Travel Diary

Miami is different from what you see on tv and in the movies. Not everyone has a “Baywatch” body. Some very large people wear extremely skimpy outfits without a care in the world it seems. But that said, the weather is certainly nice—when showers are not drenching you.

This wasn’t a trip I had really intended on taking. Earlier in the year, some friends had toyed with the idea of visiting Costa Rica, but one friend had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and was not healthy enough to make a long voyage. He was, however, having some experimental treatments done in Miami, and we figured we could visit him out there since there were not many days left for him.

One would think Miami is easy to reach from the Bay Area, but the truth is altogether more annoying. Many flights from the Bay Area just don’t land at Miami or very often. More frequent are the flights to Fort Lauderdale airport, which isn’t “too” far away, but it’s also not terribly close. That was the flight I selected. I mean, I had no choice.

And it was my first time on JetBlue, as Alaska wasn’t an option.

The trip involved heading to SFO, which would be pretty much my entire fall airport destination for 2021. I guess I got used to it. I never liked it (outside of the cool airport exhibits). Regarding JetBlue, the airline is quite nice. I think I even ordered some wine. For my seat, it was economy. I had no miles or MVP status. I did observe their Mint section as I walked towards the back. It looked quite comfortable. Perhaps in the future. The prices are about $900 to sit there but the seat becomes a bed.

We landed in in Fort Lauderdale. Nice airport. Not too big. It was about 9pm and I then needed to reach Miami. This part I didn’t research too well. I knew there was some sort of transit system but not exactly how to use or reach it. I also learned that there is no help desk active at the airport and most things were closed. The one lady I approached at the information desk turned out to be just a tourist using the power plug back behind the counter. I spent (wasted) a lot of time trying to figure out how to reach Miami.

Finally, I gave up and just checked Uber. Too expensive. I checked Lyft. Much cheaper. Since I was in the ride share area, someone did pull up in a car with some type of “Uber” sign, but it didn’t look official. He asked if I needed Uber. I said, “Who are you looking for?” He didn’t have a name. Apparently, it’s a thing for drivers to just show up and try and usurp real rides from the actual companies. I did mention going to Miami and he then wanted to show how much he could do it for. I think the plan was to pull up the Uber quote and just undercut it some. It was a waste. There were zero chance I’d accept the ride. All in all, it “probably” would have been fine and I’d perhaps save a few bucks, but there was no way to know for sure. Could be a hostage-taker or maybe someone who would later attempt to recharge my card. I dunno. Safer to just say, “Ah, no I got a ride coming. Thanks,” and then just walk away.

Too bad those people abuse the system, but I guess it’s hard to police that kind of thing. Opportunists are in all arenas.

I summoned Lyft and was soon on my way to Miami.

It’s a LONG drive. It’s not terribly far, but the traffic is insane and it just felt like forever getting to downtown. But finally, we arrived at the hotel. Which was…

PACKED!

The place was a madhouse. The lobby seemed filled with hundreds of people. Apparently, there were several conventions from a Christian Youth World Meeting to a Horror Convention to some Hip Hop Gathering and even a few college teams staying there—and on that weekend and we were in the thick of it. No matter. I then had to rent a room. The cost was about $600 for two nights. Pricey! But it was downtown Miami and the hotel was fairly nice.

After checking, I wanted to drop my bags off in my room. Well, that massive crowd also meant LONG waits for the elevator. I think it was an average of 10 to 20 minutes to wait each time someone wanted to go up. But no way around that. After getting situated, I headed to the lobby to meet up with my friend Terry. Our other friend, Steve, had already crashed for the evening.

With not much else to do, we headed to the hotel bar, which was decent. There were a few people scattered around the place. I got a beer. The lady on my left seemed friendly so I chatted her up a bit. She was a flight attendant and pretty opinionated on politics, though no one was arguing with what she said. This went on for a bit until a lady very outgoing joined the conversation. This would be Bridget and we would be hanging with her quite a lot the next few days.

After a while, the FA left. She had an early flight and it was late. And she was pretty hammered for having an early flight, but hey, at least she wasn’t flying the plane.

Soon, a small group of us went to the riverside (canal) outside the building. It was a great place to enjoy the air and catch the boats going by. There many “party boats,” all playing loud music and many having people dancing and drinking as they moved down the waterway. Looked like fun.

We all talked for quite some time and eventually crashed around 5am. Time goes by fast in Miami.

I crashed around 6am. Woke up quite late, but I definitely needed some sleep.