Happy New Year

During Our Walk We Spotted Three Florida Manatees In Biscayne Bay

Two Of Them Are Pictured Below

Pictured From Left To Right Are Two Carnival Ships And The NCL Epic

In Port Today At The Port Of Miami

A Yacht That We Passed On Our Way To And From The Port Of Miami

We Enjoyed Dinner At Truluck's Last Evening

We want to begin by wishing everyone a very Happy New Year. Can you believe it is now 2011? Doesn’t it seem as if it was just yesterday that we were ringing in the new decade when we moved from 1999 to 2000?

We celebrated New Year’s Eve with friends Bob and Glo. We dined at Truluck’s Steak, Seafood and Crab House in downtown Miami. This restaurant opened in Miami a little over two months ago. They originated in Texas in addition to their Texas locations they have other locations in Florida.

The interior of the restaurant was absolutely stunning. We had dinner reservations at 7:00PM and we arrived early for a pre-dinner drink and many others were already there upon our arrival. We immediately felt the New Year’s Eve spirit in the air as the lounge was beautifully decorated with New Year’s hats, balloons and other items.

After enjoying our drinks and a very nice conversation we were seated for dinner. We were seated in a very nice location of the restaurant at a table in the corner area as we had requested when Keith first made the reservation.

There was a special New Year’s Eve menu featuring their signature items. When we were seated we were each served a flute of Champagne. The four of us shared two different appetizer items and we had the Gulf Shrimp Cocktail and the Hot ‘n’ Crunchy Shrimp. These tasted as good as they looked and were delicious. We each had a salad from the several choices of salads that were available and these salads featured local and organically grown products. Our next course was the entrée and there were easily over fifteen different items to choose from. We booked the restaurant for the seafood items and that is what we enjoyed. The ladies each had the Florida Stone Crab while the men had the Florida Black Grouper (Keith) and the Scottish Salmon (Bob). As if we didn’t have enough, we could select two desserts for the table and we selected the chocolate dark cake with ice cream on the side and the carrot cake. One dessert alone could have served the four of us so while we enjoyed these delicious desserts there were plenty of leftovers.

So, for those of you taking notes, we each did have some dessert. J

This was a memorable meal and outstanding dining experience to remember. Everything was wonderful including the delectable meal, the fine service and the beautiful interior of the restaurant. Although all of the tables were fully occupied the service was impeccable and each item came out at a very appropriate pace; not too fast and not too slow. We also enjoyed a wonderful conversation throughout our meal. The staff is very seasoned and our waiter worked at one of their locations in Texas prior to moving to Miami and the manager also worked previously for one of their Texas locations.

After we walked back to the Hotel the four of us sat outside and talked for a while. When we walked into the elevator to head back to our respective rooms we rode up with a bride and groom who were just married at the hotel a few hours earlier so we congratulated them on their marriage.

We then watched the ringing in of the New Year on our television.

As you can imagine we enjoyed a good night sleep. We had breakfast at the hotel and afterwards we took another nice long walk. The weather for the first hour was a little overcast with a breeze but before not too long the sun came out making it another perfect day for a long walk. This time we walked from the Hotel over to the Bayside areas, over to the American Airlines arena, and over the bridge to the Port of Miami Cruise Ship terminal. We could see three cruise ships; two were Carnival Cruise Ships and the other one was the relatively new Norwegian Epic. On our return walk we stopped by the new Marriott Marquis Hotel, which for those of you familiar with Miami is across the street from the Epic Hotel. On our way back to the Hotel we stopped off at the Mary Brickell Village where we each got a salad to bring back to the room.

We will post earlier today as we plan to go back out and then we will have dinner out. Afterwards, we are going to see an NBA Basketball Game at the American Airlines Arena between the Miami Heat and the Golden State Warriors. We will walk over to the arena, which is located within about a thirty minute walk from the hotel. We will post about the game tomorrow.

Once again, we wish everyone a very Happy New Year.

TODAY'S THOUGHT FOR THE DAY…

"Friendship... is not something you learn in school. But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything" Muhammad Ali

Keith & Anne Marie