Vacation '07: Countdown to 2007

If you haven't read Part ONE, you should! LOL.

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...You wake up in your hotel on New Year's Eve and you think, "This is beautiful! It's sunny, I'm in Fort Lauderdale, and I know I'll be somewhere in Miami tonight having the time of my life when the clock strikes 12AM! Back home my friends are probably dealing with rain, snow, or just plain 'ole cold winter weather. Man, I wish...

• I wish they could be here, with me.
• I wish my mom was here to call me at 6am chipper and happy, ready to eat breakfas. Even though she knows I hate being called that early.
• I wish my man Weeze was here wake up at 5AM but not bother me until 10am because he knows I like to sleep in (LOL).
• I wish Jon was here so I could hear him say: "OOOOOhhhhhhh! Ya'll boyz was CLEAN last night!"
• I wish my brother Marcus was here so his first trip to Miami could be highlighted by moments with his brother.
• I wish my stepfather was here to irk the crap out of my mother by not wanting to go out and just sit in the hotel room all day
• I wish my grandparents were here so my grandmom could take pictures of any-and-everything that happened and my grandfather could say "Heyyyyy Mikeeeeeee!" the first time he saw me every day.
• I wish Bay was here so I could show him that there's life outside of Capitol Heights, MD
• I wish Sei and Lionel were here to say "Boney, you and Randy are some wild dudes!" and giggle unstoppably
• I wish my sister was here to sice me up to drink some Mojitos with her
• I wish I could spend a weekend like this with everybody I love.

Man oh man, you guys just don't know how much I wish...

All those wishes may come true one day, but on New Year's Eve 2007, I was pretty happy with the company I was keeping, Dane and Woo.

The plan was to wake up and catch up with Kace to go jet skiing on South Beach. Out of the three of us guys, I was the only one gung-ho about jet skiing and Kace was the only one out of the ladies that was gung-ho about jet skiing. So even though I woke up late, I thought that there was still a chance I'd be able to go jet skiing on South Beach. That is, until we got to South Beach and found out that the jet skiing service was not operating. But before that even took place, we had a little adventure at our hotel in Fort Lauderdale before we left. Mr. Woo ended up talking on the phone while we were at the 7-Eleven across the street from our hotel. Turns out that he would get into an argument and Dane and I would be sitting in the car waiting on him for what seemed like an eternity. In the meantime though, I was able to cop another pair of my 7-Eleven designer impostor stunna-shades for the low-low price of $6.99. Randy had lost my first pair at club BED the night before. Little did I know that this purchase would complete my Swizz Beatz look for the day.


Why did I ever let this picture take place? I think I was just in a good mood because I was with Brandi. These are not the glasses I mentioned above. This picture is just to let everybody get the whole "he looks very Swizz-ish" out of their systems.

Back to the trip though. We made it to Miami, parked, and found the ladies on Ocean Drive where (from what I gather) they'd been eating (take a look at their bill, whew!) and people-watching. Fortunately for US, most of the guys there were fruitcakes so it probably made us look that much HOTTER (don't laught too hard at that ladies)! We talked for a few seconds and decided to head to the beach. But before we did that, I asked Jessie to take a couple pictures of the us. After those pictures were taken, little did I know that I would have my lowest moment of the entire trip.

We headed to the beach and hung out for a couple minutes and then I realized that I lost my digital camera somewhere between Ocean Drive and the beach. Was I blown? YES! Is this the first time I've been in Miami and lost a digital camera, NO! In 2003 I lost my digital camera in a similar situation on South Beach so I should have known better. I should have been paying attention. I should have been more responsible. Isn't that right JAC?


Picture courtesy of JAC. Actually, most of the pictures you've seen so far are courtesy of JAC.


All SMILES!

After searching the path we walked and searching in the area we were sitting, I resigned to the fact that my camera was gone, never to be recovered. I was upset for a few minutes so I went off by myself and stood in the water, letting the sound of the ocean and the view calm my nerves. After that, I was good. Disappointed, but good. I wanted a drink though (LOL).

After we left the beach, I was as hungry as a hostage so Dane and I went to grab something quick at JohnnyRockets on Ocean Drive. We ended up seeing Drew Gooden and Damon Jones there eating as well. I guess the Cavaliers and Heat must have played the night before or were playing soon. We sat and had a couple Heinekens and ordered one for Woo too since he'd left the beach to go do "something" and was going to meet us at JohnnyRockets. By the time Woo got to the table, Dane and I were two Heinekens in and waiting on our food. While we were eating, a few young ladies who went to college with Dane walked past and ended up sitting down with us. They were pretty down-to-earth and talkative, which surprised me a bit, but it was definitely a pleasant surprise.



As we were sitting and chatting, TC, Kace, JAC, and Jessie came by JohnnyRockets and sat at the table next to us. It was at this point that I noticed a certain NBA player giving me (I should say, me, Woo, and Dane) the straight ice grill. Damon Jones! Cigar in his mouth, few million in the bank, and probably more low-budget-lowered-expectation NBA groupies than you can shake a stick at, HATIN'! What for? Of course I ignored it as I was the only person who noticed it, but it struck me as comical.

After we finished eating, we had to get ready to head back to Fort Lauderdale and change up for the night's festivities (that we'd not yet decided on, LOL). So we left and headed back to Fort Lauderdale, got dressed, and returned to South Beach fresh to def! We met the ladies at their hotel and proceeded to walk toward Ocean Drive where we knew we'd be hanging out walking the streets and partying till the clock struck midnight. Honestly, I don't think we really had any idea what we were going to get into. But we knew that Ocean Drive would be poppin' so we just walked in that direction. And when you have 4 ladies looking like they just came from a Beyoncé (or "Bee-yonce", like Kace says) video shoot, you'd probably have went with the flow too! LOL. But while we were walking, we walked past this hotel and a guy who worked there told us there was a rooftop party and that we should check it out. My reaction...


Let's get it!

So, we did just that. Unfortunately, when we got to the roof we realized that if there was a party there, we were going to have to be "it", because no one was up there. So we did what any quick-thinking, liquor-in-the-bag toting group of young folks would do in this situation. We found ourselves some seats in the corner, cracked that bottle of vodka open, and got to sippin'! LOL.


Doesn't Dane look happy?


We're all ready to go, but we gotta finish these daggon drinks first!

Once we finished taking our swigs, we decided to leave this rooftop "party" and head to the beach. As we walked to the beach I noticed that it was about 11:45PM. So we stepped it up a little bit to ensure that we were literally on South Beach when the clock struck MIDNIGHT! When we got to the beach we quickly popped that champiggity and when the clock struck 12 we all celebrated. As I stood back and just absorbed the moment, I noticed that everybody celebrated as a group but everyone also took a moment to celebrate on their own. It was as if we all needed a moment to reflect on where we were, where we came from, and where we wanted to go in 2007. There was a sort of depth to this celebration that each of us somehow tapped into in our own way. That, in and of itself, was a beautiful thing!


Bye to 2006, HEEEEYYYYYYYY to 2007!


Probably my favorite picture from the entire trip. Definitely in the top 3.

But cracking midnight was really just the start of this night. After we celebrated on the beach, we ended up back on Ocean Drive just walking around, checking out the clubs and restaurants, and we ended up in Fat Tuesdays. What took place inside Fat Tuesdays will go down as one of the funniest moments of the trip for me. There's a little club in Fat Tuesdays and that joint was packed! I mean packed like a Rayful Edmonds crackhouse on the first of the month! Or better yet, packed like the Kobe in that girl out in Colorado a few years back (ouch). Anyway, the pictures speak for themselves. Let's just say that ole' boy in the white was not bashful. Not bashful at all and quite entertaining. And Mr. Clean (you'll see) thought he was young, flyy, and flashy...


Is that a roll of quarters in your pocket or are you just happy to see a sistah?


Kace trying to ignore this bama but he would NOT go away. LOL!

The next two pictures I MUST put into perspective. This guy 1) had on a velour sweatsuit in the middle of a hot-azz club in Miami, 2) had to be at least 43.5 years old, 3) had on a gold chain with a barbell on it, and 4) thought he was cooler than a popsicle! This is some classic -ish people! CLASSIC!


Lean back! Lean back!


She tripped me out lifting that joint like she was working out!

After Fat Tuesday we ended up hitting Wet Willies where, at the door, I was mistaken by some young lady for none other than Swizz Beatz. She aactually said out loud: "That's Swizz Beatz!"

As you saw in a pic above, Woo found some balloons hanging somewhere (I have no idea) while we were walking down the street after leaving Fat Tuesdays and just held on to them. Why? I dunno. But it became rather hilarious after a while. Imagine seeing one random dude on South Beach walking around with a gaggle of silver balloons. It wasn't his birthday, not even close. This wasn't a silver wedding anniversary party, it was New Year's Day! But Randy will be Woo and Woo will be Randy.



After we did enough walking, we headed back toward the ladies' hotel (fellas, don't get too excited) and sat out in the front of their hotel for a minute. We all decided we would head to the diner across the street from their hotel and we went and grabbed a table. We proceeded to get the absolute worst service I have ever had at a restaurant. But we were on a high of sorts so we didn't even care. It probably took about an hour to get our food, no joke. But we were sitting there talking, some of us in-and-out of consciousness (meaning, sleeping), and some of us just people-watching. It was Miami so people were still strolling through and things were still jumpin!

The ladies did the wonderful gesture of paying for our food (like they had paid for the alcohol for our rooftop binge drinking session and the champiggity we popped on the beach) and headed to their room. Woo, Dane, and I sat there for a few more minutes soaking in New Years Day in South Beach and all of us were probably thinking of ways to avoid being the one who drove us an hour back up 95 North to Fort Lauderdale. LOL. We all agreed that we were having one helluva time and like I'd said the night before, "We [weren't] even on the boat yet!"

I ended up driving to Fort Lauderdale after we walked what seemed like 5 miles from the restaurant to our rental car. It was definitely a rough drive and I am glad Dane tried his best to stay up with me. The worst part of that drive was having no music in the car (because none of us brought CDs) and having to listen to wack-azz radio stations the entire time. But we made it home safely and crashed, knowing we'd have to be up tomorrow in time to head to the airport, return our rental car, and catch the shuttle to the Port of Miami to get on our cruise.

And you guys are probably thinking, "Dag! They've already done all this stuff and he's typed too long-azz blogposts and there's still a cruise to talk about! Jeez!"

Smooches people, I wuv you too! ;-)