Souvenirs

I have seven students in an advisory class this year, and because most of them are in seventh grade, they outright asked for souvenirs from my trip.  Fine.  I can pick up seven tchotchkes.  Folks, tchotchkes are expensive.  I know we're not broke people, but I didn't feel right spending a bunch of money on a handful of useless items for kids at the middle school.  Confession time- I found a multi-pack of glow in the dark alligator toys on Amazon.  They should be here today, and I see the kids Monday.  I'm not really a souvenir person, myself.  It adds pressure to the travels.  I've always thought you should to enjoy your time, not spend it in a tourist-gouging gift shop selecting from location-branded t-shirts and keychains. 

Four ourselves, we got what we always get- a refrigerator magnet.  We get a magnet from each place we visit, near or far.  We have magnets from nearby Fort Worth and Reunion Tower right here in Dallas, and we have some from our wedding trip to the other side of the world.  The little fish magnet from Fiji sits near a wine bottle magnet from Grapevine, Texas.  We write dates on the back and stick them on the freezer door of the refrigerator we keep in the garage.  We may have to expand to the refrigerator door in a bit- that freezer door is pretty full.  

That's a problem for another day, though.  We found a spot for this proud rooster, and with that, our spring break draws to a close.  We're back home and getting ready to finish out the year with our children at school.  I just need to remember to take seven alligator toys with me.  

See you all back here next time we leave town.  It's going to be pretty epic- We are headed to the southern hemisphere this year- more on that in July.   

One last time: Here are our photos!

Homeward bound

When Cas and I travel, we like to see beautiful sunsets wherever we go. Often, we view them from a boat.  The sunset in Miami was particularly pretty, and we were out on the water viewing it.  

When we wrapped up our lunch and our walk on the beach, it was time to head back to the hotel and get ready for the evening’s activity.  We went to the Bayside shopping center and had dinner.  Well, kind of.  We had eaten a very large, very late lunch, so we went to a restaurant that promised empanadas and a view of the water.  Sounds good, but the drinks came way after the food and the service was robotic to the point of unpleasant.  Also, happy hour was only in the bar area, not the patio.  Finally, we must have been the only two people in the place who didn’t own a Miami Heat jersey.  Oh, Bayside Marketplace is right next door to where the local NBA team plays.  That game started at 7:30, while our boat boarded at 7, so there was a lot of crossover in the crowds.  The drinks were good, if full priced, and the food was decent, but the service was so bad, and they had oriented the table where we were sitting so  that only one of us at a time could look out at the water.  The other had to face the restaurant.  

After one round of drinks and a little bit of food, we opted for a seat at a Chilis.  I know, I know.  Chilis is hardly authentic Caribbean food or anything that screams out Miami, but the Margaritas were on special, the table let us both see the water, and the service was personable, not robotic.  Also, I had a Chilis gift card in my purse.  All I do is win, right?

After we paid up at Chilis and headed down to the pier, we had a little bit of time to kill before hopping on our boat, so we walked the length of the pier.  Cas had lived in Miami about 30 years ago, and he had a bit of nostalgia looking at some of the places we passed.  I was glad we had opted for the somewhat quieter spot for our pre-boat drinks.  I don’t think it’s my age, either.  I have never liked places that played music so loud that I couldn’t have a conversation.  I guess if I hung out with less interesting people, I would love places like that, but as luck would have it, I travel with Cas.  

So we walked back toward the boarding area and before too long, we were on our boat.  There was a top deck area with some permanently fixed benches and a few folding chairs.  I opted for a folding chair on the top deck while Cas was down at the bottom, picking up a few glasses of wine.  I sat in a chair, then put my arm on the back of the one next to it as if I was saving it for someone.  I was, in fact.  Tell me why a total stranger sat there without even looking at my face, then became just as surprised as I was to find my arm was around her shoulders.  

She quickly got up and apologized, and luckily, found another spot to sit- apparently, it was her birthday.  Hey, lady, I already have a date on this boat, but thanks for the offer, and happy birthday!  The sunset cruise was underway.  We moved from the top to the bottom to the front of the boat.  The views were spectacular and the narration was interesting without being aggravating.  

It was just about the perfect way to wrap up a very full day in Miami.  

From there, we headed back to the hotel and went to sleep.  We had the window of our third floor room cracked open, and from that small crack, we heard a loud argument between what I can only imagine were drunken spring break revelers.  I was glad to be above it all.  Three floors above it all, if you want to be specific.  

This morning, we woke to our last alarm of the trip so we could pack up and head out.  We wanted proper breakfast complete with Cuban coffee before heading to the airport, and apparently, the world’s most famous Cuban Restaurant is a place on Calle Ocho called Versailles.  

I got eggs and a ham empanada.  It was amazing.  Cas had croquettes with his eggs.  Also amazing- we shared a bit.  And I got my Cuban coffee.  Fun fact, Cuban coffee tastes just like Turkish coffee, which is a dead ringer for Greek coffee.  Makes American coffee taste like a kids’ drink.  I made quick work of that tiny cup of very dark, very thick stuff and set about eating my amazing breakfast. 

I would totally recommend Versailles.  Apparently, there is a place in Cuba named after the place in France, and the restaurant is named after the place that’s named after the other place.  I haven’t checked to see if the French one borrowed its name from someone else.  

After that lovely breakfast, we took a quick drive through the Coral Gables neighborhood, the place Cas used to live when he worked in Miami.  It was a pretty neighborhood, and a nice, little drive before we began the battle of Miami International Airport.  

Man, that was a rotten time.  Getting through security took 48 minutes, and there were plenty of people around us who were legitimately worried they were about to miss their flight.  We actually walked up to the gate as boarding was beginning, and we managed to get on the plane.  We did not sit, rest, put down our bags or pause.  We just walked from the security checkpoint to the boarding area to the seats where we are sitting right now.  Whew.  And to think Southwest offered us the opportunity to board early for only $60.  Glad we didn’t spend it, because we wouldn’t have physically been able to do that.  Regardless, we made it.  We have a connection to hit in Austin, and that looks promising.  Maybe the fact that UT is halfway through its spring break will mean we have less company on our first stop in Texas.  

Either way, it was a great trip to Miami.  I would have liked a little more time to explore Key West and a little more time to do awesome beach things, but the gator show was too impressive to pass up, and the sunset cruise was great.  I think we left at the right time, as well.  As Thursday was getting rolling, we saw police barricades go up, traffic get worse and the line of cars heading the opposite direction as us backing up pretty sincerely.  Yeah, time to head back home.  See you when we’re on the ground.  

Here are our photos!

Where is McLovin?

Once again today, we woke to the soft tones of the alarm on my phone.  Yesterday was the same.  It’s just that we jammed so much into this three night stay that we had to be at certain places by certain times.  Today, unfortunately, that place is the airport.  But why the alarm clock yesterday?  Banana Joe.  

Actually the tour company was called Banana Joe’s Tours.  The driver and font of Miami knowledge was named Häagen.  He picked us up in front of our hotel, introduced himself, then proceeded to say everything in English, then repeat it in German.  Turns out there were lots of Germans in Miami at the same time as us.  Cas had a blast with it.  He took German in high school, which has been a few years, now, and even knowing in advance what he was about to say (Häagen said everything in English first, German second), Cas said it was like watching YouTube on double speed.  Häagen talked about the architecture on South Beach, nautical and tropical.  Some of the buildings were made to look like cruise ships from the era- decks and ports and such.  Others were made to mimic elements of nature, especially tropical nature.  After he said the thing about the cruise ships, I could see it everywhere.  Cool pro tip, Häagen!  

His drive took us through unpleasant Miami morning traffic to the Everglades.  We were deposited and given wristbands that entitled us to an airboat tour of the nearby portion of the glades.  I now know that the Everglades are not a swamp, as you may mistakenly suspect.  They are a really wide, really slow-moving river coming off of Lake Okeechobee and headed out to the ocean.  We saw some rare birds on our journey, but no alligators.  It was a little too early, so the sun hadn’t heated up the world to gator-friendly temperatures just yet.  We did spot a four-foot-tall Great Blue Heron and a couple of Ospreys.  That was pretty cool.  And after the bird spotting and the gator-missing, we were treated to a live alligator show.  The guy who walked in the pit of alligators was wearing shorts and a t-shirt, but no shoes.  He walked into the water and nudged these prehistoric beasts around with his feet.  When he culled one gator form the nearly dozen he had in the water to use as a demonstration animals, he dragged her by the tail.  It was surreal.  I’ve known since forever that you run like heck if you ever see one of these things, and here’s this whackadodle, walking around telling us their names.  Hector was in the corner, and somehow, he couldn’t locate the gator he called McLovin.  I was thinking that sounded distressing.  Who loses a giant almost-dinosaur in a crowd of tourists?  Where is McLovin?  We left there 30 minutes later still not knowing.  But we got out alive, and that’s what’s important, here.  

The man doing the demonstration dragged a lady-alligator to the center of a sandy pit.  Sorry, her name escapes me- I can’t get past the nagging mystery of McLovin.  He hopped on her back and demonstrated the ways that the Seminoles used to capture these beasts for food, disabling their main defense mechanism, their crushing, powerful jaws.  The guy was completely nuts.  As we watched him grip the beast and tell corny jokes, I kept taking a mental inventory of his fingers and toes.  They all appeared intact.  When the gator show ended, we hopped back in Häagen‘s oversized Banana Joe van and headed back to our hotel.  From there, we changed clothes and went about the business of finding some lunch.  We had a tiny snack of fried alligator at the tourist shop in the Everglades, but it was time for some serious seafood.  Nothing like eating a piece of fish while gazing out at the water from whence that fish came.  We did a fisherman’s platter with a piece of fish, some shrimp, a few scallops and a crab cake.  We started with crab legs, though.  Hey, go big or go home.  But seriously, we shared.  We’re not gluttons.  At least not total gluttons.  When we wrapped up the amazing seafood meal, Cas asked if I wanted to walk on the beach while we gazed longingly into each other’s eyes.  I said, “Duh.”  Romantic, no?  

But that’s all you get for now.  I will save the sunset cruise for later, as now is breakfast time, and we’re nearly ready to walk out and go find my sought after cup of Cuban coffee.  I understand it’s about the color and consistency of used motor oil, but when in Rome, right?  

Here are our photos!

42 bridges

Oof.  That was a long day.  It was a great day, but a long one, to be sure.  It’s always a little difficult to set an alarm on a vacation, but today, we had to.  We were waiting at 6:45 for a 6:50 pick up in front of our hotel.  We were the second to last couple on a very full busload of people headed from Miami to the last stop on US highway 1, Key West.  The other end of that road is in Maine, so we’ll stick to the southern terminus today.  

We traveled over 42 bridges on the way there and again on the way back.  All I could think of was the scene in True Lies where the bridge to a lesser-known key is out, and Arnold Schwarzenegger pulls Jamie Lee Curtis from a sunroof.  Yeah, our bus wasn’t quite that thrilling.   

But Key West was very cool.  We booked one little excursion and one circulating tour thing while in town, and the first thing we had pre booked was a glass bottom boat out to a section of the local coral reef.  That was really cool.  Cas and I were recounting how many glass bottomed boats we’d been on, and apparently, we’re nearing an expert level for traveling via boats with transparent bottoms.  Still, this one was pretty cool.  For extra points, on the way out to the coral (which is about six miles from the key), we were standing at the top side of the two-tiered boat.  We were looking out at the water, and we both managed to see a pod of dolphins.  There were several fins that surfaced at the same time, arching out of the water together as we looked on.  It was so darn cool.  We heard the tour guide on the intercom tell folks to look where we had just seen the whole bunch of these guys, but we saw them before that happened, and like any naturally occurring bit of amazing wonder, they vanished from view about two seconds after being acknowledged by a tour guide.  

That trip was very cool but when it ended, we were pretty hungry.  We wandered a little bit and landed at a pretty fancy place with a nice patio for shade and people watching.  We had mango mojitos, a plump crab cake, some fish tacos, and something for dessert.  What was that dessert?  Gosh, so forgettable.  Except how it was the most amazing key lime pie ever.  The slice was enormous, but I still felt like Cas and I were both very careful to get our allotted half of the slice.  I am quite fond of him, but he wasn’t gonna get a bite from my half- not on my watch.  I think that feeling went both ways.  

Regardless, when we finished our pie- not a crumb remained- we walked over to “The Little White House,” which was, at one point, the vacation home of Harry S Truman.  Fun fact- there is a great deal of debate about whether or not to put a period after the S in Harry S Truman.  Given his actual given name, I say no.  The S doesn’t stand for anything.  It’s just an S.  His two grandfathers both had S-based names in some manner or another, and apparently, the single S was a compromise that was probably meant to honor both of them, but in reality, it probably didn’t please either one.  Still, no punctuation for you, Mr. President.  

The official tour of the Little White House would have cost more time and more money than we were willing to spend, so we wandered the grounds for a bit, then moved on.  We had pre booked a “train” trip.  By train, the good folks in Key West mean a regular motor vehicle decorated to look like a train that pulls a bunch of trailers with seats.  It was cute- they took us around to the Hemingway house, the southernmost point in the continental US, a Naval base, a series of museums and a bunch of other really cool stuff on the island.  We were made aware when we were at the highest point on the island, which is 15 feet above sea level.  We learned that the southernmost point in the continental US is preceded by the southernmost stop sign in the continental US.  The tour guide was very good, but we had to cut it a little short.  We had five hours in town to spend, and two of them were glass-bottomed-boat related.  We may have spent more time on lunch and pie than was necessary, as well, but look at all the regrets…  Wait- there aren’t any.  We’ve heard from lots of folks where we should go, but we did some cool stuff that wasn’t on the radar of our friends or family.  Also, we had pie, so there’s that.  

We hopped back on our bus to Miami with two minutes to spare.  We had a 5:30 deadline.  The last three people stepped on at 5:40, and I hope they could all feel us glaring at them for the fact that we all hustled and they decided they could have an extra ten minutes.  Jerks.  I am nearly certain that a man from that group was the one who applied cologne while on the bus.  Double rude.  

Two things I hadn’t fully expected in Key West- the sheer number of pink people and the sheer number of roosters.  The pink people- I mean, wow.  I know that not everyone is as fanatical about sunscreen as I am.  It’s a good thing to be fanatical about.  But the number of people who were busy getting a sunburn in front of my very eyes made me want to chase them all around with my spray can of Coppertone SPF 70.  Lots of fuchsia.  As for the roosters- these dudes were everywhere.  They were under parked cars, in open-air shops.  They were on the restaurant patio, watching Cas and I eat pie.  They were overly friendly and very bold.  So many roosters.  Souviner shops had rooster-themed displays, so apparently, they’ve been a part of the island culture for a while.  

But we’re back in our hotel, now.  We came back- it was so cool because we were the second-to-last folks to get on the bus and the first stop to get off.  Everyone else had to keep riding into the city.  South Beach perk!  We got here, dropped off our stuff and headed to a Cuban restaurant for some Ropa Vieja and mojitos.  Wow.  

For tomorrow, we start with an Everglades fan boat ride, spend a little beach time and wrap the day with a sunset cruise.  Sounds about right.  Then we head back to flat, landlocked Dallas to attend a friend’s wedding before it’s back to work with us.  

Tonight, we decompress, though.  It was a fifteen hour day that started with the buzzing of an alarm.  Maybe after vacation ends, we’ll sleep in.  Just once.  

Here are our photos!

The tony Tony hotel

We’re waking up at the beautiful Tony Hotel on South Beach.  The Tony has a neon spire on its top that says Tiffany, but we’re tying not to let that confuse us too much.  Tony is a fine name, to be sure, and not entirely lacking in double meaning.  Tony as an adjective means high-toned and stylish.  In that regard, we’re getting up and going at the tony Tony hotel.  

Yesterday was a whirlwind.  We left Dallas after somewhat hastily packing a bag- hopped on a Southwest flight to Austin, then another one to Miami.  We got off the plane, bidding adieu to James the flight attendant at gate 15 in Austin, only to board the same plane with the same James the flight attendant at gate 15 about an hour later.  Seems like an odd series of events.  But at least we got an opportunity to grab a pricey sandwich in the intervening hour.  

From there, it was a quick trip to the Miami airport.  We navigated to the car rental counter, and when I pulled a hand-fan out of my bag at the counter, the woman behind the desk said, somewhat sarcastically, “Welcome to Miami!” 

That’s when Cas took the helm.  He lived here for a few years in the ‘90s, so he was elected to be the rental car driver.  I’m happy to hand over the responsibility, anyhow.  I have never been here before.  We were on the little people-mover thingy from the airport terminal to the rental car spot, and I was happy to see so many palm trees.  Expectation met.  Box checked.  Palm trees intact.  They’re everywhere, in fact.  

But today, we leave the rental car in the garage and hand over the transportation responsibility to a bus driver.  Someone else is taking us to Key West.  We’ll just be passengers and enjoy the ride together.  They estimate five hours for the trip there, five hours on the key and five hours back.  That’s kind of a long day, and I am happy to let someone else drive and focus for that.  

Regardless, it’s nearly time to head out of our tony Tony hotel and hop on our bus to the keys.  Sunscreen, check.  Sandals, check.  Palm trees, everywhere.  Here we go.  

Photos here!

In Spanish, it’s “El Sandwich”

Kind of a linguistic let down.  There are a few words I know of like that.  Cognates.  Brothers.  Fraternal twins, and occasionally, identical ones.  Hotel in Spanish is hotel.  Sweater=Sueter.  Pharmacy=Farmacia.  Not a tremendous amount of mystery.  So when I insisted that the first food I eat in Florida be a Cuban Sandwich, it was El Sandwich Cubano.  Not exactly breaking new linguistic ground, here.  

Regardless, I just had the best Sandwich Cubano I have ever had.  Certainly, it must have been a good deal more authentic than anything I happened to eat in Dallas.  There’s a fair chance that the woman who made it for me was an actual Cuban person.  

I have more to tell about the day, of course.  It was my first foray into Miami, and we arrived at our hotel on a path that took us through Little Havana.  Did you know that there are just sometimes random chickens in people’s front yards there?  And there was one rooster.  Oh, and I did manage to snap a photo of a roadside flower stand that also sold tires.  Or maybe it was a tire shop that sold flowers.  Hard to say.  But I digress.  More about my initial impressions of Miami later.  For today, know that the place is beautiful, the streets are pretty crowded and the hotel is very nice.  

Here is the photo album, as per usual. Fun fact: the Spanish word for normal is “normal.”  Ah, learning a new language is so enlightening!  

See you tomorrow as we travel to Key West.  Time to hit the hay- it’s an early start!  

The mother of all clichés

It's spring break again, friends.  Time to pack a bag and head out of town.  If you close your eyes and think for a moment about a spring break spot, it wouldn't take too long for you to arrive in Florida.  It's the mother of all clichés.  In fact, I would love to see statistics about the impact of spring breakers on the overall Florida economy.  

I saw a story in the Dallas newspaper this morning about Miami Beach cracking down on spring breakers this year.  No public drunkenness.  More DUI checkpoints.  More law enforcement.  Less debauchery.  I doubt Cas and I are the intended target audience for these added layers of enforcement.  We're a couple of teachers spending part of a week off in Miami, seeing the Everglades and the Keys.  We're hardly an MTV reality show waiting to happen.  

So we leave Monday and return Thursday.  In the middle, there, we stay at a beautiful art deco hotel on South Beach.  We have a 60 minute airboat tour of the Everglades scheduled, racking up another national park on our list, and a full day trip to Key West.  We have a rental car booked, but we actually booked a bus to drive us to Key West and back.  Put that 10 hours of drive time on someone else.  Cas and I can watch a movie on an iPad or do a crossword or something instead of focusing on what may be a dull drive.  

We may spend the rest of the time eating Cuban sandwiches and lounging at the rooftop pool at our hotel.  Maybe we get a little beach time.  I do love parasailing when I can get to it.  It should be a good adventure.  We're there for three nights, and I am ready.  It's been a bit of a long week at school, so this is a welcome escape.  We'll pack a bag and get on the road.  Next time you hear from us, we'll be at our fancy-pants hotel.  See you there!