The day had finally arrived… our 3 year anniversary trip was here! This trip is a little different than our last two trips (Philly and DC) for two reasons. One we’re taking a plane and two we had some friends coming along!
Friday, December 1st was the LONGEST half day of work ever. Tom had a ton he needed to make sure was done before leaving and I was stuck in a two hour meeting going over what needed to be done for a big New Years Eve project. However, once 1:00pm rolled around, we were out the door like kids heading into summer vacation.
We took the subway home, grabbed our stuff, got in the car and sat in traffic for almost 3 hours on our way to Newark Airport.
We were very worried about traffic and the security line, so we arrived with 4 hours to kill. We started out by getting some burgers, fries, and water for dinner. Then, we headed over to this retro looking diner for some beer. I ordered an Riverhorse IPA and Tom got a Yards Brawler. The bartender was super nice and spoke to us about our love of beer. He even gave us a sample from his private reserved stash.
After our gate was moved without warning (I signed up for alerts, but received them in the middle of the night in Florida…thanks United), we boarded our flight and landed safely three hours later in Miami.
This is the part where we quickly check-in at Sonesta Fort Lauderdale and go to bed…. 8 hours later….
The next day, Tom and I woke up excited to start our adventure. Our friends Jon and Patrick would be arriving later in the afternoon, so we had sometime to kill.
Our first stop was Starbucks for a quick breakfast. We both ordered hazelnut ice coffee and pain au chocolat. It was 75 degrees outside and we were listening to Christmas music while sipping our ice coffees. It was awesome!
We stopped back at the hotel to quickly checkout the pool and find out about our free beach chairs (each room gets two free beach chairs, but technically you’re paying for them with the daily resort fee). While at the pool we found out there were free cabanas so we took a moment to feel fancy. We then spent a 1/2 hour sitting on the beach before getting cleaned up to go to a brewery.
We choose Funky Buddah brewery for this year’s anniversary and we were not disappointed. Though much larger than the breweries we usually check out, they did have a full menu of food that we took advantage of.
As always we both began with flights. That’s our pro brewery tip, always start with a flight so you can taste as much as possible before committing to a full beer.
Some of the beers we tasted were Hop Gun, Pineapple Beach, Butta Cup, Crusher Session IPA, Mojito Blond Ale, Last Snow, Strawberry Hop Gun, and a Dry-Hopped Berliner Weisse, just to name a few. They have a ton of beer each with a unique flavor profile to satisfy anyone. I wish we could have tried them all.
Please excuse the paper towel in the picture, our very sweet waiter kept spilling and dropping things. We definitely jinxed him. He dropped at least four things in front of us, poor guy!
Now for the food! We ordered two items to share. The first being one of the best meat, cheese, and pickle plates ever.. except for the pickled watermelon radish. It smelled like garbage and took us the longest time to figure out what it was that smelled so bad. It was actually getting really funny. Once we tossed it though, we really enjoyed the rest of the plate. The second thing we ordered were the house wings, grilled and tossed in a raspberry-habanero sauce. So good!
Patrick and Jon eventually joined us just in time to help us finish all this food! This brewery is definitely a must do if you’re ever in the area. It was the perfect place to hang out and try some really cool beers.
After the brewery, we decided to just relax by the pool. The boys got some drinks and we discussed what to do that night. We decided on eating tacos and going to Los Olas! TACO!
Starting with our tacos, we had dinner at Taco Craft. As always, we first ordered drinks both opting for a Jalapeño Cucumber Margarita (Avion silver, muddled cucumber and fresh jalapeños, fresh lime juice, agave nectar).
For dinner, everyone opted for the taco platter coming with any three tacos, beans, and rice. Tom had the pork belly (sweet & spicy chili glaze, slaw, crispy rice noodles, cilantro), the brisket (slaw, pickled red onion, cilantro, chipotle bbq aioli), and the baja fish crispy atlantic cod, slaw, avocado, pico de gallo, cilantro, chipotle crema, flour tortilla). I also order the baja fish and then got the rok shrimp (tempura battered, mango salsa, spicy mayo, cilantro, flour tortilla) and the kale and sweet potato (kale & sweet potato hash, avocado, black bean, radish, cilantro-lime crema).
A quick review would reveal that this place is killer! Our drinks were spicy and refreshing with just the right amount of salt. The tacos were awesome! As we ate them, we kept saying this one is my favorite no this one is. They were so good! We also got plenty of food! A lot of taco places give you the smallest tacos, but not taco craft! It’s a must do!
Full from dinner, we hopped in an Uber and headed into Los Olas. We had no set plan for the area so we decided to just explore.
We went into an National Geographic art gallery and checked out some Christmas decorations…in Florida! Sorry everyone from Florida, we know it’s normal for you, but it was so strange to see all the Christmas in 80 degree weather.
Back at the hotel, the boys decided to get one final drink at a dive bar around the corner and I turned in early to watch Christmas movies. Next week we’ll share day two!
The Cocho Life 