Friday, 1/16 DAY TWO

Got up at 8:30 to go down for our free breakfast, and there’s a newspaper on our stoop that tells of about a plane crash in New York yesterday. (#*%@*)!#*%) Breakfast was omelets cooked to order, fresh fruit, bagels, cereal, bacon, sausage, pancakes, French toast, ANYTHING you can think of!!

I ate my veggie omelet, melon, and bagel while Dan had his double death with cheese omelet, hash browns and muffin—I commented that breakfast should be like this every morning. Whatever the hell I want to eat, someone else making it for me, and I get to sit in a lush tropical atrium with koi fish and little sparrows begging for crumbs. Hung out in the hotel room until about 12 deciding what to do and how not to spend $30 to get there.

We took the free shuttle to the airport train station and caught a train to the Vizcaya Mansion and Gardens. Chose this spot because the pamphlet I found at the concierge looked really beautiful and it was on the train route (read: cheap)! We got there in the afternoon and it was absolutely gorgeous. Check out the pictures!!!

We used up our whole camera battery in the garden; they don’t even let you take pictures inside the house! Of course there were small annoyances like people crowding into small areas instead of waiting politely, like Dan and I could do if someone else was looking into a room… and then there was a group of photographers doing some sort of fashion shoot with some girl who was always wearing a different dress every time we came across them.

One thing I’ve noticed is feeling like a minority because we don’t speak Spanish. The signs at Vizcaya were in Spanish first, and in larger print!

Took the train back to the hotel, after we decided against taking a bus to Miami beach again, just in time to get 2 free drinks at the “managers reception” in the same area they served our free breakfast. Met a nice couple from Reno on the shuttle back from the train station and ended up bumping into them again at the reception thingie, and again when we were coming back after our 25 minute wait to get a table in the restaurant. They were going to wait another 25 minutes for their meal, after they had walked to bennigans to find it closed down, so we invited them to eat with us. It was nice to have a fluid conversation with nice people.

Then we had a few more drinks at the bar, which was understaffed (apparently some people called in sick) and they were struggling to keep up. People were bitching at the bartender about waiting, and then about the price of drinks… while Dan and I didn’t really care (what else do we have to do?) and I’m guessing the bartender appreciated that because he never charged us for our drinks!! :D I like to think that was my good karma paying off from this morning when the hotel desk guy almost gave me back $100 for my $50 traveler’s check I was cashing, and I corrected him.
Also discovered that while I’ve been up here typing these blogs in a word document, not wanting to pay $12.95 a day for internet in the room, there’s a room downstairs with computers with internet access that we apparently can use for free with our room key. Sigh!

Boat leaves tomorrow afternoon, we will be catching a shuttle to the docks at 10am. Looking forward to another free omelet breakfast tomorrow!