Whose bright ass idea was it to get a 5am flight out of Boston? Logan airport parking is crazy expensive compared to Hartford and Providence, we look into other options but apparently nobody wants to travel with mass transit in the late night/early morning. The Logan express bus from Framingham and the trains do not run that early, what kind of a city is this anyway? The subway (T) stops from midnight to 4am, the bus is worse. Jessie ended up finding a external parking lot near the airport so we parked there, hopefully the shuttle from the airport to that parking lot will be easy to find when I get in today.
Anyway, we got to the hotel in the late morning and took some time to plan out what we wanted to see and when. Monday we ate lunch at a local brewhouse that Abita Purple Haze on tap! The burger I got was good and Jessie got a fried platter, the highlight was probably the deep fried pickles.. After lunch we went to a real upscale mall so Jessie could go to a designer's (DVF) clothing store. She tried on a few dresses, I think the cheapest one was $300. I really liked the little black dress she tried on but I don't think I could justify the cost, her plan was to find her size and then look for them on eBay or on some other such site.
I've been to the ocean now in a bunch of different locations around the world and one thing remains the same.. The water is smegging cold! We were in Australia and the water was so smegging cold I only stayed in for a few minutes. So naturally I don't change into my bathing suit because I figure I'll just walk in the water and be done. After hitting the water I was shocked by how warm it was, we went and got changed and I spent almost an hour in the water. I loved getting hit by the waves and I even swam across one as it was breaking, when I say across I mean along it on top. Only for a few seconds but it was neat to have the white break under me.. :)
We went to get changed again but the bathroom was closed!? We walked back towards the car and I found a great little set of bushes, there was one big one running along the sidewalk and another two in a V creating a triangle, there was a walkway into the center of the triangle but only viewable from the parking lot and not from the street or sidewalk. If you went into the center of the triangle you can't even be seen from the parking lot so I called it a dressing room.. Nothing like being balls naked in the middle of the city in the middle of the day! :D
We decided to get some rock crabs while in the area since it seems to be a big "to do" thing. We were going to go to Fifi's but it was in a sketchy area and their menu was not impressive so we ended up going to Billy's Crab House. Billy's was impressive but also very expensive.. Apparently "market price" was $40+ a plate.. The rock crabs were served cold over ice, the shells were cracked already so it was just a matter of ripping them apart. I would recommend them if you're in the area and have some extra money to spend on food..
Tuesday we went to the Seminole Indian reservation and did a water tour and a buggy tour of the Everglades at Billie's Swamp Safari. We saw some aligators, one up real close, it was pretty much touching the boat. The buggy tour was more impressive, but only because of the driver. He got out at one point and grabbed some of the bark of a palm tree and then later got off in a recreation of an old Indian house and started a fire with flint and steel and the palm tree bark. All the animals were free range and would walk in front of the buggy, at one point a bunch of animals were blocking the road and he used a horn to make them move, he said it was the first time he used he horn and in the past they would just bump the animals to make them move. We ate lunch at Billie's and I got a ethnic burger which was rolled in dough and then deep fried! It was really good but sorta scary. I posted a video of the burger on youtube.
After the swamp tours we went to a museum and saw an old ball and post game that the Indians used to play. We walked their nature walk for a bit before heading over to Sunlife Stadium to see the Marlins play the Braves. Sunlife stadium would be a great place to see a football game but for baseball most of the bars and stands were closed, they had the entire upper deck closed because they didn't have enough fans to warrent opening it. We sat eight rows from the Marlins dugout and had a great view of the Mermaids when they came out and danced for the 7th inning stretch. The food was nothing special, we ended up getting Boar's Head sammiches which were over priced and not very good. We then got a hot dog from the same kosher place that's at CitiField. I enjoyed the stadium but it certainly felt like the Marlins were playing in an away stadium.
Wednesday we went south to the Fruit and Spice Park and Coral Castle. The Fruit and Spice Park was very cool, they bring in plants and trees from all over the world, before the tour you can eat some of the fruit off the trees. There was one cherry which was star shaped that was amazing, unfortunatly because of the odd winter/spring they had there was not much fruit to be had. The tour guide was very good and kept stopping to show us different plants and explain what they were used for. After the tour we stumbled on a sign for a winery so headed there..
Schnebly winery was very pretty, they had a sitting/party area built out back with native huts and a waterfall. Because grapes in Florida are apparently crappy they use other fruits to make the wine. We got some of the Avocado wine, some of the Mango wine and some of the Guava wine. While we were at the winery it poured but it had stopped by the time we left (gotta love Florida weather)..
Coral Castle was very cool, apparently the guy who built it did so because a girl spurned him. They had an audio tour that was supposedly done by the guy who created it and he was a bit insane. He built chairs, tables, beds, etc all out of coral. They were suprisingly comfortable. I layed down on the bed and was actually comfortable, and the chairs rocked! I think it helps that the guy who made it all was five foot nothing so it all fit us.. :)
For dinner we went on a raw restaurant tour which started in Whole Foods where I got a Monk in the Trunk amber ale. I saw the name and had to get one, it was actually very good. After Whole Foods we went to OMGarden and got a main course. The place was in a run down area of Miami and the owner/waitress was a bit of a bitch but the food was great. Went from there to Green Wave which was closer to our hotel and got dessert. They have a water cooler that requires no water?! It sucks the humidity out of the air and filters it to drinkable water! What an amazing concept, the water tasted like bottled water..
Got back to the hotel on the early side and walked around the plaza across the street looking for somewhere to get a drink, ended up grabbing wine at the grocery store and came back to the hotel so Jessie could do some laundry.
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Now I'm sitting in the airport in Cleaveland, to be more specific I'm sitting in Great Lakes Brewery having another great Amber ale.
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