Traveling Toward Retirement

Today started off slow with lots of slow moving adults as we are tired and on vacation. We like to sleep. Who can blame us! We ventured off to find the pier on South Beach and about a mile later we stumbled upon it. We passed lots of shops and sleepy stores as this town seems like it sleeps until noon. The water was beautiful and the park was clean and most empty considering it’s Monday.  That kid might get her posing from her auntie ;) We ventured back and some took the beach path and some took the sand but an impending rain storm had us seeking shelter quick so we ran to the Lobster Shake where we had heard good things. A few oysters later, a lobster roll to go, and a quick game of patty cake led us on our way.  We found an Italian pastry shop and had to grab a few sweets to power us up. At this point we had walked about 2 miles and realized we had still quite a bit to go…this was not intended to be a marathon morning.  A quick trip to a CVS and we finally trekked back ...

 Well I was up early! 6am to be exact. Once the rest of the crew started rousing we walked to the Botanical Gardens. Along the way we found a wallet! Credit cards and cash intact. So Tina decided to drive it out to the address and return it. Good karma, come find us! The Botanical Garden was a beautiful and quiet place to spend the morning. It was shaded and tranquil and best of all free!  We then walked over to the Holocaust Memorial which was incredibly well done. The sculptures were lifelike and heartbreaking. It was a good opportunity to talk about history with the kids.  Afterward, we meandered down to Flamingo Park which had everything you could need in a public park. Tennis, baseball, soccer, playgrounds, iguanas. Yes, they are just found in the wild here. There were many piggy rides given today to the human with the most energy out of our crew.  Next we walked to the Cuban Cafe where we got empanada, smoothies, and sandwiches. Just enough to hit the spot....

 Ah, waking up at 8:30am should have been great but after going to bed at 4:30am it was rough. Two cups of coffee later I was still groggy and wondering when the rest of the crew would rise. Check out was noon so people had to start moving around 11:30. It wasn’t easy but by the stroke of twelve we left the very nice Hyatt and Uber XL’ed across town and over a bridge to South Beach Miami, our destination for the week.  We easily found our hotel and the Uber driver was nice and a his Chrysler Pacifica had a good transmission. Two good things after yesterdays clusterfuck of a day. And the hotel, they let us check in EARLY! At 12:45pm no less. Bless them. Each and every one.  It felt like winning the lottery for the day. We figured that we would have to check our bags at bell hop and wander around for a few hours until the magic hour arrived. But the rooms were ready so why not!  Food. The crew needed food. Our hotel is right along Ocean Drive so we had every option in ...