catching up on posts - Day 3 Wednesday

We miss Key West!

Today began late but with room service ordered in. I called the front desk as there was a menu for room service but no number to call. It rang and rang and rang no answer. I said, “I hate Miami” to which jim said – just try again in a few minutes. So I did, same thing ring ring ring ring ring ring NOTHING! So Jim grabbed the phone and called “Wake up call” and got a person. He asked to be transferred to the room service extension and they did! So we ordered room service. It arrived about 45 minutes later … not very hot, no toast, the little jar of honey had been opened (not that we had any toast to put it on anyway), the fruit and yogurt parfait with sprinkle of granola was really granola with a little bit of yogurt and fruit, but at least we were in the room sharing breakfast together … well not really together, jim had gone back to sleep.

Anyway after breakfast we decided to get a move on and go see some of the recommended sites around Coconut Grove. In brief, I don’t recommend them.

We started by heading to “The Barnacle” which is a beautiful state park now and was the residence of some captain of some ship. He preserved the land and supposedly it is really beautiful … we wouldn’t know since it is only open Thursday – Monday and today is Wednesday. Oh well.

We decided to get in our car and go to AAA to find out what they recommend to save the Miami part of our trip. The girl at the desk was very helpful and recommended that we drive a bit out of Coconut grove and go to Key Biscaynne. GOOD FIND! The beach was beautiful, there was a lighthouse too. It was also a state park and it closed at 5:49. Weird, right? So the woman at the gate when we were going in was telling us where to go to see the lighthouse etc. and she said we should definitely check out the sunset over the water – and the sun sets at 5:49. Jim said, we would love to see the sun set … but we have to be out of the park by 5:49. She laughed. She said we could watch the sunset and then make our way out of the park.

We walked the beach which was pretty desolate but the water was beautiful and warm and very tempting except we didn’t bring our swim suits … that didn’t stop jim though! He took off his shorts and swam in his skivvies! Not me though. I was on the beach taking pictures! (which I promised him I would not share)

Of course he needed to get out of the water and out of his skivvies and back into his shorts so we could leave … and you’ll be happy to know that he waited until the beach was deserted to start that process.

We then went to the sunset watching place and took some pics there while the sun set. And right on cue as the sun set was complete, the announcement came on telling us to make our way to the gate – perfect.

We stopped on our way home at a Cuban restaurant and grabbed dinner and then made our way back across the bridge with a much better feeling about our stay in Miami.

Jim wanted to see Dolphin Stadium since the superbowl is there in a week but when we asked Maggie to help us find the stadium, she found many stadiums so we consulted one of our books to get the right stadium. It said Miami stadium and Maggie had a Miami stadium so we picked that one. When Maggie said “you have arrived” we were on a street with a prison on one side and Miami slums on the other … cruel joke Maggie – cruel.

We gave up and headed toward our hotel, but found a huge indoor/outdoor shopping/drinking/eating/nightspot place on the water and we decided to check it out. It was pretty fun. We found a place to get libations and walked around looking at all the little carts – kind of a Quincy Market type place only you can walk around with your drink. There was a live band playing too right on the water. There was a Bubba Gump Shrimp Co restaurant there which had a gift shop. Jim found everything funny in the shop – it was cute. Outside there was a bench with a box of chocolates on top of a suitcase. You could sit next to it for a picture AND put your feet (with shoes) inside of a pair of sneakers like Forrest Gump wore in the movie. I took a pic of Jim sitting there. Kinda funny.

Then we headed back to the hotel.

End of day 3.