Trying to get out of bed Saturday afternoon was a challenge. The normal wear and tear of the conference was starting to take its toll on my body. I hurt all over and felt like I could sleep the rest of the weekend and be okay with that. As my whole group of friends left the hotel room to go to Ultra, I dragged myself out of bed. I spent the whole day alone relaxing on the beach and walking around South Beach. It was a nice change of pace. No clubs, small dose of music, and a day of relaxation was just what I needed to finish the week without having to rent a motorized wheelchair - haha. I fell asleep around 10pm, only to be woken up by my friends around midnight. It was obvious that Ultra was over and that I was not getting any more sleep. We got a cab straight to Pawn Shop for Burridge Barrage and were pleasantly greeted by Zel McCarthy once again. It was getting real late and the line to get in was horrendous. Zel let us come on in and we headed straight towards the back room. Loco Dice was hitting it so hard. After about an hour of standing, our feet couldn't take much more. As much as we didn't want to miss the end of their set, we walked back into the front room were Lee Burridge had packed the dance floor. We sit down inside the infamous school bus and chill out for a couple of hours. It was nice to be able to still hear the music and to get off our feet. Plus, the random people that kept coming in and out of the bus were a hoot to talk to. Hours had passed and we headed to the dance floor. After about 30 minutes of dancing, we knew it was time to go. We left Pawn Shop about 5:30 and there was still a huge line to get in. It's crazy knowing I was going to sleep and these people were just getting started. We had the cab take a short detour and drop us off on Ocean Dr. instead of Collins. It was still dark so we took off our shoes and started walking toward the ocean. We found some seats and watched the dazzling sunrise. It was about to hit 8am, and as usual, it was way past time for much needed sleep.
Sunday, our final full day in Miami, was actually quite relaxing - lots of eating, drinking, and being lazy. I stopped by Zak Davis' annual party, Essential Breaks at the Catalina Hotel, to check out RTHM (again) and another of my favorite DJs, Illegal Alien. Even though it was our last night, we decided not to venture downtown and to stay on SoBe to check out Scooter & Lavelle at Bed. Helen graciously let us in and we headed straight to one of the beds. The music was terrible the entire night but at that point, we didn't care. We just laid back and relaxed, and already started to miss Miami. We had to wake up early on Monday to start packing and to check out of the hotel. We had them hold our luggage as we had one more amazing meal at Puerto Sagua (traditional Cuban). Our car picked us up on time and we were headed back to the airport in Ft. Lauderdale. Happy with the week we just had but sad to be leaving, it felt so great to finally get home.
Posted April 14, 2008
