Don't Stop - the Florida road trip section UPDATED 3/16 - Page 29 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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I had my picture taken holding a baby alligator years ago. I think it was $2.00 then in 1978. Nice to see inflation has not hit the take your picture holding an alligator. Mine was at at Gatorland Zoo.
Wow, something that inflation hasn't affected? I'm impressed.
Thursday 17 December – part four: have you ever seen rain like this?
We were dropped off at the Bayside shopping and dining complex, where we were told that we had 30 minutes here, before we’d be picked up for our afternoon city and boat tour.
We went in search of food and restrooms. We found a pizza place and I got a three mushroom pizza, while Mark had the meat lover’s one. Mine was excellent and I heard no complaints from the other side of the table either.
We asked where the nearest restrooms were and were told that they were upstairs. As we had walked along to find the pizza place, we had seen a Disney Store and I knew that I wanted to go there.
I figured we had been so quick in eating that we just had enough time to go in there, so headed in and found a T-shirt for each of us, an Eeyore one for me and a Grumpy one for Mark and, best of all, they were only $8 each. As we were going to pay, I also spotted an Eeyore Christmas beanie and just had to have him. Mark will tell you that I let out a screech of joy when I saw him.
Our next challenge was paying, as we couldn’t find a Cast Member anywhere. Mark had to go and get on. Unusual for Disney to be like that. Finally we paid up and headed out.
By now, the rain was coming down in sheets and even walking the short distance to from the complex to where the bus was picking us up from, we were drenched by the time we got there.
That was only the start of the fun for us, as our bus was then half an hour late arriving. Fortunately, we were able to shelter out of the rain, but the wind did end up blowing the rain towards us and the drainage wasn’t exactly great either. It was spewing everywhere. Mark ended up pretty much soaked, because of that.
Yeah, our bus is here!
We ended up chatting to Harry, who would be our tour guide, so it turned out. I knew the second that we started talking to him that we would have a blast with him, and so it proved. When our bus finally arrived, Harry wasn’t exactly pleased, as we had to be back for our boat ride by 4.30. He told us that, as a result, it would be a condensed our, but that would change as time wore on....
We set off and headed first through downtown, learning about the history of the city and an amazing woman called Elizabeth Tuttle, who built the first hotel in Miami and who also managed to get the railroad into the city, thus hastening its development. From what we heard, most of Miami’s development was down to this single minded woman. She sounded like quite something. When we got a bit further into the tour, we saw the houses that she built for the poor. Like I say, quite a woman.
The skyline of Miami is quite something and it’s got an impressive business district. Not long after we came out of there, Harry decided to stop on a bridge to show us something. He was quite a character. I was fully expecting us to have a crash or have the police pull over and say something, but no, we got away with it.
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Thanks for the flashback photos of Miami! DH and I were there in '03 for a RCCL cruise. Our hotel was just a block from the Bayside Market where we ate at Bubba Gumps. We had a blast there with all the trivia questions! I don't blame you one bit for not getting out of your boat into the water! I wouldn't have either! Reptiles give me the creeps! I don't even like the little ones you see running all over the place at the WDW resorts! Yuck! It appears that Ty is well trained in his alligator duties as I noticed he has all his fingers! Looking forward to more of your trip! Hope the weather improved for you!
I am loving you pictures of downtown Miami and the rain. I actually find myself missing the downpours of rain in Miami. They never lasted for very long but they were just as heavy as they looked. You could actually see the downpours coming down the street towards you sometimes.
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Thursday 17 December – part five: he looks wrong from this angle...
Our next stop was the first City Hall, which was home to America’s first international airport and apparently the planes would land on the water, with flights to Cuba.
Coconut Grove, the area where you find all this, is also home to a massive dining and entertainment complex and we saw that too, although my photos from here of it are somewhat limited, as it was raining again. It did stop slowly when we first got on the bus enough for me to get some shots, but then it worsened again.
The only shot I managed here
From there, it was up towards Coral Gables, which was America’s first closed community, which originally had walls all around it. It was started by George Merrick, who bought something like 4,000 acres of land for a pitiful sum, but then spent something $750 million over the next few years, developing it. At first, he had little success in filling his beautiful houses, which were built in European styles, like French, English and Spanish, but then he had the great ides of creating a canal system, so that people could get to their homes by boat and the whole thing took off. By the time he died, he left his family something like $7 billion in his will. I don’t know that I have got the figures right, but you get the idea of how much of a success this project was in the end. It’s quite something and it’s just a shame that I couldn’t get more photos. Darned weather.
We then saw the Biltmore Hotel, which is just as beautiful as the photos I’ve seen of it. I would have loved to have stayed there, but sadly the DVC removed it from their concierge collection a couple of years ago. Great shame. I’d love to see the pool here and swim in it, as it’s meant to be the largest in hotel in the States. I bet it’s quite something. Maybe one day...
On our way out of Coral Gables, Harry pointed out the statue of George Merrick, which looks very wrong from one particular angle and he showed us that angle. You can see what I mean from this shot...
From there, it was over to Little Havana, which I had really been looking forward to seeing. There was some debate over whether we would have time to stop here or not, because of us needing to get back for the boat trip, but in the end Harry said we would stop and the boat would just have to wait for us. Sounded fair enough to me.
We were given 15 minutes to walk around and set off to get some photos of the area, including the famous cigar shop, where quite a few people from our bus bought a few cigars for themselves. I only took a few photos in there, as I found the smell too much for me.
I also got some photos of the Cuban murals that you see here and some of the older members of the community sitting in the park, playing chess. This place had a wonderful atmosphere to it and I’m glad that we got to see it. I especially loved the touch of Cuban Walk of Fame. It reminded me of Hong Kong, where they honour Cuba’s famous actors, singers and celebrities.
On the way back to the bus, I suggested getting a hot chocolate at McDonald’s. We had been told that the coffee here is amazing, but as we’re not coffee drinkers, we weren’t interested in that at all.
We saw our guide in there and asked him about the boat ride and if he really thought it was going to go ahead, as we were thinking of bailing on it. I figured that the weather hadn’t cleared and I couldn’t see that we’d be able to see very much from a boat in this rain. :
That option cemented in my mind, as we got on the bus and, moments later, the heavens opened on us again. This really looked like it had set in for the day. Cue a number of phone calls from Harry to boss to try and clarify the situation, as he thought going out on the boat was crazy. That wasn’t the only thing that was crazy – so was the traffic trying to get back to Bayside, as he had been told to head there regardless of what was happening with the boat tour.
Oh dear, you did see that statue from the wrong angle! I actually like rainy days like that.... when I'm inside. Not a pleasant day for touring. You still seem to be getting a lot accomplished.
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As we were going to pay, I also spotted an Eeyore Christmas beanie and just had to have him. Mark will tell you that I let out a screech of joy when I saw him. 
I don't even like the little ones you see running all over the place at the WDW resorts! Yuck! It appears that Ty is well trained in his alligator duties as I noticed he has all his fingers! 
Sorry Mark got soaked, but at least you got a picture of it 
,
Susan
It did stop slowly when we first got on the bus enough for me to get some shots, but then it worsened again. 
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