The personal website of Grace and Jason Rhee

Grace’s Birthday Trip – Part 4: Miami

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I added the last segment to our trip because I thought Grace was expecting that we were going somewhere warm and relaxing. When I planned the European portions, I was fully expecting low 60s and likely rain. We ended up having extraordinary weather in both Provence and Paris, just missing the cold and rain everywhere we went. The warm leg was a total bonus.

Originally, I tried to pick a Caribbean location because we would likely never travel there from home because Hawaii is so much closer and easier. It is somewhat on the way home from Europe, so I looked into Nevis, St. John and other islands. I discovered most of these locations would require multiple flights and possibly boats, which Grace wasn’t going to appreciate. To keep it simple, I decided on Miami, which was perfect for warm weather, pool and golf. We were both missing the kids, so I also considered just cutting the trip short and going home after NY. However, I had shipped our golf clubs to Florida before we left, so we had to go get them, no? We got in late on Saturday night and ordered room service. Sunday, I had booked an early tee time, but we decided to push it back so we could sleep in a little. Grace was happy to have her own clubs, so that made it more fun. After golf, we had a little pool time and then went out for a late dinner. We sat at the sushi bar at Nobu and learned a lot about sushi from our Japanese-Peruvian chef. He hooked us up and prepared an amazing meal for us.

Monday, Grace was up for golf again, so we played Doral a 2nd day. We did not improve. The only upside was our first celebrity sighting: Erik Estrada (Ponch!), who happens to also share our birthday. We enjoyed the pool again and just ordered in later that evening.

Tuesday was the last day of our amazing trip. We spent some time on the beach and Grace even dipped her toe in the Atlantic (she does not like ocean swimming). We packed and headed out to one final great meal at Joe’s Stone Crab. It was the perfect ending to a perfect trip. Our flight home was great and we spent our last few hours of serenity watching movies.

The trip was everything I had hoped for and more. We missed the kids so much, but thankfully, everyone survived, including Olivia, Lucas, Snickers and my parents. Huge thanks to them for allowing us to go on this once in a lifetime holiday. Happy 40th, Grace!