I love the fresh-scrubbed morning face of a city that partays. I like the clean streets and sobriety of the morning after. It’s almost as if in a new day’s light, Miami doesn’t need a face lift at all, she just needs a good face washing. Hose down her sidewalks, sweep away her broken glass, strain the salad from the pool.

Yes, lettuce leaves floated in our pool, although Laurie said they were flower petals. Petals or arugula, there was still stuff floating in our pool one night.

As the sun heats up South Beach, the music and the partying gets turned up too. Everyday the city does it all over, maybe knowing in the morning she’ll be sober — fresh and new again, ready for her morning walk or rooftop yoga. Miami likes to partay, but she also likes to stretch.

The morning’s good for walking and for running on the beach. It’s good for stopping on a bench to stare at the Atlantic and sip strong and yes, expensive, coffee. Coffee from the News Cafe is like $3.50. But, as they say, the people watching? Priceless.

We ate (and drank) at such fun places, like brunch at the News Cafe, in Miami. The first night we walked to Lincoln Road and had dinner at Nexxt. The servings were HUGE and we were glad we had decided to share our plates. Earlier we’d had appetizers at The Front Porch, good guac!

Another night we ate at Yuca on Lincoln Road. The preppy couple sitting near us recommended the Lobster quesadilla or wrap thing, but it was in the $59 range. We were not buying a wrap skirt, for God’s sake, we were buying a wrap app. We stuck to ceviche. It was all good. We had pretty drinks in pretty glasses and watched pretty people parade by.

One highlight from the Miami weekend with my sister in laws was the same highlight from my book club weekend a year ago. Dinner at NoBu. I should be jaded, after all, I live in Manhattan. But I just love the creamy, spicy rock shrimpy dish, the nice waiter, the cool ambiance, the chic-ness of it all.

I’m a sucker for the bright early morning light, but also for the fading light of dusk.

The four of us sister in laws reclined on a four-poster bed at the Shore Club for hours. We joked with some European guy who tried to flirt and giggled with some bachelorette party English women who wore tight black dresses and sequins. We debated waiting for the midnight fashion show at the Shore Club, but honestly, felt we’d seen the fashion show already.

We also discovered on our last day, the lunch spot, CJ’s Crab House, right next to our hotel, The Park Central. The other days we’d eaten lunch from this nice cafe around the corner, Cafe South Beach Deli. We’d sat on the beach and ate some really good salads, especially the fresh-cut fruit salad. And, of course, a bag of chips.  But CJ’s shrimp salad and crab salad sandwich was really good. And it was right next door.

Over the three nights in Miami, we stayed up late. We got up early. We got away. We went to night clubs, like the Shore Club. And in the morning, like Miami, we washed up and started all over again!