Miami, Here I Come

Funny how things can change in few days. If you read this post, you will remember that I was having the winter blues and I was complaining that my next "warm weather" vacation was months away. Well, no more! My husband is going to Miami for work next week and we are going to join him for President's Day weekend. This is something that we had discussed months ago (since it is a business trip that was scheduled almost a year in advance) but had decided to hold off on for various reasons.  These reasons have become less impeding now and for one of those fortuitous coincidences that happen sometimes in life, my best friend from Italy is going to be in Miami that weekend with her husband and kids, so as soon as I learned this I decided that I had to go. Ater spending almost two days on the Internet I found two tickets on a direct flight for me and my daughter that won't break the bank account (you would think that there is a NYC-Miami flight every hour or less but they were all full or selling for an exorbitant price). The first day we are going to stay at the hotel where my husband is staying for work (a golf resort but not on the beach) and then we are going to move to the hotel where my friend and her family are, on the beach. My friend's daughter is six months younger than my daughter and they played together this summer when I was at my parents so it will be fun for her too (the thought that in the end my daughter is better home than anywhere else is always a reason that discourages me from embarking on this kind of trips). The best thing is that due to the mild winter this year, the temperature in Miami is around 80 degrees, which is a bit unseasonal I believe (I made a stopover at the Miami airport last year when we went to Bahamas and it was definitively in the 60s). I am very excited, not only because a vacation is always an exciting perspective but because (quite incredibly) I have never been to Miami, even if my husband goes there at least once every two months.
Now, I understand that Miami is a big US city where people work and have a normal life and don't necessarely go to the beach and sip cocktails all day long but for me is enough of an exotic destination (they have palm trees there, right?) to make me switch into tropical vacation mode. Not to mention that for us Italian people Miami will always be remembered as the city where Versace used to live in an over-the-top villa and was shot to death. Exotic enough, as I said. So, I am putting together a tropical vacation wardrobe for this trip, with the help of our friend JCrew but especially my friend Lilly Pulitzer, which has become my number one store to go when shopping for a warm weather vacation. I am assuming it will be warm enough to lounge around the pool during the day and maybe a bit chilly when the sun goes down in the evening (if you live in Miami, please let me know if I am wrong).

A few days ago I found the perfect dress for this vacation, a Lilly sweater dress (100% merino) in a beautiful print and gorgeous green color. It is on sale in stores and still full price online (if you are interested it's called "pipster dress"). It also comes in navy (the print is a bit different) and pink. Wearing a size S, as Lilly dresses tend to run small (and short):

I plan to wear it with flats or low-heels during the day if it's not too hot but I can easily dress it up for the evening with a pair of high heels and maybe a belt:

A quick note about the strappy sandals that I am wearing with the dress. They are Talbots from the past summer collection and they are currently $27 on the Outlet site, which is more or less the price that I paid (only a size 9 is available but they might popback, you can buy them here.) They seem very comfortable to wear for a stiletto-heel (they are a little bit padded) and they run TTS (unlike other Talbots shoes that run fairly big IMO). They look definitively much more expensive than $30 or even the price they originally retailed for.

Back to my vacation, I have a dress that simply has to come to Miami with me even if I am not sure that I am going to wear it with daughter-in-toe (after all it's a family trip and I am not going to party but it's an easy dress to throw in the suitcase in case and it screams "Miami" to me). Some of you will remember it as I had posted pictures when I bought it last spring (I then returned it and rebought it for cheaper at the end of the season). It's Lilly again and this style is called Whitaker, but it's the print that makes it so special (this is a XS):

For the day I am relying on some old and new JCrew. I am going to take my Trastevere shorts, a pair of white demin bermudas and a few tops that coordinate well together, like the pintuck V-neck tee in spermint that I picked up in store during the 40% off sale for around $8 (this one runs big, I am wearing a XXS):

I love them with the caprese tunic, that can double as cover-up (I really like this tunic, I am kicking myself for not getting the blue stone one too, as this one is too sheer for the city). Sorry for the wrinkles, clearly needs some ironing before I put it in the suitcase:

Also as cover-up, I also going to take one of the two Boden tunics that you have seen in this post (I ended up keeping both, for the price) and the H&M striped dress. As for long pants options I am going to take my green garment-dyed toothpick, to wear with a white shirt (that I can also wear with the shorts) or a printed tee as seen here:

They can also double as "going-out" pants with a sparkly top. For the chilly moments, I am going to take my cashmere zip-front hoodie, the Nolita jeans jacket and a half-zip fleece by Lilly. I have been looking for a decent fleece that desn't make me look like I am going to the gym forever and when this one showed up during the recent 2-day sale I jumped on it. The ruffle makes it a little less casual than your regular fleece (it is micro-fleece), the blue is to die for and the XS fits perfectly. It does even have a cute printed cotton trim around the zipper and at the cuffs and the best part is that I bought the same for my daughter, so we are going to play mommy and me (I am probably going to wear this on the flight):

I am not planning to take any jacket besides the Nolita (that I don't have yet but I plan to get sooner than later; it was on my wishlist anyway). What do you think? Should I take a jacket and if yes what kind of jacket? A windbreaker/raincoat?
If you think of something that I should absolutely think of taking, please let me know (especially if you live in Miami or Florida!) Of course I am taking my swimsuit collection and probably even add to it something in the fanfare print. I still have more than a week to get ready and I am going to place an order at Jcrew for the Nolita and the Lucca sandals in heritage green to try on and see IRL (they look exactly the same green than the first Lilly dress that I showed you, but you never know with JCrew) so I can throw something in if needed. The question that I have for you is: boat shoes or not? I am tempted to bring the pink Sperry that I bought on clearance but do people really wear boat shoes in real life? Have you seen someone wearing them?

Have a good end of your week!