May 2012 - South Florida Eating

When my father told me that we'd be going to Miami, I was pretty excited.  LeBron & Dwayne, South Beach, Art Deco, Mojitos...

But alas, in reality, we were actually staying in Hollywood (30 minutes north of South Beach).  I'd equate the disappointment to thinking you're going on vacation to New York City, but actually staying in White Plains, NY.

Nevertheless, I was a mature 6 month old (about to hit 7) so I sucked it up and went along with his version of South Florida, especially since I was still a little too young to hit up the Miami hotel nightlife on Collins Ave (and also don't like douchebag dudes who don't use the top 3 buttons on their shirts).

Hollywood is a lot more reserved than its more popular neighbor city, but still has a lot to offer in terms of local cuisine that my parents and I always appreciate whenever we travel.  I mean, who wants to eat at a "NYC Steakhouse" when you're not in New York?  Lame.

Billy's Stone Crab - 400 North Ocean Blvd, Hollywood, Florida
The first place we went for local food is Billy's Stone Crab who was smart enough to snatch the website domain www.crabs.com.  As you can see from the map below, it was a very short drive from the Westin Diplomat Resort (A) to Billy's (B).  It's about a 5 minute taxi ride, so my parents and I went for dinner one night.


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They have a very old school type of decor like you're stepping into a Vegas steakhouse.  It's excessively dark and the waiters are wearing shiny vests with puffy white shirts.  But the crowd is a mix of casual (some people were wearing shorts with their button down shirts - aka Southern Florida's version of semi-formal) as well as date attire (jackets w/o ties and dresses).  It was child friendly since they had high chairs, but given my predisposition to squirm around in a loosely strapped seat, I was told to stay in my stroller by my dictator parents.

Of course, you can't come to Billy's Stone Crab and not get the stone crabs.  For those of you babies and kosher readers that haven't tried crab, stone crab is indigenous to the southern Florida/Caribbean waters.  As their names would suggest, their shells are rock hard and very difficult to crack.

Also, like many crabs, they don't have a lot of meat in them, but they do have abnormally meaty claws that I find sweeter than other crab meat.  You can select how many you want, and also the size of the claws.  They can get massive, but given the price difference, the best value (meat / $ cost) is in the Medium Selects.

It's hard to see how large these claws were so my father took a picture alongside his abnormally short, fat fingers to provide some reference.  We also ordered some Alaskan King Crab Legs.  I thought they looked like giant spider legs, but I overlooked that part.

In addition to ordering a specific # and size of crab claws, Billy's also offers an "All-You-Can-Eat" option that goes for about $70-80 depending on the current market prices and the size of claw you choose.  The claw size price differential part never made sense to me since it was all you can eat anyway, I'll let the management consultants figure that one out.

My parents and I actually came back on the Monday before our flight home to do the All-You-Can-Eat.  My father took down a good 50-60 medium claws before all was said and done (easily clearing the $ breakeven point), but after the 3rd or 4th plate, the Law of Diminishing Returns kicks in and that' 40th claw just doesn't taste as sweet and you get tired of the same exact taste over and over again.

Note:  when we got there in late May, we just missed stone crab season, so I think we only got frozen instead of fresh of the boat, but they were still a tasty treat for a New Yorker.   I also hear there's been an abnormally massive shortage of stone crabs this winter that's been crippling the crab industry down there.

Taco Beach Shack - 334 Arizona St, Hollywood, FL

The other local Hollywood food we got was a much more casual affair.  Taco Beach Shack is actually right across the Ocean Avenue from Billy's.

As you can imagine, it's not going to show up in any Michelin guides or fine dining reviews, but it's a great meal for a very low price.  Perfect for a quick lunch before heading to the beach.

You order at the take out window and their menu is written on surf boards hanging from the side.  When your food is ready, a waitress will come by to drop it off to your table.  We sat in the "lounge" area (shown above), but they also have standard outdoor tables/chairs if you're feeling formal that day.

F

For about $10, you can get a combo meal which includes 3 tacos, Mexican corn on the cob and your choice of either (A) rice and beans or (B) chips and salsa.

So if you like Chipotle, you'll love this place.

May 2012 - First Baseball Game

Even though I was born and raised in New York City, my first baseball game was in Miami and didn't involve the Yankees.  No Derek Jeter or Robinson Cano.  Instead, I got Jose Reyes and Mark Burhle (both of whom are no longer with the Miami Marlins anymore).

But this trip wasn't about me (and my disdain for the National League style of baseball), but it was for my father to move one step closer to accomplishing one of his life long goals - to go to a game in every MLB stadium, so on May 26th, we headed to Marlins Park in the Little Havana part of the city.

The upside was that the Marlins Park was brand new and had a retractable rooftop (as it rains frequently during the muggy summers here).  It was also very futuristic looking (like a spaceship) and tried to put a lot of colorful decor around to trick reflect their hispanic-Caribbean community.  And also, they were playing the San Francisco Giants (who would later go on to win the World Series that year) even though their starting catcher looks younger than I do.

My father got us tickets online back in February (3 months before) from a site called FanSnap (like Expedia but for sports tickets).  Our seats were decent (Section 21 Row 15 along the 3rd base side).  Since this was Miami and not New York, we were able to get the tickets for $32 each.  But with fees/taxes, it came out to $83 total for 2 adult tickets.  Still, not bad for a family of 3.  Note: babies get in free.

Inside the ballpark, the temperature was a nice cool 70 degrees since the dome was closed and the air conditioning was on.  I can't imagine how much it costs to cool that massive space, but I guess the Marlins were flush with cash that year.  That and from what I could understand being 7 months old, white people Marlins fans hate to sweat while watching hispanics and blacks baseball players run around.

Also, given I'm a young infant with the attention span of a goldfish, I was drawn to some colorful structure in left center field.  I have no clue what that was supposed to be, but I asked my father to zoom in for a better photo. Looks the architect was doing too many bath salts.

Baseball is a long game that many people equate to chess more than an athletic competition.  I tried to keep a box score, until I realized that I don't have the motor skills to hold a pencil, so $3 program wasted.

I was told that the game was pretty good.  Miami won 5-3 behind a good pitching performance from newly acquired Mark Burhle.  My father got to see Buster Posey & Mike Stanton live, but no exciting home-runs or dramatic 9th inning comebacks.

Meanwhile, I tried the best I could to follow along, but by the 6th inning, I was done.

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May 2012 - Westin Diplomat Review

Hotel Stay Details
Hotel: The Westin Diplomat - Beach
Dates: May 25-28, 2012 
Rate Paid: 4,800 SPG points + $90/night
Regular Rate: $305/night (including taxes)
Total $ Savings: $645
Point Redemption Value: 4.5 cents/pt

Another weekend trip = another Starwood hotel using points.  We arrived in Ft Lauderdale safe and sound (Flight # 7 for me) for my father's annual baseball birthday weekend.  The hotel my parents booked was about 30 minutes from the Fort Lauderdale Airport (FLL) in the beachside town of Hollywood, Florida.

Even though it's not in actual Miami, the Westin Diplomat (Beach location) is a very popular Starwood hotel in the Miami metro area because they have a lot of suites and ocean-facing rooms.  They also have a reputation for treating SPG Platinum and Gold members very well (frequent complimentary upgrades to enhanced rooms).  Of course, we wanted a nice hotel room for the weekend but didn't want to pay a lot for it, so we again used our SPG points for the "Cash & Points" redemption, saving my family $645 over the 3 day long weekend.

The redemption, however, only got us a Superior King Bed with a Resort view, but my father read on TripAdvisor that calling a few days in advance (after they could predict room availability) and mentioning it was a special occaison (birthday) would often lead to securing an enhanced room upgrade (ocean view w/ balcony) so that he wouldn't have to beg for one at check-in.  And it worked!  View from our 31st floor balcony to the right.

My father also found out that they had self-parking available across the street for $20/day (vs. $24+ tip + waiting for valet).  So we parked and walked across the bridge right to the front of the hotel. But the one downside is that the bridge crossing the street and front door does have some stairs (but no ramp) that are tough when you're carrying a baby and luggage.  Of course, I couldn't walk yet so I got carried in my car seat, but I could imagine.

Check in was fine (no line at 5PM when I arrived), though the reception didn't immediately see that we were booked for an upgraded ocean-view room. The guy asked if we wanted a King and initially told me the only ocean-view King rooms were just the handicap accessible ones. My father told him that he had called ahead and already pre-reserved a regular ocean-view room. He had to do some searching and adjusting but somehow magically found a regular ocean-view king bed room available.  Must suck whatever guy got bumped out of his ocean-view room for checking in after us.  Early bird...

The hotel guests are given wrist-bands to wear so the hotel employees can identify who are paying guests and who are just visitors. While people complain about the wrist-band system, I thought it was much better than having to fight non-guest visitors for chairs at the pool.

Also, I loved that they controlled the typical bad behavior by prohibiting people from just "reserving" pool chairs by leaving a towel on 4 chairs. You have to actively be using your chairs or else they free them up for people who need them.

The pools were great and crowded but not as bad as other kid-friendly beach resorts I've been at. They have cabanas that you can rent by the pool but the regular chairs are free. Towels are provided free as well.

The chairs on the beach however must be rented though. Apparently, if you just want the pool without the beach, you're better off taking the free shuttle to the sister Golf property because it's much less crowded. But we actually liked being around the other families/kids.

So now that I was almost 7 months old, my mother decided that I could start to play in the pool.  I got a little freaked out at first when my toes hit the water and I realized that I couldn't touch the ground, but after a while, I really started to enjoy splashing around.

Of course, my mother read some news article about babies needing sun protection so I was wearing this silly hat, but I was having a lot more fun than the expression on my face would suggest.

Here are some more photos of the hotel in case any of you want to check it out next time you're in South Florida.

May 2012 - Daddy's Birthday Trip

Flight #7 - United 1125 
Newark (EWR) – Fort Lauderdale (FLL) 
Friday, May 25, 2012
Depart: 1:23PM / Arrive: 4:26PM 
Duration: 3hr 3min 
Aircraft: Boeing 737 
Seat: 8E and 8F (Economy Plus)
Earned:  1,065 miles
Lifetime Miles:  15,473

My father grew up playing baseball.  He started playing when he was 9 years old (a few years later than everyone else started) so he ended up playing against kids 1-2 years younger.  As a result, when he was 12 playing against 10 year olds, he did pretty well and it gave him a false sense of accomplishment so he tried out for his middle school team in 7th grade.

He was never that good, but he kept making the team through high school (probably helped by Affirmative Action, if you ask me). Nevertheless, baseball has been one of the few things he still remains emotionally passionate about, even though hasn't played since he was 17.  Since then, he just spectates.

Over the years, he's been to games at 26 of the 30 Major League Baseball team's active stadiums across the US and Canada.  It was a lot easier to visit baseball cities and attend games when he was single and traveling a lot for work, but since my mother moved to New York, he has tried not to stay overnight during work trips, even when the Yankees were in town.  So instead, my mother and he spend Memorial Day weekend every year (it usually overlaps with my father's birthday) to visit the remaining baseball stadiums on his bucket list.

In 2012, the schedule worked out so that we'd all be going to Miami for the May 26 Marlins vs. Giants game at the new Marlins Park.  My father has been to South Florida a few times and generally hasn't been a fan but that was before he was rocking some sweet arm candy and even cuter stroller candy.

Being a cheapskate value-conscious consumer, he made sure to optimize the trip as best he could.

• Flight - fly into Ft Lauderdale (cheaper flight and cheaper rental car than Miami)
• Hotel - stay at the Westin Diplomat in nearby Hollywood, FL (using the Starwood Cash & Points)

Meanwhile, I was starting to learn the 10,000,000 rules of baseball so that I could enjoy my first game.