The Sunshine State

Business travels took me to Florida this fall and Sebastian was able to find a cheap Delta flight ($159 round-trip, can you believe it?) and join me for the weekend. We stayed in chic Bal Harbour - first, at the historic Sea View Hotel and next at the five-star ONE Bal Harbour Resort & Spa. Both lovely with their own charms! I'd stayed at ONE previously, but this was my first time at the Sea View.

Our first night, I enjoyed a great lychee martini at Makoto, Stephen Starr's new Japanese restaurant at the Bal Harbour Shops before sitting down to a late dinner at Carpaccio with Sebastian's friends from Paraguay who were staying in Miami for the weekend. The next day, we woke up early to head to South Beach. We spent the morning walking around Lincoln Road and then relaxed at the beach for a few hours, until Sebastian was stung by a swarm of jellyfish - poor guy.

All in all, it was a great weekend...

 Drinks at Makoto

Dinner with Tony and Nadhia at Carpaccio

 View from our room at ONE Bal Harbour Resort & Spa 

 Soaking tub at ONE Bal Harbour Resort & Spa

South Beach

 Lunch at Mister Collins

Sentiment of the Day

“Never go on trips with anyone you do not love.” – Ernest Hemingway

Traveling with someone can certainly test a relationship. From sharing a cramped hostel room in Rome, Italy with five study abroad friends during college to lounging at a luxury all-inclusive resort in Cozumel, Mexico - I've sought out compatible travel companions along the way who share my sense of adventure.

Flashback: SCRUBS in The Bahamas!

As a travel publicist, I've had some incredible business trips, from Bal Harbour, Florida to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Among some of the surreal experiences: working the opening of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando (a blog post for another time); working in the media center for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada (another upcoming blog post); staffing a Sports Illustrated swimsuit photo shoot in Banff, Canada; and hosting the cast of Scrubs in The Islands of The Bahamas. Tough job, but somebody's gotta do it, right?

One of my first exciting business travels was to the gorgeous Out Islands of The Bahamas. I helped coordinate the logistics for a week-long television shoot throughout Hope Town, a quaint village that's part of the Abaco Islands. Around 100 cast and crew members flew a charter flight from LA to Abaco and the TV shoot resulted in two great episodes featuring a destination wedding and plenty of ice-cold Bahama Mamas. Behind-the-scenes footage of the shoot is posted on YouTube:


The following are some photo highlights of our week with the super-friendly cast and crew:

And my very favorite:

My most memorable meal

It wasn't that the food was better than I've ever tasted (although it was right up there). It was about the atmosphere. This meal with Sebastian lasted about two leisurely hours, on our own private balcony in San Telmo, overlooking Dorrego Square - with faint tango music audible in the background. The sun was shining (resulting in pink shoulders after lunch) as we sipped sparkling water and chilled white wine. At the end of the meal, the waiter brought us two complimentary shots of limoncello. We savored the sweet liquor then pried ourselves away from our balcony, late for an afternoon appointment.

Sadly, our camera had died and I wasn't able to document the meal. If you find yourselves in Buenos Aires, Argentina, I highly recommend a meal at Amici Miei. Apparently, I'm not the only one who loved a meal there - it's ranked #3 out of 820 restaurants in Buenos Aires on TripAdvisor!