Where's Wade?

After a quick Delta flight from Atlanta I landed in Miami to sunny skies, palm trees, warm weather and not a word of English. I thought to myself, where am I? Starving, I stopped in “Little Havana” off LeJeune Road for directions and to grab a quick bite. Why not? Try something different...go ahead order a Cuban sandwich. To my surprise it was a wonderful blend of flavors. For those of you who have never experienced one, here is my tantalizing description. A warm hoagie roll, thinly sliced baked ham and roast pork, fresh provolone cheese topped with mustard, and then grilled melting everything together, and making the bread buttery and crispy. Yum. Definitely a winner!

Lunch over, on to my hotel. I thought it would be kind of fun to check out South Beach, so I stayed in a quaint, 75 room art deco/Mediterranean style boutique hotel a block from the beach on Collins Ave. I felt like I was back in another era enjoying the vibrant atmosphere, classic art deco architecture, shopping and people watching. It was very exciting to see the area revitalized and so popular once again.

Dinner. To say the least this was one of the top l0 dinner experiences of my life, a visit to Joe’s Stone Crab on Miami Beach. Celebrating their 97th season Joe’s is “the” place to eat in Miami (if you can get in...sometimes the wait is up to 3 hours!). They have been serving the best stone crabs in the country since 1913. I can’t believe this was my first experience. Since I was not a “Joe’s veteran” at ordering, I let my local Miami friends order for the table. Within minutes of sitting down here it all came...3 jumbo orders of stone crabs, Joe’s famous mustard sauce, hash brown potatoes, creamed spinach, skinny fried sweet potatoes, coleslaw, and pumpernickel raisin bread. We smoothed it all down with a great bottle of white wine, and topped it off with Joe’s famous key lime pie...unbelievable. For two hours I literally ate my way to nirvana. I am sure this is where the saying “I live to eat, not eat to live” came from. My advice, next time you are in Miami run to Joe’s...don’t walk, but bring your checkbook this treat is not cheap.

Work. Next morning off to Coral Gables to produce our video shoot for 3RD HOME. We were privileged to have contracted with award winning producer Carlos Prio of Field Dominance and founder of reelestates.com the first and still leader of producing sales films for luxury real estate, vacation homes, hotels and resorts to take on our project. We shot the entire day at a beautiful home right on the Donald Ross Golf Course which is the official course of the Biltmore Hotel of Coral Gables. It was a beautiful day, full of positive energy and anticipation of creating the perfect video for 3RD HOME. We achieved our goal, and enjoyed the process, take after take. Carlos’ crew could not have been more helpful and professional making my job easier than expected. After a day of shooting, it was finally a wrap and I jumped on an evening flight back to Atlanta.

While heading home I couldn’t help but replay the last 24 hours in my mind and realized what an awesome adventure I just had. You know you can either live life, or really LIVE life...I think that is what I just did.