I had the chance to visit NYC via a bus trip a few weekends ago. I’m not a huge city person or NYC person but it was a family thing and I agreed to go. I’ve been to NYC twice before but never during the Holiday season. It was nice to see all the lights and displays but I could’ve done without the big ass crowds. That’s what you get though for going to NYC during December. I really don’t have much to say about the trip but here are some pictures.

I will say that we went to “Ground Zero” and it was very sombering. I had the chance to visit the Twin Towers back in 8th grade when my school did an overnight trip. I felt like this was coming “full circle” for me. I did take a few pictures of the monument/plaque that is on the side of one of the buildings but for some reason I feel weird posting them. If you want me to post them please let me know and I’ll glady do so.

You can find more pictures here.

I love the show Burn Notice and unlike other Miami based shows, it’s actually filmed in Miami (Dexter started in Miami but moved to CA after Season 1). Of course this meant while on vacation I wanted to try and check out a few Burn Notice locations, including the Coconut Grove Convention Center and Bayfront Park.

Bayfront Park & Bayside Marketplace was used in numerous episodes including the pilot. The episodes “Old Friends,” “Turn & Burn,” & “Sins of Omissions” were filmed around Bayside Marketplace including the scene where Michael meets Carla for the very first time. Another scene that most people remember comes from the pilot when Michael is at Bayfront Park to met Sam while working on a job.

I’d have to say this is the location most BN fans want to visit. I know it was number one on my list! Luckily the park wasn’t too crowded (probably since it was a work day) and I had no problems getting a few pictures.

I know it’s not that exciting for most people but it was for me. Since we actually stayed in South Beach we were near plenty of filming locations. The Beacon hotel was seen in the pilot episode. Here we see our newly burned spy catching his breath.

Another South Beach location used was Lummus Park which was featured in “Bad Blood.”

A hotel that I’ve always been in awe of even though I’ve never been there or even been inside is Hotel Victor. You can be sure that Burn Notice took advantage of this landmark and used it. The episode is “Unpaid Debts” which is episode six from season one. In the episode Michaels mom, Madeline, was wined and dined by Virgil, an old friend of Sam’s.

Now, most of the filming is done at the Coconut Grove Convention Center including some of the loft scenes. Now, it doesn’t look like much when they aren’t filming but this location has been a loft, the outside of a high school, a club/bar/restaurant and more. I believe inside is where they film most of the scenes that take place at Madeline’s house as well. Here’s what it looks like in the off season.

I know, I know. It’s amazing right? This is where all the magic happens! If I would’ve known before I went down that most scenes are filmed all around the outside of the convention center I would’ve taken more pictures. I guess I’ll just have to make another trip!

In honor of Christmas here’s the tree that graced Bayside Park in Miami.

If you’re keeping track at home this would be Sunday, the day before we leave to head back to the real world.

We had planned for Sunday to be a beach day and just a lazy day before having to pack up. Of course Mother Nature had different plans since again it was overcast by the time we got to the beach. We did take a nice stroll along Ocean Drive and then walked down to Big Pink.

Big Pink is a diner that offers huge servings and the set up actually reminds me a bit of Cafe’ World from Facebook. All the tables are in a row and everyone just sits together. I really have no idea how the staff are able to keep everyone straight but I guess if you’ve been at it for awhile you have a system or a 6th sense. I ended up ordering a “Maryland” crab cake that was far from “Maryland” but that’s what I expected. I just had to order it to see what showed up on my plate. This is what passes for a Maryland crab cake in Miami.

Kinda sad don’t you think? I could go on for hours about this but I won’t. Instead I think I might ship them a cake or two from a local place that way they can see the error of their ways. This is what a Maryland crab cake should look like:

Anyway as I mentioned earlier in the post we took a stroll down Ocean Drive. Here are a few pictures.

We did make it to the beach even though the weather wasn’t great but we knew if we didn’t go we’d regret it later.

If I remember correctly the purple flag meant there were dangerous sea critters in the area. I have no idea what kind of critter but I’m going with sharks for the dramatic effect even though it was probably a microscopic sea critter of sorts.

Well, that’s about it for Miami. I did mention in another post that I’m working on a special post. I haven’t started working on it yet but I’ll try to get on that soon. It’s going to focus around the USA Network show “Burn Notice.” Excited yet? You should be. Until then here’s a picture I took while flying back home.

Now a little break from Miami since I still need to write up the last few posts.

Comic Con has released hotel information for next years big event. According to the site, hotel reservations will open up on March 18th at 9am PST. It sounds like they’re trying to make things a little easier for people this coming year when it comes to finding a hotel. You’ll be able to choose from 38 hotels and 24 of them are on the Comic-Con Shuttle route. Another thing that’s new for the upcoming year is all hotel reservations will require a deposit of one night’s room and tax for each room you book. They hope this will keep people from making reservations with numerous hotels and afterwards picking the one they actually want. If you do book a room and something happens where you can’t attend Comic Con don’t worry, hotel reservation deposits are fully refundable until May 14, 2010. You can find more information about the guidelines here.

They’ve actually released hotel names and rates as well. The PDF they have is very well done and breaks everything down for you. You’ll find the hotel name, the rates for single up to quad & even how much they charge for parking and of course if the shuttle picks up from that hotel or not. They even tell you the distance each hotel is from the convention center. You can find the PDF here.

While I already have my hotel booked I’m sure there are plenty of you out there that could use this information.

Before we even sealed the deal on this vacation we all agreed that there would be a day trip to Key West. It’s a place I’ve always wanted to visit and since we were only 3 hours away we figured why not. Plus they were having Pirate Week and who doesn’t love Pirates?

We got up bright and early on Saturday and we hit the road at 6am. It’s a real easy drive and not as bad as some try to make it seem. There isn’t much excitement but that works for me. We saw some interesting signs along the way and some Key Deer as well. We made it into Key West around 9:30-10. Did I mention that the weather report before we left mentioned something about tornadoes?

Since we wanted to check out all things Pirate we started off at Fort Zachary Taylor. Here is a little background from the website:

The park, which now covers a total of 54 acres, is a National Historic Landmark that played a significant role in Florida’s early development. Construction of the fort began in 1845, shortly after Florida became a state. In 1850, the fortress was named after U.S. President Zachary Taylor, who died in office earlier that year. Throughout the 1850s, construction on Fort Taylor was slow. Yellow fever, shortages of material and men, remoteness, and hurricanes had slowed down progress.

Interesting, eh? The weather wasn’t great when we arrived, overcast and a bit windy, but we hit the beach anyway. I mean, we came this far right?

As you can see from the picture the beach there is pretty rocky. In fact, you’d be quite stupid to try and walk on it without some type of footwear. The surf was a bit rough and we didn’t want to drown on our 2nd full day of vacation which meant we stayed on the beach. I’d say we laid around for 45 minutes or so before we changed and headed into the Fort where all the Pirate activities were to be held.

See? Pirates! It was really neat to see everyone dressed up and having a great time. Some people really got into which was awesome to see. Here’s a better picture where you can see the tents they had set up for different things. I even came across a table set up from Baltimore! We have a Pirate Fest here too.

The picture from earlier were from a re-enactment they did of a pirate trial. The two women (the ones in rags) were on trial for being pirates. If found guilty they would be sentenced to die! Of course they were found guilty but were found to be pregnant. One died while giving birth in prison while the other had a rich family that got her out of jail. It’s nice to see somethings don’t change over time!

Here are a few more pictures from the Fort.

Sadly, this pretty much covers our “day” in Key West. Why? Because not seconds after they finished the trial a torrential downpour came out of nowhere. We weren’t parked that far from where the trial was and we were soaked by the time we got to it. I don’t think I’ve even been stuck in a rain like that before. We actually sat in the car for awhile hoping it would let up some. It seemed that every time we got in the car it would slow down and as soon as we got out, it would start back up again. It was really annoying as you can imagine. We grabbed some lunch hoping that everything would stop but it didn’t and we didn’t want to have to drive back in bad weather. We called it a day and headed back to South Beach. We were disappointed as you can imagine but we’re already talking about taking a vacation in Key West.

I’m almost glad we did leave early though because the drive back was harder than the drive there. I was tired, wet and my knee was actually getting sore from driving for a combined 6-7 hours. I mean, we were only out of the car for about 2-3 hours maybe? There’s no way I could’ve made the drive back at 8pm or later. I told my friends we would’ve stopped at the Ragged Edge Motel (Yes, this was a real motel) if we would’ve attempted the drive back that night.

I think we made it back to South Beach around 5pm and as you can imagine we crashed from the long day. I actually went to bed around 9:30. It’s safe to say that getting old does indeed suck.

We had planned to make the second day of our vacation a beach day but the weather changed that. Instead we headed off to Bayside Marketplace. We actually got there early and since it was a weekday it wasn’t crowded at all which was nice. I hate having to fight crowds in order to have a good time. After checking out some stores we decided to take a boat tour on the El Loro which is a small Pirate Ship.

I’ve been on a tour like this before but always enjoy it. I like being out on the water and for $20 it’s a nice way to break up the day and kill an hour before lunch. Here are a few pictures of the different houses and sights we saw on the tour.

Since I’m known to have a bit of a sensitive tummy I didn’t want to take too many food risks and it’s a little disappointing but I’d rather be happy and full then miserable and full. We headed off to The Hard Rock Cafe which was pretty empty but again it was a work day for most people.

Our waitress asked where we were from and I made sure to mention the fact that it was indeed my birthday. It’s always good to mention your birthday because you never know what freebies you might score. In this case I received a nice little birthday pin and a free ice cream sundae. What’s better than free ice cream? After lunch we checked out Bayfront Park but I’m saving those pictures for a special post.

Dinner:
By this point it was time to return to the condo to get ready for dinner at Texas De Brazil. I was really looking forward to dinner here since I’ve never been to a Brazilian steakhouse before but had heard great things. The location we picked was right on the water at the marina which provided a very nice view.

We were seated right away and one of our many servers explained to us how everything worked. In really simple terms everyone has a two sided card. One side is red, the other is green. Once you flip your card over to green the frenzy begins and the various servers start coming to your table with different types and styles of meat. They serve the meat right at your table and once you’re done or need a break, you flip your card over to red. It was actually a little overwhelming at first with everyone coming over to your table but you adjust pretty quickly. It really was an experience! The best part was the fact my dinner was free (a $50 savings) because it was my birthday and I had signed up for their e-newsletter. I had received the coupon in an email before I left for my trip. Not only was my dinner free but I received a free dessert as well. See, mentioning your birthday really pays off!

We really had a great time at dinner and I’d go back again. They have locations in various states and you can see if there’s one near you by checking their website. Just make sure you go hungry and that you’re ready to be in a meat coma after leaving. Seriously, I didn’t want to see another piece of meat after that dinner, but in a good way!

After dinner we headed back to our home away from home and just relaxed for the rest of the night. We had thought about going out for drinks but that was before we stuffed ourselves full of delicious meat. Now we just wanted to rest!

My friends & I already planned for Thursday to be an easy day since our flights didn’t get in until around 3pm. We didn’t expect to do much but check out the vacation rental and the location and go grab a bite to eat.

The Rental:
This was our first time ever using a vacation rental and I’d say it was a good experience. The condo had two bedrooms and two baths, a small kitchen, living room and its own washer/dryer which came in handy. It was the perfect size for the three of us. In the listing it says it can sleep up to six but I’m not sure it would be comfortable. Perhaps if you had couples going but if was just a bunch of friends I’m not too sure it would be very comfortable. The location was perfect though. We were right on Collins and behind us was Ocean Drive. You really could walk to everything. The beach was right there as well as all the neat little places to eat and shop. The only downside of course was the noise. We were next to a smaller hotel and every night you could hear them throwing things out of the side door and what not. All in all though we were happy with everything especially since it saved us a ton of money.

Dinner:
As I mentioned before we were looking to lay low and not have to get dolled up or anything. Since we wanted something laid back and easy we walked up Collins to Jerry’s Famous Deli. I loved the look of the place and I couldn’t believe how big it was inside! I’ve heard mixed things about the food and service but we had no issues. We were there around 5:30pm. We were seated right away and within a few minutes of being seated our waiter arrived. He was very nice and friendly and had no issues with us taking our time to look over their huge and almost overwhelming menu. I ended up ordering a turkey sandwich on sourdough bread which came with a side of beans and potato salad. The turkey was a little dry but I come to expect that whenever I get turkey while out. In my opinion it’s very rare to order a nice and juicy turkey sandwich. The bread was very good as was the potato salad. I’ve come to find that potato salad can be very hit or miss and this was a sure hit. Everyone agreed that it was very good. Sadly we didn’t have any room left for dessert and I really wanted to try a “Havana Banana.” Maybe next time!

That sums up Thursday. I’m glad we were able to find flights that arrived at decent times. There’s nothing worse than a wasted day of vacation. While we didn’t do anything too exciting I feel that we were able to get situated and familiar with our surroundings and it’s always good to be able to do that before it gets too late.