Our Final Day in Miami
Posted on May 12, 2018 by Ching under Travel.
We took advantage of our final day in Miami to do some exploring. And, because I’m always curious about public transportation, we had to check it out. In Miami they have this thing called Metromover and it’s completely free. It reminds me of the KC Streetcar but with a greater reach.
We got instructions from the concierge on how to use it to get to Bayside Marketplace and so we embarked on our little sightseeing adventure.
On our way to the Metro station, we walked by Trinity Cathedral, a beautiful church next to our hotel. It is the oldest church in the original city limits of Miami.
I thought it was a Catholic church at first because of its look and name, but it’s actually Episcopalian. The two are very similar and I didn’t know the difference and so I honestly had to look it up.
This is the Adrienne Arsht Center Metromover station, which is the closest station to our hotel. I took a picture because I’m use to trains being on street-level or underground. I guess the LRT in Manila is also elevated but I don’t remember ever taking it. This is the first one on an elevated platform that I recall ever taking.
Brian is very anti public transportation so he was kind of cranky at me for making us take the Metro. As payback, he made us take the steep stairs instead of using the elevator. The stairs reminded me of the stairs at the Downtown YMCA. It was a workout and I remember thinking to myself, no wonder all the people we’ve seen in Miami are fit! You’d have to be in order to use the public transportation.
This pretty much sums up Brian’s attitude toward taking the Metro. I considered it an adventure that didn’t cost us anything.
The trolley is another free way to get around. It runs Monday through Saturday from 6:30 AM to 11:00 PM. We didn’t get to check it out though.
After getting off at the station closest to Bayside Marketplace, it’s still a bit of a hike. Not too far, though. The walk was doable and gave us the opportunity to take some fun photos along the way like this one.
These next few photos were taken at Bayside Marketplace.
We walked around a bit before deciding on a place to eat.
There were lots of options and some with great views.
There was even a Hard Rock Cafe nearby.
After walking throughout the place, we settled on Bubba Gump Shrimp Company which was actually the first restaurant we came across before exploring the marketplace. The restaurant, which is now an international franchise, was originally inspired by the movie Forrest Gump.
Here are some pictures from inside the Bayside Marketplace location.
Here are some pictures of Brian perusing the menus.
You use these signs to signal to your server.
Here are some pictures of our food.
Leave it to Brian to order a “chicken” sandwich at a seafood place.
I found something with rice and immediately knew that’s what I wanted.
We opted to skip dessert at the restaurant so we could get the Belgian chocolate shake at the Haagen-Dazs next door. It proved to be a wise choice because this was the smoothest, most delicious chocolate shake I’d ever had. It kind of made me wish there was a Haagen-Dazs shop nearby.
Brian gave the chocolate shake his seal of approval.
We decided to hang around Bayside Marketplace to finish our chocolate shake but then it was time to make our way back to our hotel. The transit system was simple enough to navigate that I managed to talk Brian into taking it again. Plus, it’s kind of tricky to find a good spot for a Lyft or Uber pick up and the Metro is free so it was kind of a no-brainer. Anyway, it allowed us to take in more of the sights like this awesome urban graffiti wall.
Once we were back at our hotel, we discovered this small shopping center next door which is sandwiched in between our hotel and the DoubleTree.
There were several restaurants in there so we really didn’t have to venture far for food. I wish we would have known this when we first arrived. Although, we did want to hit South Beach and do some exploring. I think Brian would have been perfectly happy eating in one of the restaurants next door, though.
Speaking of exploring, I managed to convince Brian to walk down to the marina at sunset to check out some boats.
As nice as the marina is, it’s actually even more spectacular at sunrise.
Here’s the view of the port from our hotel room on checkout day. There were more cruise ships docked and ready to take on new passengers on their adventures.
That pretty much sums up this recap of the 2018 Zumba cruise. Until next year — when we hope to do it all over again. GNG.
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