The Good Chunk of It
Dec. 18th, 2024 08:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ateolfOkay, so I'm back with Mary Beth at the airport. We got there super early because of the hassle we realized MIA airport was after we first flew in and had to try to book it to the car rental place. Oh shoot, I did mention that earlier! I acted like you'd have no reason to know why my key fobs were identical but I just checked my earlier post and I did talk about it. Man, too much information and I'm getting dumb and forgetful! Well, so we're at the airport early. After getting through the long security checkpoint line, the first thing we saw right out the doors was a Books & Books. We browsed through it but unsurprisingly the airport location's selection wasn't great. Then Mary Beth had a mapped out plan of the different places in the airport that were Miami local things we couldn't do in lieu of actually down them out in the city. They were mostly kind of chain-type things. But we went to this Cuban restaurant called La Carreta. We picked out a meat and two cafeteria style and the meat I got (churrasco carretero) was surprisingly really fucking good. Then we went over to the Wynwood Bar location there so Mary Beth could try their beer which she said was good. And we sat another while and hung out. Then it was to our terminal. There was one more place we were going to try later but then we saw that it was right next to our gate so that made it super easy. So after a while we got a sandwich at Café Versailles. We waited to eat it though til we were hungry. Thought we were just going to pack it out but then we got a notice our flight was delayed an hour! So we ate it. Then we noticed again that our flight was back on schedule. Then a little while later our flight was delayed again for about forty minutes! That all made me pretty nervous as I had to work the next morning and we were already set to be coming in really damn late. At least it was a direct flight (the first of those I've flown in a good while). We got in and then we had to wait for fucking ever for the baggage to come out. Well, pretty sure it was about thirty minutes. For a while it's always come out pretty quickly after we'd arrived. But maybe because it was so late it just took them forever. Okay, so finally get out and get to a taxi. There's one van and the driver says he's the last one to be there. We're about to go but then another couple's waiting so he asks if we'd split the ride with them since there are no more taxis coming. So we do. It was a couple from England on their way to a cruise leaving from New Orleans so they thought they'd spend a day in Memphis. They were staying in the hotel at Graceland. They got dropped off first which makes sense and they seemed nice and of course I didn't mind not stranding them but it did mean we got home even later than we would have. So I got very little sleep that night. At least I did mean to sleep in the plane for a good chunk of the way. Not sure if it helped but maybe it did. So yeah, was pretty tired back at work on Tuesday.
Okay! Now how many of the pieces can I pick back up? Oh yeah, I can't believe I completely forgot about stopping off at Coral Castle after Biscayne National Park on the first Monday! It was a tight time window and we got there just in time (a few minutes late really, but we were the only ones) for the last tour of the day! So the guide was real nice and showed us around. I'd read about it and all and it's pretty crazy. He showed us through and was being nice and after it was over asked for more questions and then he took us back to look at a couple of things. He showed us the theoretical punishment zone for his theoretical children, putting their necks in a slot in the rocks and the little time out zone. He said he doesn't always mention that one 'cuz it's so weird, but the guy apparently had some ideas about discipline (Mary Beth got his little pamphlet and she could say more about his ideas, heh). Okay, also on Wednesday we got back to the hotel pretty early. Our laundry pile in the room had started to reek a good bit from the swum in swimwear. So I went down and did the laundry. There was another lady there who was doing hers so I waited for her to finish. Also, we'd gotten enough change for the washing machine but not quite enough for the dryer. I was going to start it and get change after it'd started but asked her if she'd trade two quarters for a dollar but she was nice and just gave me two extra quarters she had. While waiting there, I got some reading done. And while reading the book I'm reading, it just so happens that Miami gets nuked (with tons of death and destruction) in an alternate timeline of the Cuban Missile Crisis (the "Cuban Missile Exchange" as it becomes known in the book) so that's some fun timing there! Also, I had picked up a few postcards to send to people at the Art Deco Museum and got a chance to fill them out there. Later that evening after I was back in the hotel room I made another discover about what an idiot I am when I realized I just filled the back with writing and forgot I'd uh, have to include the address on the postcards! I did have a little room at the top and managed to put the addresses on and box them so they'd be noticeable. The next day when I took them to the post office, the lady working there put the stamps on them so I assume she figured it was good enough to be mailed. We'll see if the recipients actually get them! Okay, a few more random tidbits about Miami. It is very expensive! Miami Beach is very expensive and most of Miami itself is too! The food is expensive, parking is expensive. Just lots of most everything is very expensive! We knew that going in and were prepared, but just wanted to remark on it. I mentioned how bad the traffic, but I didn't specially mention how bad the drivers are there. I guess it's true in most real big cities and people say that about Memphis, but maybe it feels more palpable when the drivers are bad and aggressive combined with the traffic being so congested. But one big feature of many drivers is that when they try to merge into a lane to skip having to wait while it's backed up, they do not give one fuck and do not stop once they've started trying to merge even if there's a space or not. They're playing chicken and they're going for it no matter what. Not too many other general things, we had a few more scheduled park activity/tour things that we cancelled because they were going to be kind of similar to other things we'd done. And it allowed us to squeeze in more activities and we did do a whole fucking lot.
Now let's see if I can remember the food that I missed the first time! I was right about News Cafe being our first breakfast on Saturday (and coming back to it Saturday night). On Tuesday morning on the way to the Everglades we ate breakfast at a French bakery, I think it was called Gran Paris but I'm not sure. We had these little pancakes and the walls were covered in pink roses that Mary Beth loved (in fact, we were going to just stop quickly and pick stuff up for the road because of the hurry we were in but she was taken in by the decor). Also, after coming back from the Everglades and being only slightly changed out of what we wore on the wet walk (it didn't get us THAT dirty, but still) we stopped at this Peruvian place out west called Mr. & Mrs. Bun (I actually forgot its name and had to look it up, how could I have forgotten THAT name!?) and had some very delicious food. I had a short rib sandwich that was very very good. Okay, there's more and I'm forgetting and should confer with Mary Beth to help me remember and give one more update! (Haha.)
Okay! Now how many of the pieces can I pick back up? Oh yeah, I can't believe I completely forgot about stopping off at Coral Castle after Biscayne National Park on the first Monday! It was a tight time window and we got there just in time (a few minutes late really, but we were the only ones) for the last tour of the day! So the guide was real nice and showed us around. I'd read about it and all and it's pretty crazy. He showed us through and was being nice and after it was over asked for more questions and then he took us back to look at a couple of things. He showed us the theoretical punishment zone for his theoretical children, putting their necks in a slot in the rocks and the little time out zone. He said he doesn't always mention that one 'cuz it's so weird, but the guy apparently had some ideas about discipline (Mary Beth got his little pamphlet and she could say more about his ideas, heh). Okay, also on Wednesday we got back to the hotel pretty early. Our laundry pile in the room had started to reek a good bit from the swum in swimwear. So I went down and did the laundry. There was another lady there who was doing hers so I waited for her to finish. Also, we'd gotten enough change for the washing machine but not quite enough for the dryer. I was going to start it and get change after it'd started but asked her if she'd trade two quarters for a dollar but she was nice and just gave me two extra quarters she had. While waiting there, I got some reading done. And while reading the book I'm reading, it just so happens that Miami gets nuked (with tons of death and destruction) in an alternate timeline of the Cuban Missile Crisis (the "Cuban Missile Exchange" as it becomes known in the book) so that's some fun timing there! Also, I had picked up a few postcards to send to people at the Art Deco Museum and got a chance to fill them out there. Later that evening after I was back in the hotel room I made another discover about what an idiot I am when I realized I just filled the back with writing and forgot I'd uh, have to include the address on the postcards! I did have a little room at the top and managed to put the addresses on and box them so they'd be noticeable. The next day when I took them to the post office, the lady working there put the stamps on them so I assume she figured it was good enough to be mailed. We'll see if the recipients actually get them! Okay, a few more random tidbits about Miami. It is very expensive! Miami Beach is very expensive and most of Miami itself is too! The food is expensive, parking is expensive. Just lots of most everything is very expensive! We knew that going in and were prepared, but just wanted to remark on it. I mentioned how bad the traffic, but I didn't specially mention how bad the drivers are there. I guess it's true in most real big cities and people say that about Memphis, but maybe it feels more palpable when the drivers are bad and aggressive combined with the traffic being so congested. But one big feature of many drivers is that when they try to merge into a lane to skip having to wait while it's backed up, they do not give one fuck and do not stop once they've started trying to merge even if there's a space or not. They're playing chicken and they're going for it no matter what. Not too many other general things, we had a few more scheduled park activity/tour things that we cancelled because they were going to be kind of similar to other things we'd done. And it allowed us to squeeze in more activities and we did do a whole fucking lot.
Now let's see if I can remember the food that I missed the first time! I was right about News Cafe being our first breakfast on Saturday (and coming back to it Saturday night). On Tuesday morning on the way to the Everglades we ate breakfast at a French bakery, I think it was called Gran Paris but I'm not sure. We had these little pancakes and the walls were covered in pink roses that Mary Beth loved (in fact, we were going to just stop quickly and pick stuff up for the road because of the hurry we were in but she was taken in by the decor). Also, after coming back from the Everglades and being only slightly changed out of what we wore on the wet walk (it didn't get us THAT dirty, but still) we stopped at this Peruvian place out west called Mr. & Mrs. Bun (I actually forgot its name and had to look it up, how could I have forgotten THAT name!?) and had some very delicious food. I had a short rib sandwich that was very very good. Okay, there's more and I'm forgetting and should confer with Mary Beth to help me remember and give one more update! (Haha.)
