Miami

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Kamie woke me at 4:05am this morning with an upset stomach. Did I pack anything? Yes, I did. ? Suppose his Dave & Busters beer-battered fries didn’t set well? He should’ve had the quesadilla… (like me and other Rockstars). We were back to sleep in a couple of minutes…. then the alarm beeped at 4:45am. We had an easy drive on 240 to the Memphis airport. This was our first time flying out of this airport, but it was fairly simple to navigate and was not busy with traffic this morning.



Kamie was wearing a hat he purchased in Cabo San Lucas a few years back. He looked like a redneck going to drink lots of beer on an island to me. Strange enough, his hat was very popular with the ladies this morning. He received compliments from the baggage handler, a random airport worker girl, the security girl, and a few smiles here and there. There must be something about that hat….



I left him to his admirers at our gate and walked to find a Starbucks. Starbucks is a travel treat for me. I always keep my phone with plenty of Starbucks money. This morning I got a black iced tea but I will have a pumpkin spice latte and a chi latte before this trip ends. I recently heard a rumor there are some psychopaths that don’t like pumpkin spice lattes. What is wrong with people??!!



Our flight today was to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. This is the first time I have been this south in Florida. Kamie has been to Fort Lauderdale one time previously for a debate tournament or something like that. I was shocked at how long we flew over the everglades. I did not realize how much land is simply unusable here.



Our flight was early and we arrived in palm-tree filled Florida before noon. We took an Uber to Miami. We arrived at our hotel here directly on Biscayne Bay. Beautiful area. Our room wasn’t ready so we walked next door to have an outdoor lunch. Watermelon margarita for me. It was all alcohol and real watermelon. We ordered a Cuban sandwich made with pulled pork and it was delicious.



So, we are sitting here tonight on this gigantic balcony with the breeze constantly blowing and water views all around us. Neither of us can stay off the balcony. The thing about Miami is that it may say it’s 85 degrees but where we are it feels 70 because the breeze from the bay is constant. It’s like you are standing in front of a rotating fan…. Constantly. It’s wonderful. We don’t realize its warm until we walk into our freezing hotel room.



We don’t really know how we lucked into an upgraded junior suite condo room but we think it’s because they texted us from the restaurant that our room was ready… when we got here it wasn’t…. so they upgraded us… and then when we got to that room, it wasn’t cleaned yet…. so we waited in the lobby for them to clean it and the new lady in charge of everything found out they goofed (again)… she was coming off the elevator and wanted to know why we weren’t in our room….. so then we got upgraded again plus we got a bottle of wine with an apology note, two free hot breakfasts in the morning, and a hotel driver will take us to the port in the morning, complementary of course. Ha Kamie was eating it up but I was feeling bad because we only paid $114 for this room because I booked using our Hilton Honors account and got us a big discount.



Back to Miami…. The breeze, the palm trees everywhere, and two ongoing sounds from our balcony….. the purring of sportscars and those small motorcycle-type things…. The fancy kind that sound like race cars….constantly. There is no shortage of sports cars driving below our balcony on a regular basis. You would think they were filming another episode of The Fast and The Furious. I like it.



We spent the majority of today on our balcony. It’s like being on a cruise ship balcony except you can’t hear the water, you just see it all around you and feel the breeze, and the people/cars scenery is interesting at times. Pictures cannot explain the experience. We walked a couple of blocks both ways from our hotel and checked things out. We walked around the bottom floors of this 42-story hotel/condo complex. The hotel is combined with over 800 residences – all with balconies with bay views. Pet friendly with a one-acre dog park, tennis courts, and sand volleyball attached not counting the Olympic sized pool, fitness room, yoga studio, etc. Prices range from $269,000 for a 1 bed, 1 bath to $2,500,000 for the Penthouse. There is a doorman, plenty of security, a Starbucks, pharmacy, deli, liquor store, adorable clothing shops, two outdoor fresh-catch type of restaurants, a marina for your boat, and a monthly maintenance fee of almost $700. Probably a deal for Miami but you would have to be willing to live among the tourists. The residence mix is interesting – everything from young singles to old singles to young couples. Their dogs are fabulous, but we find it funny that several of them physically carry their dogs through the lobby out to the side entrance and over to the park…. like, even some of the larger dogs get carried. Maybe the dogs aren’t trained yet?



There isn’t much to say. This has been a great day on the bay…. ?



We embark on our cruise ship tomorrow morning so there won’t be any more blogs until we return because unless I get some free minutes, I’m not paying $5 a minute for Carnival’s slow Internet service. Hope you all have a great week at work or wherever you are… ?

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Photos

Leave Memphis with Tex
The popular hat man

Memphis
We fly over the bridge and the Pyramid.

Selfie
The Only Way I'm ever going to be in any of these vacation photos, apparently

Another balcony view
Believe this "bridge" is called the McAurther Causeway

Calamari and Octopus
Fried squid and octopus. The squid was fine. That's all I've got to say about that.