Speed Boat Tours of Celebrity Homes! (Miami 2017)

Katherine and I had a beach day with a fun speed boat trip! The guide was amazing and took us all around the celebrity homes. 

Click here for the vlog or watch below. 

We probably could have walked up to the speed boat meeting location but I decided we should get a taxi to be sure we got there in plenty of time. It didn't take anywhere near as long as I expected to get there so once we found the hotel, we saw the beach on the opposite side so walked down. It's crazy how it goes from this crazy busy dual carriageway to the beach, sea front in a matter of a couple minutes walk. 

We spent an hour or so sunbathing and splashing about in the waves. It was not as warm as it has been but it was very much refreshing. I'm usually not a fan of things of fly, but it's not for the reason most people are afraid of them. Quite honestly, I'm scared of that fact they can poo on me. Lol! Anyway, this seagull was the cutest little thing. It was just out of reach of where we were sunbathing and it was hopping around in a little circle repeatedly. Cute! 

You may notice from the vlog but I told Katherine a time that we needed to set off and she ended up setting an alarm but early. Clearly she didn't trust me! Nevertheless, we arrived back at the speed boat in plenty of time and set off bright and early. 

I was going to simply record a few clips of the scenery and boat trip for a nice montage but honestly, the tour guide was amazing. Not only was he one of the nicest guys but he was very entertaining, fully educated and able to answer any question we had, but it was so incredibly interesting. I was honestly fascinated throughout so I wanted to keep the voice over, to remember specific moments. 

Miami use to be a complete swap land. When Julia Tuttle visited she thought it was absolutely beautiful so she is known as the only female to found a major American city. It's quite incredible really and she has since had one of the many bridges across Miami named after her. 

She persuaded Henry Flagler to continue building his railroads further than originally planned and that then gave people a much easier way to travel down to visit. Up until that point, everyone had to really travel their by horse and carriage, so obviously takes a lot longer and is a much more difficult journey. So the  Florida East Coast Railway was born. He now had a monument dedicated to him on one of the islands. 

Once the access issue was sorted, the swamp land truly came into play. It was all cleared out and the land was used to build a number of islands. Each plot of land and the properties are now worth millions of pounds. It's a completely different world and crazy. It's so surreal passing by all of these celebrity homes and seeing all the different boats and jet ski's outside each one. Our guide had some amazing insight into some of the stories and even an insider's approach to some of the houses. 

There was so many stories that stuck out and I really want to remember them all. One of my favourite's is Queen B. The two buildings with the diamonds on top are made up of multiple apartments, each over 1 million USD. The one of the left lights up blue and the right lights green at night. Beyonce didn't want any neighbours so when she decided she wanted to buy a place, not only did she want the penthouse but she wanted all 4 penthouse suits on the top floor, each with 2 pools. At 4 million each, I'm just blown away. 

Of course, there were so many more I hope to remember but I loved that our guide offered to take our photos without event asking. Such a great experience!

Once we were off the boat, we walked back down to the beach and then started walking back. In my head I thought it would be half an hour maximum but after half an hour, we had a break and sunbathed and played int he sea for a little while. We were about half way back so after an hour or so we set off again.

Honestly, after another 10 minutes I felt exhausted. I forced Katherine to stop and sit down for a while in the shade. I think the heat from being in the direct sunlight all morning without any food, had finally hit me. Literally at one point I thought I was going to faint so I made the call to get the bus back. Unfortunately, it was only after we arrived that I realised we were only about 15 minutes further away. Never mind...

When we got back, I called Nikki Beach. After the disaster of yesterday, I was pretty mad. I was on the phone for over 15 minutes trying to get the person who answered to understand. I was gobsmacked that she couldn't. In the end, I just asked for a table booked for two. I figured I would just complain later.

A few drinks at the bar, a quick swim in the pool and a little while reading and relaxing brought us to the time to get ready. I luckily brought 2 dresses with me so I didn't need to wear the same dress as last night.

Thankfully, when we arrived it all ran smoothly. It was super quiet which gobsmacked me and it wasn't very obvious when we arrived where to go but nevertheless, once seated, the service was incredible and the food was amazing!

We shared a portion of fries and they were so yummy!

Then we each got a pizza. I think any pizza would have been better than the first night but it was super yummy.

Then came the dessert. I'm sure you can tell from our faces that we were incredible excited. They were HUGE! Especially, mine. So much so that I couldn't even finish it so had to ask to take it home. Everything was ridiculously yummy.

After the yummy, yummy yummy food, the security guard from the night before came over. I was super surprised by how nice and welcoming and helpful he was. Looking back on last night, I was kind of rude to him so I was beyond grateful when he called the manager over. She apologised profusely for the confusion and even invited us to the new restaurant opening next month. Of course, it's very unlikely - if almost impossible - I will there, but I felt very honoured to be invited.

Quite honestly the restaurant is beautiful. The lights and the atmosphere and incredible and I love the little details. it defintely feels more like a beach bar/restaurant than a posh one but I loved it all the same.

We decided to walk the entire way back along the beach front and having seen them putting up the giant Christmas decorations the night before, we had to each get a photograph in front of our favourite. Katherine's was the bauble and mine was the present. So fun!

Once we were back at the hotel, we got a quick drink at the hotel and started talking to a couple of gentlemen who were doing relief work across Miami and Florida. They'd already been out here over a month, cleaning up the hurricanes mess. It was interesting to talk them actually. Up until today, I was surprised by how little hurricane damage I'd seen. Even on the islands there was only a few places that had visible damage but only one of the homes was recognisably different.

The pharmacologist who created the non-patented Viagra has his garden full of palm trees. Apparently, the straight up, straight down trees were meant to hint at something. Unfortunately, Irma had somewhat damaged a few of the front ones so they were now either falling or fallen down. Ironic.

Be sure to read and watch Day 1 and Day 2, and stay turned because over the next few days, I'll be making my Day 4 and Day 5 posts live!