Miami for the Superbowl!

Dan and I are finally back from our vacations so I can fill everyone in on the details!

So first of all, our Miami, FL trip. We flew down to Miami on Thursday and had a driver pick us up from the airport. It was kind of fun to have a driver holding a sign for us when we to claim our luggage. The driver took us to our hotel, Royal Palm, where we checked in to our room. Unfortunately, pregnancy and the last vestiges of morning sickness took over and I ended up being pretty sick the rest of the night. We did get some beautiful pictures of the sunset over Miami and we were able to salvage some of the night since the Pepsi Fan Jam was on the beach right next to our hotel and we could see and hear it from our balcony.



On Friday, we decided to rent a car and drive down to Key West. Since it was Superbowl weekend, all the economy cars were reserved so we had to settle for a Black 2010 GT Mustang Convertible. We were pretty upset about it... but we got to drive in style!

The weather stayed pretty warm so we kept the top down almost the entire way. For anyone that hasn't been to the Keys before, it was a lot of beautiful driving, huge oceanside homes, and the 7-Mile Bridge.
When we got to Key West, we took pictures at the Southernmost point of the continental U.S., which, as you can see, was only 90 miles from Cuba.
Due to a storm coming in, it was starting to get dark when we got there so we went out to dinner in Key West and started the trek back up the Keys to Miami. The drive back was about 3 1/2 hours but it well worth the trip. We'd love to go back to Key West someday and stay longer. I wish we'd had more time to go exploring through the Keys.

On Saturday, we went sightseeing through Miami Beach and drove across the MacArthur Causeway and saw all the cruise ships at their docks and admired all the beachfront homes. After we returned the car, we went back to the hotel. We planned on going out again to see the beaches but I got hit with morning sickness again and (although unknown at the time) my first experience with Braxton Hicks contractions. So we ended up staying in again watching the last night of the Pepsi Fan Jam.

On Sunday, we got ready for the Superbowl. DirecTV ended up covering the transportation to and from the Superbowl so we didn't have to pay for it out of pocket. It was really nice because a roundtrip ticket would have cost us $125 each, but instead they provided vans and we left for the Superbowl around 2pm. When our driver dropped us off we had to walk almost the entire way around the stadium to the entrance.

The actual Superbowl trophy was on display after we went through security so Dan was able to get some pictures.

Our seats ended up being 5th row in the Upper Bowl behind the Colts endzone, which wasn't too bad and we had a great view of the field. Since we have way too many pictures to post, I just put some of the highlights in a slideshow.

Overall, it was a really fun game and we were glad that the Saints won. Neither team was our particular favorite but it was still pretty exciting. Our driver picked us up and it took us about 2 hours to leave since there was so much traffic. It was pretty much nonstop partying all around Miami Beach for the Saints so the streets were packed with fans. By the end of the drive and the end of the trip, Dan and I were thoroughly sick of hearing "Who Dat" and the Saints theme song. People were still asking us that at the airport on Monday morning when we left.

Dan and I had a really good time down in Miami. We probably won't ever go back there again on vacation since it's not really a non-drinking, non-smoking, non-clubbing, married husband and pregnant wife kind of town but definitely enjoyed our time there and made the most of our trip.