A date! A date! (Wynwood Walls)

This is something I've wanted to do ever since we decided to go to U of M for med school and I started pinning fun things to do here. There were lots of kids there, and it's advertised as family friendly, but I am very glad we went just the two of us. Besides lots of bars and loud music, you go through quite a few sketchy alleyways and HUGE crowds and it was just so nice to know that I wasn't keeping track of kids, counting heads, and worrying about cars and safety. 

WE WENT ON A DATE! A REAL LIVE DATE! What with Molly being big enough to not be nursing, eat table food, and generally being past the baby stage, it is so much easier to be gone for a longer amount of time. Not only that, but an AWESOME podiatry resident and his family moved nearby and since they have three kids as well, we have started swapping babysitting. Which means we can actually afford to go on a date because it's FREE. Sometimes life is just too good.

We took the following picture of me because they gave us free popsicles to post it to social media. The guy was hilarious. Sterling picked a pineapple popsicle that ended up having basil in it. That's what happens in the indi-area of Miami, haha. (I am so out of the loop. Indi? Granola? These things aren't specific in a melting pot like Miami, haha.)

FOOD TRUCKS! I have never seen so many in my life. They were up and down about four streets. And the SMELLS! It felt like a carnival!

Sometimes I realize I live in Miami.

We got a 32 oz. lemonade and needed to be rehydrated about .5 seconds later. It was HOT! But it was so fun. And that lemonade was DELISH!

Basically you wander around this little section of downtown Miami (a fairly scary section of downtown Miami) and look at all the buildings graffiti. They are done by actual graffiti artists. I've heard of that before, but it was pretty neat to see it all in person. They have a little area you walk into where they just have walls set up with famous graffiti artists. You can go on tours. We listened to one for a few minutes before moving on. It was really interesting, just a bit long.

See that building behind the food trucks? Wynwood Arts Complex. 

How many faces do you see? I was terrible at these things, I'd usually only see one thing in a specific wall and Sterling would have to point out all the intricate details.

This little alleyway was my FAVORITE. We walked past it again later that night and it was all lit up with twinkling lights. It felt like I was in another world in some crazy bazaar or something. 

It led into this little nook. I was especially in love with the puke couch.

The alleyway opened up into this and then back onto more streets of walls.

For you, Bridget! Sterling said you would be SO excited!

We decided to get that stick-figure heart painting and put it above our bed, haha!! Someday!

Apparently, Gramps is a local club that is really trendy. Just off to the left of the picture was a guy standing to check ID's. I almost convinced myself to go in just to get my ID checked, because I've never done that before, haha.

There were quotes and scriptures and sayings painted all over the sidewalks, but this was my favorite. 

I had to post this because there are lots of houses that look like that in Miami that are not in the Wynwood Art district. HAHA.

The next few pictures are just SO Miami(and yes, I'm talking dumpsters and lamp posts and garbage). Someday, when we don't live here, this will remind me of our time in Miami and I will laugh. I already laugh. But really--it's just such a crazy place:

Sterling was getting a little close and personal with this guy. Then he realized he had a gun. HAHA.

So many people everywhere.

A lock keeper. Pretty neat. 

This was leading into the section that has tours.

Little corners with crazy furniture. I guess that Gratitude one is SUPER famous.

If I could have, I would have got this couch for you, Andrea. And the lamp.

Sterling was done posing LONG before this, but I asked a nice lady to take our picture in front of this wall. Everyone who has gone takes a picture of this wall, it's the thing to do. So I thought I'd get in on it. 

A lot of the walls were quite risqué, so they are not pictured. But ya know, it is Miami.

Sterling requested a picture of this one because it isn't spray-painted, it's actually chipped into the wall!

Random guy pushing his cart across the street--HAHA! I love it! I don't even know why I loved it so much! 

YAY!!! We were so excited we almost got it! But chose these incredibly delicious kabobs instead.

More food trucks.

And here, pictures for all of the ethnicities represented:

Quite the variety of food options, no? Variety as in, the ones you always come across here. I almost convinced Sterling to try some Venezuelan, but we were having  hard time keeping our options gluten-free.

This massive jenga was just out for anyone to use:

This was not directly on a wall. On the second Saturday of every month several little art galleries in the area open up for everyone to walk through for free. This was in one of them. 

Kayli, Sterling said to ask Brett what this was. A kit car?

Random guy with monkey on street corner. Several of the street corner people asking for money were not so enchanting.

 And that CRAZY amount of pictures concludes our date night. I promise Sterling didn't mind that I spent our date snapping pictures. We had FOUR hours, so it really didn't even seem like I pulled the camera out that frequently. And we just SAT and ate for almost an hour and a half--unheard of! And I didn't have to share my food with Molly! We had such a great time and it was so nice to get a fun experience in just the two of us. I really enjoy being able to get into some Miami local places while we are living here. Spices to life, right?!