The return of the mummy episode 4

[jubileegirl]

Cast:-
The Mummy, me, Alison
The Daddy, John
The youngest child, Chloe who’s 15

Extras (staying at home this time):-
Peter, the eldest child, and Rachel his girlfriend
Amy, the eldest daughter
Freddie, the accident-prone cat

So I woke up very bleary-eyed and not too sure where on earth I was. Isn’t it blissful when you do that and then remember - I’m in Florida!!!
The clock-radio said 5:59 which was near enough to the respectability of 6 o’clock, so up I got and peeked through the curtains and this is what I saw – a sideways view of a long white beach and that early morning haze which, despite the chilly air-conditioning in the room and the tinted windows giving the outside a grey-ish look, makes you certain that walking outside will have everyone saying ‘feel that heat!!’ On the ocean was a huge cruise liner. Perfect.
Soon we were all up and Chloe was instantly absorbed in a cartoon channel on TV. That poor girl is so deprived back home and never gets to watch the likes of Sponge Bob Square Pants - talk about coals to Newcastle! Then she changes channels and I start watching some talk show. (Now the analogy is pots and kettles.)

However we are all eventually dressed and I am wearing shorts (well, long shorts or short trousers really) which is a first as I hate exposing my legs on account of my varicose veins, so this is a very brave move on my part! Hope you’re impressed!

We set off to collect the tickets for our sight-seeing tour of Miami, and then to walk along the Boardwalk ('down by the sea-ea-ea-ea, I’ll be hugging with my baby in the back row of the balcony.’
Oops, got my Drifters a bit muddled up there, but I am jet-lagged, you know! However I now have THAT song on my mind until I remember the start of ‘Beaches’ where CC and Elizabeth first meet under the where? Yes, the Boardwalk! So now I have a combination of ‘Wind Beneath My Wings’ and the Drifters going round in my head. And I’m going to Well, it's such a sad film!)

But I digress.

Chloe and I went for a quick explore outside in the hotel grounds. We found a great rainforest-type garden with streams and water falls,very pretty, and we saw lots of geckos and then had a quick look at the pool. Not as big as it looks in the photos (all hotel pool photos are taken by someone lying on their stomachs at the shallow end) but not bad, and one perk at the Holiday Inn is that there are no hidden extras so all the hotel facilities are free, like sun beds on the beach and the volleyball court. Also there’s a car park next to the hotel with security which the hotel owns so guests can leave their cars there for free – this is apparently a big deal on South Beach. This is relevant for us as at 8am we are due at the Alamo office just a block away to pick up our car for the fortnight.

By now John had collected the tour tickets so we strolled along the Boardwalk hopefully in the right direction for the car. It really was very pleasant – behind us were the outlines of the Art Deco hotels which South Beach is famous for and there were only a few people about – a mixture of elderly joggers and some friendly folk who from the looks of them had obviously spent the night on the beach .

Every now and then there was an exit from the Boardwalk and a sign telling you the street number. We obviously missed a few and when we noticed them we were way past the Alamo address. By the time we’d walked back and realised that the office was almost next to the Holiday Inn it was 8 am and time to pick up the car.

Big panic at first as the admin guy said that Yescarhire hadn’t passed the reservation onto Alamo and it wasn’t in the system and as they’re a small office on South Beach they might not have a car for us., But after a while and lots of button clicks it was all OK so we think he probably didn’t look properly to start with. Whatever the case, a silver Sebring was eventually brought around and we raced to look in the boot to see how big it was! It reminded me of a baby being born and everyone looking at THAT end to see if it’s a boy or a girl! Looked plenty big enough to us as we’d deliberately brought several small cases instead of 3 big ones. So another worry dealt with!

So we all hopped in and then realised that the Alamo employee who brought it round had scarpered and we didn’t know where any of the buttons were! He’d left us at a bus-stop outside the office and as we sat there a bus came along, the people waiting all stepped forward with raised hands but as we were in the way the bus just zoomed past. So we just sat there trying to be invisible whilst all these faces glared at us. Oh, help someone!! So John had to got back to Mr Alamo and ask for some assistance and eventually we were in business! A dream come true – driving along South Beach in a convertible – the whole 100 yards back to the hotel car park!

(Another little confession - when we saw the car I said 'oh, I wanted a red one' and John said 'oh, I wanted a Mustang'. Some folk are just never happy, are they!)

Having parked we just had time for a quick breakfast at the hotel’s coffee shop (doughnuts and muffins, twice the size of back home!) and then it was time for our tour of Miami. We usually do things like this independently with a travel guidebook, but I’m so glad we did this with a tour company instead. Firstly, John would have been so busy driving safely he wouldn’t have seen much at all, and also we would have got hopelessly lost – and in Miami the ‘no go’ areas are very near to the OK areas .We were told as we set off that due to forecasted rain we would do our boat trip around the Bay first so off we went to Pier 51, Bayside, which is kind of like Downtown Disney or Citywalk. We had a bit of time to fill so we wandered around some of the shops – it was partly ‘proper’ shops and partly a market with very touristy stuff. Just before it was time to catch our boat we had a smoothie each and all agreed ‘we should have shared one!’
Our boat was the Island Queen and we went all around Biscayne Bay where we got a great view of Downtown Miami’s skyline and some extremely grand houses on Fisher Island and Star Island, including those formerly owned by Liz Taylor, Al Capone, and one which Frank Sinatra built for someone – we couldn’t really picture Old Blue Eyes carrying a hod, but John said he probably did it his way!
A few current owners included Puff Daddy, Gloria and Emilio Estefan and Julio Iglesias – and when the captain announced this last one a sigh rippled through the boat and about three quarters of the ladies on board whipped out their cameras and surged to the railings to take a picture. I expect they were all the girls he'd loved before!
The captain’s dialogue was actually very funny if you could hear him but lots of the passengers didn’t want to listen and chattered loudly and sometimes it was hard to hear what he was saying which was a shame. I was dying to shout 'shut up!'
Anyway, once back at Bayside we had lunch in the foodcourt (we all had a burger and we all said ‘we should have shared one!’) and then found our minibus with a tour guide called Raphael who showed us HIS city, usually waving his arms expressively whilst also driving!
First we went back to South Beach (SoBe) and he pointed out all the landmarks including the step where Gianni Versace was murdered not so long ago.
Then we went to Little Havana which is the Cuban part of Miami (bet you’d never have guessed with a name like that!) We had some Cuban coffe which made our eyes spin and also went into the little park where many elderly Cubans play dominoes, drink coffee, smoke cigars and talk about home and when they’ll be going back to Cuba.I liked Little Havana and if we'd had more time I would have liked to have eaten at a Cuban restaurant there.
But this was a bit of a whistlestop tour so on we went to Coral Gables, a very rich suburb built to look like a Spanish city and very 1930’s. We saw the Biltmore hotel and the Venetian Pool which is a public swimming pool but chiselled out of a quarry with a natural water source.Apparently it's emptied and refilled every night. Back in the ‘20’s they held the first ever beauty contests there.

We had another stop at Coconut Grove where there’s another shopping mall like Bayside called Cocowalk and then Raphael announced that he had to take some of the group back to Bayside and had about 2 minutes to do it. This is where I really thought my life on earth had ended as he drove like a maniac, switching lanes, taking sudden exits, often talking on his mobile so driving with one hand, or talking on his mobile whilst gesticulating violently with his other hand so he had nothing on the steering wheel !!
I do remember seeing the Prison which is a skyscraper next to all the financial institutions with a great view of the Bay! If it was a hotel you’d pay a fortune for that view but I guess it makes the prisoners see what they’re missing !
And thankfully, Raphael was spared a sentence there for the manslaughter of tourists as he got us home safely!

This was a great way to get an overview of Miami in a very short time and if/when we return we'll have some idea of places to spend more time and places not to bother with. So I'm glad we did it and despite the driving Raphael was lovely - very charming and entertaining and obviously loves Miami.

It was now early evening so we walked down to the sea but it was very windy and there was a lot of seaweed sloshing around, so we just had a paddle and then went back to the room to shower and go out for an evening stroll and food!

We walked along the beach towards the heart of SoBe and saw the grounds of some fabulous hotels. If we could afford it I think we’d choose Loews or the Ritz Carlton. Even the beach was posher, obviously swept clean regularly and all seaweed removed!

SoBe at night is rather wild and it was great fun to people watch. All the restaurants were so inviting – one guy even offered to fetch Chloe a burger and give us a bottle of champagne and free ice-cream if we’d eat there! I’ve no idea why we declined now!

In the end we stopped at a place that looked lively - an Irish pub and sport’s bar called Finnegan’s Way where the food was great – we had our first steak of the holiday. Mmmmmm! We had Queensize primerib and I'm still wondering what Kingsize looks like because the Queensize was enormous!

Then we had a severe lack of good taste and John took a photo of me and Chloe standing on the step where Versace was shot - that is so YUK and I can't believe we did it. I even looked at the ground to see if there were any stains. I'm ashamed of myself.

It began to absolutely pour on the way back but we were warm so we just kept going and got back to the Holiday Inn soaked, tired but extremely happy.

Goodnight!




Tomorrow - we head Mousewards!

 

[Minniespal]

Great report ~ Thanx for sharing.