Race for Success 2008 - South Beach Florida

Day 1: Travel, Our Room, Lunch, Wave Runners, Dinner at Quinns

(Sunday March 2, 2008)

We left home at 4:30 am on Sunday March 2nd for the airport, and flew 2 hours from Raleigh to Miami. We were met in baggage claim by our event planners, and we made two new friends - Dean and Nancy Parker from Apex - right in baggage claim. We rode together on the bus to the Ritz-Carlton in South Beach, which is located right on the beach. Here's an exciting video of our room ...

After checking into our room, we lounged around the pool for an hour or so until check-in time for the event. Here's Gary by the pool ...

We checked in, and were given two beach bags full of beach towels, water bottles, sand blankets, hats, and sunscreen.

We each got to pick out a new pair of sunglasses which were delivered to our room later that night ... what a treat!

We had a wonderful lunch by the ocean.

Then we went on a wave runner tour of Biscayne Bay. Sadly, there are no pictures of this hillarious event, but Marna got to drive because Gary had to remove his glasses so they wouldn't be lost. The sea was angry that day ... the waves were HIGH! We started on the beach in front of the Loew's Hotel, and made our way around and under the bridge to Biscayne Bay. We toured past Donald Trump's mansion, Gloria Estafon's mansion, and Shaquille O'Neill's mansion, and Marna got up to 37 mph on the wave runner at a calm part of the bay. Then we had to go back out to the ocean and battle the waves back to the beach. In total, we were on the wave runners an hour and a half, and could hardly walk when we got off ... after clenching our legs and arms so hard to stay on!

We headed back to the room to rest and get ready for dinner. Dinner Sunday night was at Quinn's restaurant. We loaded onto buses, and when we arrived waiters were lining the stairs of the restaurant with trays of Mojito's (very yummy) and Champagne. Our group (around 170 people) had appetizers and drinks in the courtyard, while being entertained by the Salsa Dancers. We met our other new friends - Ela and Oral Tuntas from Turkey - at this time.

Here are the 6 of us, from left ...

Marna & Gary Carlson, Oral & Ela Tuntas, Dean & Nancy Parker

Dinner was fantastic ... Marna had crab cakes and the King Crab Legs - which were easily 18 inches long, and over 2 inches in diameter - the biggest we've ever seen! Gary had the lamb, which was delicious too. No pictures of our food ... we were too busy eating and drinking. We followed dinner with desserts and cordials ... tawny port with a flourless lava cake, and Bailey's and coffee with chocolate mousse.

We loaded back on the bus to the hotel around midnight ... no AfterGlow for us this first night, we were too tired from the early morning, sunshine, waverunner exhaustion, and drinks ... we were out by 1 am.