING!
What a fun weekend! You look great in the photos.
What a fun weekend! All that food looks amazing :D Love that black and white dress, too!
I didn’t get to run this weekend, but I tried SUP and raced my first cycling road race on Sunday. Both were great experiences!
What a fun trip! I agree, the beach is so calming! That food looks incredible!
Looks like you had an amazing time in Miami! That’s so awesome how you got to meet up with some of my other favorite bloggers! All your food pictures are making me hungry! I’ve never been to Miami but I would love to go there someday!
The views and food look amazing! I love going on runs when on vacay. It’s such a fun way to check out scenary and keep my workout routine on schedule. Glad you had fun!
I’ve never tried a poached egg before, but I’d sure like to try one! It sounds like you had a great trip!
I grew up in Miami so it’s nice to see all the pics of my old stomping grounds :) It’s really a city unlike any other!
I haven’t been to Miami yet (except to the airport for a stop-over on our way to Barbados on our honeymoon), but definitely want to go. Looks like such a great time and I can’t believe the temps were so reasonable! Those scenes along your run are amazing! Makes me dream of summer and vacation!
Great photos! I’m a native here in Miami and it looks like the routes you took are very similar to our Miami Beach Half Marathon, should you be swayed by a race as a reason to return. You did luck out – my runner friends and I couldn’t stop talking this weekend about how insanely fantastic the weather was. One even commented that it was like February here!
I was shocked it wasn’t hotter! And that is tempting about the half marathon – the course we ran was lovely!
Do you mind saying where you got your black and white dress? I love it!
Thanks! It’s from the Banana Republic outlet.
I go to Miami every January for work. I actually stay more in the suburbs, but it’s still so nice to be there in January when it’s cold and snowy here. I just love FL!
Totally late question, Anne, but where did you get your wedges?? I LOVE them.
Thank you! Unfortunately they are old – I think from dsw a few years ago!
Miami had a whirlwind of a weekend for sure!