Miami Day 2, Storm, Surprise Day 3

Friday, June 4^th

 

We woke up at 7 in rainy Miami and finished packing while checking email and texts from the days we were out of touch.  We shoveled in our breakfast and then said goodbye to the ship starting a new Miami adventure.  And what and adventure it turned out to be.

 

Our Uber driver picked us up and while chatting, looking out the windows, and reading on our phones started to realize that things weren’t so great in Miami.  A large tropical storm was coming through.  There were reports that it could turn into a hurricane.  I got a text from Greg and emails from Delta encouraging me to change flights.  Meanwhile we arrived at the luggage store and we realized it was closed as our Uber driver drove off through the pelting rain.  Luckily the hostel across the street also stored luggage so we left our suitcases and ran through the rain to Miami Beach.

There were only a couple other people on the beach, and they weren’t in swimsuits.  The waves and water were turbulent, but the rain had let up just enough to snap a photo of one of the many unique lifeguard stations on the shore.  

 

We wanted to take an Art Deco walking tour, but the increasing storm made that impossible, so we took our time in the Art Deco Museum instead.  Teresa promised the girls ice cream if they did the activity sheet from the museum – they had to prove it by answering our Art Deco questions (and they may have been very silly while learning).  Passing the test we ran down the street into the gelato shop. 

Full of ice cream Teresa led us on an interior art deco tour by stepping into every art deco building on our way to the Wolfsonian Museum.  This tactic also helped us avoid getting drenched since the buildings acted as shortcuts toward the museum.  We loved the quirky interiors, the pineapple centerpiece and getting out of the rain.  

The Wolfsonian was in a cool building, but quite a small museum, and half of it was closed anyway.  They let us in for free and while we wandered I got on hold with Delta to see about changing my flight.  They put me on a call back list as we hopped on trolly.  We rode around Miami Beach for an hour trying to catch sight of art deco buildings through the rain.  The girls may have just taken a nap.  

Lunch led us off the trolly where we found a poke place- ironically none of us like fish but we all found something delicious to eat.  Delta called me back, so I spent most of my time eating talking to them and waiting on hold.  Still on hold we ran through the heaviest rain of the day, retrieved our luggage and called the Uber.  The Uber stopped around the corner from where we were so I hung up on Delta and we bolted through the rain to catch our ride to the Superblue Museum.  

 

Completely soaked, luggage included, we arrived at the interactive art museum where they let us store our luggage while we explored.  This museum was incredible and Kate’s favorite by far.  The art displays were interactive and amazing to watch.  The first room had a wall that showed the growth cycle of different flowers.  They would grow, bloom, then slowly die.  We watched for a long time and never saw the same kind of flower repeated.There was also and an interactive feature; when you touched the flowers they would light up then slowly start to die.  

The next room had an amazing display that had water falling.  The water would move around you wherever you stood and flowers would start to grown where you were standing or leaning.  It was so incredible.  I was mesmerized by the way my actions could cause immediate change.  I have no idea how the technology worked but it was cool.

 

Then we laid on beanbags and watched fabric flowers light up, open and close all over the ceiling.  It was quite peaceful to watch.

At that point I got called back by Delta and spend the rest of the time at the museum on and off hold with them until we accidently got disconnected – an hour wasted.  But the exhibits continued to amaze- none quite as amazing as the first few rooms but still cool.  The mirror maze was especially fun.  I found a corner to lay down on the floor (while on hold) and just take it in. 

We ran through more rain to our Uber and drove to the hotel.  Cold, wet, and exhausted we ordered pizza and I got back on hold with Delta determined to get my flight changed.  Kate and I got the last two flight available for Sunday morning- feeling much more comfortable with our situation we enjoyed our pizza and began discussing movie options.  The girls couldn’t agree on anything, so I told everyone to put one move on a piece of paper and then we drew on at random.  And random it was!  Teresa won the draw and she had literally just written down the title of a random movie she’d seen pass on their movie search.  I can’t remember what it was called and really it wasn’t that bad but not a great one for sure.  Teresa and I enjoyed listening to the girls moan about it the whole time, reminding them to come to an agreement next time so we don’t have to get involved.  

 

After that the girls quickly agreed to watch Shrek 4 so we stayed up late watching movies.

Saturday, June 5^th

 

I woke up to the news that my original flight left on time – darn it, but we had made the decision that felt best with the knowledge we had.  The girls slept in till 10:30. Teresa and I were awake but just stayed in bed answering emails and reading.  We enjoyed the included breakfast and spent some time exploring the hotel. Going out was not an option; the news broadcasts all encouraged people to stay home.  There was lots of flooding downtown and the rain was still coming down.  I did some yoga and enjoyed a nice long bath while the girls watched movies.  Around 2:00 we relocated to the adjoining hotel because it was cheaper, luckily we were able to make the move without getting out in the rain at all.  We enjoyed our last few hours with the Yorgasons then said goodbye as they headed to the airport.  

 

Kate and I got takeout from the hotel restaurant then enjoyed a few rom coms before bed.  It was a super lazy day but since we didn’t have many options, we made the most of it.

Day at Sea and Coco Cay

 Wednesday, June 2^nd 

And sleep in we did!  The girls finally woke up at 10:30 and we enjoyed brunch in the dining room, the service was rather slow because they were so busy.  This was our “Day at Sea” which was funny to me because the ship wasn’t moving.  We were quite close to where we needed to be in the morning, so we just stayed in the same place all day and played on the boat.  We enjoyed mini golf, although we should have sun screened first because Teresa was sunburned by the end of our game (I barely pulled off a win over Addy by 2 points).  

 

Back to our room we put on our suits and lathered up then tried out the slide and flow rider – Addy was far better than Kate and I and had it figured out in no time. 

We escaped the heat by attending the “One Word Movie Title” game, Teresa and I weren’t very good and the girls weren’t very helpful but we had fun trying.  We caught lunch at our favorite nacho joint and the girls went off on their own while Teresa and I chatted before we meet back together for Harry Potter Trivia.  We were much better at that!  We got 25/30 questions right, but that was working together.  They were hard questions.  

  

After that we went straight to dinner.  Dinner was supposed to be dress up, and the other two nights we had all worn dresses, but tonight the girls had on matching shirts and shorts and didn’t feel like changing and Teresa was just wearing her swimsuit cover.  We had noticed that on previous nights not everyone was dressed up, so we decided to let it go.  We walked in and started noticing that everyone was more dressed up than usual, like everyone.  We later realized there was a note for the day on the app that said to wear your best that night – too bad we didn’t check the app so we looked like hobos.

Encanto was playing up by the pool (Can you see Addy, Kate and I under the triangular shade thing?) so we enjoyed the end of that then topped our bellies off with way too many desserts from the buffet.  Addy wanted to bring the brownies back to our room, so we enjoyed the Promenade with the brownies in hand and found a little table to sit back and enjoy the live band.  

Our room attendant left us creative towel sculptures each night and tonight we were treated with a pig – at least we thought it was a pig.

 

While the girls showered Teresa and I had a good laugh at the “Love and Marriage” game and were shocked to find both girls showered when we had only been gone 50 minutes.  Let’s just say that was much faster than the previous nights.

Thursday, June 3^rd

 

We woke at 7:00 determined to be among the first that left the boat.  Breakfasted, sun screened, and prepared we dropped the girls at the water park at 8:45.  Pretty impressive work for us considering we had to take a tram and everything.  We paid for the chat option on the phone – weird but it worked – a nice tool so we could communication on and off during the day. 

Teresa and I were thrilled to let the girls explore the water park with the tallest slide in North America while we enjoyed the beauty of Coco Cay, the somewhat manufactured and manicured by lovely island owned by the Royal Caribbean company.  We rode the tram around the island then got off and explored on foot.  Whenever we got hot, we found a shady spot to relax, got some water, or enjoyed one of many vanilla soft serve cones that day.

 

On one of our off the trail explorations we scared/were scared by a lifeguard on his way to the beach.  He kindly told us the path was just for employees and we should head back to the main path.  That encounter turned out to be a blessing later as we ran into him on the beach and he pointed out two lemon sharks and taught us about the baby barracuda and needle fish that we had been observing.  It was pretty cool, and we managed to spot two rays on our own.  

I loved the time to chat with Teresa, a few dips in the ocean, and wandering barefooted all over the island- that is until it started to get hot and busy.  The first few hours of the day were so fabulous but the hotter it got the more people seemed to come off the boat to dip in water.  

 

At some point Teresa and I found a magic spot where we could sit in the pool water and evade the heat of the day.  Little did we realize how bad we were scorching ourselves.  

 

Eventually we connected with the girls and the came out to meet us ready to see the beach, enjoy several ice creams since the kiwi strawberry drink in the water park had run out.   

After a dip in the ocean, we were getting situated by the pool when dark clouds quickly moved in followed by wind and rain.  Soon we were in a full-on storm with pelting sideways rain, and trees at odd angles.  Our stuff was soaked through in minutes and everyone in the pool, other than Addy and Kate the synchronized swimmers, made a break for the boat.  We laughed and ran around in the storm for a while till we started to get cold.  Addy invited us to join her in the pool where it was much warmer and there we waited out the storm.  When the worst of it passed we had the pool almost to ourselves.  We swam a round and just enjoyed the beautiful water.  

Teresa didn’t want to miss the chance to experience a swim up bar, so she did just that, swam up to the bar and asked for a water.  He gave her a water bottle and asked to scan her card (most drinks on the boat have to be paid for with a drink package which we didn’t have, and this water would have been a part of the package).  Luckily, he was kind and just gave her the water bottle.  It was cold so the girls would do handstands while Teresa rubbed the cold bottle on their sunburned legs.  Yes, we were all sunburned by the end of the day.  

The girls decided to go back and enjoy the last 30 minutes at the water park with no lines and Teresa and I laid out our wet stuff hoping some of it would dry a bit before we headed back to the boat.  Eventually we had to pack up and head back to the boat.  Along the way we spotted a bunch of fish off the dock.  Teresa and I hadn’t been looking forward to the day on the beach and didn’t think we would last long but it ended up being a lovely day.  Maybe not a perfect day at Coco Cay but pretty close thanks to that amazing storm.

When we returned it was time to start packing and take turns showering.  Our last dinner was extra fun with lots of cheering for staff and Kate’s favorite meal on the cruise (a Thanksgiving type entre).  Teresa and I had to embrace our opportunity to walk up the grand staircase and check out the other floors of dinning, or should I say the more elite areas for dinning.  It was incredible.  The girls missed out becasue they were too embarrassed to walk up the stairs with everyone watching - their loss.

We savored our last night chilling on the deck, taking in a family feud game while completing the daily sudoku, checking on the hiden notes in the library, then listening to the piano man in one of the lounges.  He was great and played a few of our requests all though he couldn’t pull off “Night Swimming”.  Our last show of the trip was “Once Upon A Time” a mashup of fairy tales told all in song.  We knew most of the songs and really enjoyed the performance.  

We returned to our rooms shocked to find a towel penguin wearing Kate's goggles.  Definitly our favorite towel creation of the trip.

We ended the night lathering in aloe and packing while the girls read “My Weird School” books to each other.  Not quite sure how to pack all the wet stuff; every surface was covered hoping somethings would dry before we had to leave in the morning.  We had such a lovely time but another day exploring Miami was calling.