Started out with a middle of the night trip to Chicago to board the plane at 6:30 am. They were encouraging early arrivals due to the government shutdown and the potential for TSA to be especially slow. Well, they weren't. But, I was happy to be sure I wasn't going to miss my flight.
I flew to New York and changed planes to head to Miami. I had a lot of fear to fly this time due to the fact that I had been very sick with an upper respiratory infection the week prior to leaving. I had fear of pressure and pain in my sinuses. However, I know at least one person prayed for me and I had no issues of that.
I arrived in Miami and Kathy was already there from Austin. She thought I was coming from Atlanta and kept texting me asking me where I was and why it was taking me so long since the board said the plane was on time. Well, I couldn't answer her as to why she was thinking I should be there since my flight was 40 minutes behind schedule. I guess the Atlanta flight was on time...
We didn't really have a solid plan for getting to the hotel. We knew they did not provide a shuttle, so we had to figure out something. We were about to go Uber and then realized that Miami does have public transportation. So, we headed that way. We went on people movers that took us a very long long way with several turns. I told Kathy when we got to the end that it had taken us back to where we started. (She sort of believed me)
At the end of the people movers was a little monorail that took us to the rental car and train area. So, we asked for help at the desk and the lady told us how to purchase a ticket and board the train. We knew our hotel was in Coconut Grove and that was one of the stops listed on the train we were on. When we got off the train in Coconut Grove, we could see our hotel. It was a block over from the train station. We were thrilled. The cost of that train ride was $2.25. We had definitely made out well there. The hotel was having happy hour when we arrived and that provided enough for us to have a full meal. So, no added cost of food that night. We had to walk about 10 blocks each way to go to Walgreens for sunscreen and underwear. Kathy had forgotten hers.
We were going to color her hair purple to match mine but decided against it since it was going to be messy and we weren't sure it was safe for her scalp.
We went to bed and got up for complementary breakfast that morning. The hotel provided a ride to the port for $10 and only had one trip that they made at 10 am. We opted to try to get there on our own.
So, we got back on the train. I thought we were supposed to go to the end of the train line, but as we headed that way, Kathy saw ships. We decided it was probably best to get off there and try to get to where the ships were. Now, the adventure begins.
We were looking around, classic lost tourist look, I am sure. Two people saw us and came over and asked us if we needed directions. So, we asked how to get to the port. The woman was pushing an empty wheelchair and the man was walking. They guided us onto the monorail that was FREE and told us which stop to get off at. She then proceeded to tell me that they were homeless and could use some money. By this time, he had taken his seat in the wheelchair. I handed her some cash and thanked her for her help. We all four got on the monorail and she told us they would get off before us but to stay on until our stop (she told us which one). She got off, with the wheelchair, he stayed on. There were no seats, this is a standing transporter. We got to our stop, he got off with us and pointed us in the right direction.
So, we walked about two blocks and ended up at Bayside. We knew we were closer but we also knew we were not at the port yet. So, I googlemapped it and it said we could walk there, it would take about 30 minutes. So, we had a lot of time to kill, about an hour, so we decided to start walking. Let me tell you, Googlemaps does not know if there is no sidewalk, or areas that are blocked off with 10 foot chain link fences, but by golly, we were going to follow their directions no matter what.
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| See that fence? That was no obstacle for us!! |
When we finally ended up back to the original street we had started on and were three blocks up, having walked at least 10 blocks to get there, we changed our plan and decided to get something with wheels. That $10 each from the hotel was looking better and better. But, we stood at the trolley stop and waited for a trolley. There was a lady there who asked us if we were tourists. (I wonder if people always pull suitcases behind them if they aren't tourists) She called the trolley office because she was certain that the road was blocked back a few blocks and no traffic was getting through. We then spotted a flat rate taxi, that guy must have seen the look of despair in our eyes. He took our bags, we got in, and in a matter of 5 minutes, we were at our ship. Good grief!!
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