Travel Blog: Delray, FL

As Saturday arrived (January 24) Alyson and I jumped in the car around 6:30 in the morning to drive all the way across the state of Florida to Delray to celebrate not only her birthday, but a friend's baby shower in the same area.

The GPS struck at roughly 3 hours and 30 minutes of driving which was at that sweet spot that we could probably do it in one trip without stops or breaks. The drive itself was interesting jumping from I-4 -> Florida Turnpike -> I-95 all the way into the location of our first stop.

We picked up a friend that was also attending this baby shower and stopped for brunch at Motek's in Boca Raton. The atmosphere of this place looked so cool and was perfect for the Florida climate.

I failed to take photos, but we got some amazing tzatziki, hummus and eggplant with plenty of pita bread to experience it all. We didn't want a full meal before a baby shower, but a few drinks and conversation to kill some time before the 1pm party.

The party was at a clubhouse of a nearby country club / neighborhood and it was a fun little fancy baby shower. Not my place for photos or sharing, but the baby games played were pretty funny between:

• Diaper race on teddy bears with teams of 4 blind-folded putting a diaper on a teddy bear in a race.
• Bottle chug (of water) to see who could drink a bottle the quickest.
• Baby Song - Hear 15 seconds of songs that have "baby" in the title - name the song & artist.

There was a solid amount of drinks, great food, plenty of raffles and things to celebrate the inbound of a new kiddo. It was a fun event, but as it ended it was time for us to check to our hotel because the trip was turning into Alyson's birthday weekend celebration.

Sadly the hotel only supported valet parking at the steep cost of $42/night, but since the hotel was in the heart of downtown Delray maybe that is just expected. We quickly emptied our car as valet took it away into the unknown and checked into our room.

We had a nice little view to outdoor areas and were in walking distance of tons of shopping, food and more. We told some friends we were heading to the Ray (our hotel), but they thought we meant visiting the roof top bar (Rosewater Rooftop) of the same hotel. So as we were exploring around our hotel after checking in - we quickly realized folks were looking for us on the rooftop.

Thankfully we were just a few minutes away walking around and turned back to the hotel to meet some friends from the baby shower for drinks and food on the roof. We had a nice server from the bar who kept us full of drinks and the occasional order of food (street corn, tuna bowl and steak frites). Unfortunately again I dropped the ball on photographing anything.

As the night inched towards 9pm it started drizzling and it meant our time on the roof top was probably over. We just had to go down 2 floors and into our room, but the others had walks/drive back to their place with some leaving bright and early back to their respective states in the morning.

Our morning arrived much more relaxed leaving at around 8am to walk around and get a breakfast. We went on a straight shot to the beach after stopping for a breakfast sandwich at a nearby place.

With our luck the drawbridge was going up so we got to wait as a collection of cars and people gathered on both sides of the bridge. The boat that crossed couldn't have been more than a foot higher than the bridge which was depressing - I was expecting to see a full sail boat or something taller.

After briefly visiting the beach and seeing waves much higher than the gulf in Tampa we started back to the hotel, but instead stopping at every shop open to do a bit of window shopping for Alyson's birthday. We bought a few things to celebrate the occasion and were running up to lunch time.

The soon to be mom behind the baby shower we attended joined us for lunch at The Office - a restaurant that resembled a party in a building disguised like an office. It was far from an office with very loud music, bottomless drinks and full of a crowd of party people.

After a good meal of Korean tacos and 3 Sangrias it was time to close out our bill and look for some ice cream. Thankfully the mom to be was a local so knew exactly where to go for some mid day ice cream. A nice little cookie dough ice cream around lunch and we went back to the hotel to rest, watch the AFC Championship NFL game and prepare for our fancy steak dinner.

We learned the hotel offers a golf cart ride to the beach which is a couple blocks from our dining. So after debating walking 14 blocks or 3 - we opted to getting a golf cart ride to the beach then back-tracking a few blocks to our dinner date at Bourbon Steak Delray.

So as 510 arrived we headed downstairs for the 5:15 pickup, but as 5:20 passed it was learned if the golf cart driver was gone - there was no more pickups. The staff apologized and we left on another walk down towards the beach. Of course with our luck as we were 1 block away from the restaurant the bridge started going up and we were trapped again.

We sat and waited while some obnoxious person with a microphone was yelling at everyone to entertain their dumbness. Though once the bridge was up and we walked into Bourbon Steak - our dinner had started.

This was an elegant dinner experience that didn't truly match Berns, but was its own level of elegance. We got a bottle of wine then ordered steaks and to our surprise some french fries with different dipping sauces showed up. I guess this is the "bread" of this place, which caught us off guard.

We didn't really need to order a side of potatoes if we knew we were getting a side of french fries, but we pushed on and tried a bit of each fry and dip. They had some good flavor, but I didn't want to ruin my order of Wagyu arriving. Once the steak arrived my little 8oz of Wagyu was amazing - melting in my mouth with each bite. The steak knifes they provided were so sharp I was even nervous using them myself.

I had never had an fancy steakhouse Wagyu dining before, but since this Australian Wagyu was priced cheaper than Japanese we indulged. I'll probably stick to Delmonico's in the future, but breaking up the pattern with a chance for a fairly priced Australian Waygu was a great birthday celebration.

A couple of hours later we stumbled out of there and walked back to the hotel. Our vacation doesn't end till Monday, but the blog goes out at 10:30pm on Sunday like clockwork. So our vacation isn't over, but this blog is.