Winter Break. January 2022. Day 3. Derby Day.

The girls woke up today at 8:05! Tzvi and I were up from 6 – 7 for some reason, and then fell back asleep, but still a win I guess.

Today we opted for the breakfast buffet. There was a great variety including pastries, breads, fruit, cheeses, oatmeal, cereal, an omelet station, pancakes, French toast, scrambled eggs and scrambled eggs whites, and a kids station with cupcakes, croissants, and fruit skewers.

Today we were on our own and Robyn went off to see family she’s only facetimed but never met. So, we tried our best. We made it to the pool area around 10am and it was packed. There was space not directly near the pool, but on this fake grassy area. It turned out to be better because we had a space for the stroller and for the girls to walk around without being nervous that they’d fall in the pool.

Hallie and Tzvi swam while Madeleine splashed around. Hallie is really doing great in the water. Swimming lessons well worth it. Then Tzvi took the girls to the beach while I read a few newspaper articles. Apparently they pulled thirteen cars out of a lake in Texas, but none of them was the car they were looking for. Why are so many people in Texas putting their cars in the lake?

I eventually met them on the beach and sat around. Madeleine wanted to sit on the towel, pour sand on the towel, and then get up so I could get the sand off the towel. Over and Over.

Around 1:30 we decided to go the lobby restaurant for lunch because it was the only place that had pizza for Hallie. I walked Madeleine to sleep, but she only slept a half hour. I ordered a quinoa salad that came without the quinoa or avocado. I didn’t even realize it until halfway through the salad, but they ended up bringing me a bowl of quinoa and avocado when I said something. I was so exhausted during this meal I didn’t know what was happening.

After lunch we went back to the room to hang out and start packing up. Tzvi took a quick dip in the hot tub and then came back. We took the girls to the downstairs coffee shop to get them their free scoops of ice cream. When we checked in they gave Hallie and Madeleine tokens for a free ice cream. Well, of course Madeleine dropped her token between the wall and the ice cream case, and then they wanted us to pay for the ice cream, but they had also already given us the ice cream, so I guess realizing that we had all the leverage they just said forget about it. Good ice cream though. I think Hallie had birthday cake, Madeleine had milk and cookies, and Tzvi and I shared a scoop of coffee and Oreo.

Tzvi took the girls on a walk to pass some more time and I finished packing everyone up and started getting ready for dinner. [Tzvi: We passed a bunch of hotels, a hotel that was closed and had homeless people sleeping in front of it, and a street with lots of lit up trees and only Mexican restaurants. Miami really reminds me of LA.].

Shabbat ended around 6:40 and we gave the girls leftovers for dinner, finished getting ready, and then Tzvi and I ran away for a night out alone.

We took an Uber to the Four Seasons in Surfside, in the northern part of Miami. We had a 9pm dinner reservation at the Surf Club (the restaurant at the Four Seasons), so we spent an hour having drinks at the Champaign Bar (the bar at the Four Seasons). First of all, the hotel is gorgeous. I think it was $2000/night for the nights we were in Miami. It looks like it was fairly recently renovated, or maybe restored is a better word. It has a real old-Miami feel to it. Everything looks old – classic furniture, ceiling fans in the bar – but also looks brand new. I had a drink called Fiesta in Rio, which had cachaca, pineapple juice, orgeat and acai infused Campari. Tzvi had a drink called Derby Day, which had bourbon, bees wax, vermouth, fig cognac and was topped with a cherry that had been soaking in a jar of a Manhattan cocktail for a month. Tzvi’s also had a stalk of wheat in it that he poked himself in the eye with several times. Drinks were great. They also brought us potato chips and olives; I ate all of the chips and Tzvi ate all of the olives.

[Tzvi: Sitting directly in front of us at the bar was a woman that Steph said looked like someone she knew from JNF who works in the Miami office. Now, a normal person would’ve gone over and said, ‘excuse me, are you…’ But Steph didn’t do that. Instead, she texted a photo of this woman to at least two different people, who both thought that it was her. And yet, she still never went over. So I guess we’ll never know.]

A 9pm we walked across the lobby for our dinner. The Surf Club is a Thomas Keller restaurant – same chef as Per Se in NYC, but less expensive (Per Se is $350 per person, and this was definitely not). First, we started by ordering more drinks, because, why not. Tzvi had a brown derby (I guess it was a Derby only night) and I had a basil smash. To start they brought us delicious bread rolls and little rainbow shaped butter pads. They also brought crudité over ice with ranch dressing. To start we shared a Caesar salad, which was prepared tableside. We really enjoy the tableside Caesar; it’s sad to see some people order it and not even watch the preparation. We also shared an “Avocado Louie” which was basically half of a “perfect” avocado from Santa Barbara filled with pickled vegetables. I didn’t love it, but I was impressed that they managed to get a perfect avocado. For his main, Tzvi had fettuccini alfredo with black truffles, and I had salmon that came with a sauce vierge, which is basically a fancy french salsa that I didn’t eat. All was good. Tzvi really loved his fettuccini. For dessert we had chocolate cake which was very good. I didn’t love the food quite as much as Tzvi, but I was at least able to appreciate that it was thoughtfully prepared and all very fresh and creative.