Category: Miami,FL

Miami,FL

Place 82 – Day 5: Miami,FL – Little Havana, Wynwood Wall & 800th Blog Day!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Little Havana

We wanted a Cuban coffee & Cuban sandwich today, so we went on the hunt for one in Little Havana.We first had to get there, which meant we had to first take the free ‘metromover’ which is a monorail system, and then we had to go from there to a bus.

We weren’t sure if we were able to get on a bus as we didn’t have the correct pass for it, so instead we decided we’d scooter there.

We started on the scooters but then way we needed to go doesn’t allow the scooters to work, so we had to leave them and find a bus stop. The bus stop wasn’t close and once we got there it was a proper station so we could by a day pass for $5.50 each (plus $2.25 each for the card itself).

We waited for a while for the bus…and waited…and waited…it never showed! We had to wait for a while more until eventually a bus arrived and we sat on that for a bit to get to little Havana.

Our plan was to get the coffee and the sandwich in the same place, but the place we found for coffee didn’t make sandwiches. That being said, we couldn’t pass up the coffee place as it specialises in Cuban coffee & had over 22 different versions.

The wonderful man described each of their main Cuban coffees to us and then we chose – Curtis had the most traditional, which was Cuban coffee with coffee liquor in it and Kim had the ‘tres leches’ coffee, which was milk, cream, whipped cream and coffee.

Both coffees were amazing and the service was also perfect.

House of Cuban Coffee| Miami,FL

Rating:- 10/10

We finished this and asked for a recommendation where we can get a good Cuban sandwich. We were told the pub down the road would be best, so we walked down there to find us a sandwich!

We asked for a traditional Cuban sandwich to share and it did not disappoint. Essentially, it is just ham, cheese & pork with mustard in a panini style bread, but it was incredible. We thought it was great, to be honest!

El Pub | Miami,FL

Rating:- 7/10

Wynwood Walls

We made our way from Little Havana to Wynwood on the bus, which took a bit longer then we planned due to missing the first bus!

We got to Wynwood and did the typical touristy thing there which was to visit the Wynwood walls.

This area in general is the arts area and there is a separate section which is filled with full wall murals/paintings.

This area is free to the public and there is even a few internal exhibits which are also free. This part had a room with chandeliers and carpet from the Taj Mahal Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City.

We walked around here for a bit and then discussed with our friend where we would meet her for dinner.

Once we organised this, we walked across the street and got a $6 mojito each to kill some time.

Mojitos!

Curtis got a ginger mojito and Kim had a standard mojito.

Kim was also able to charge her phone here, which helped as she had just a little bit of power left. These were very good mojitos, which we were not expecting.

Miami Mojito Company | Miami, FL

Rating:- 8/10

Fancy Grilled Cheese

We got on a bus, eventually, for a 15-20 minute journey to northern Miami where we were meeting a friend.

We got to the grilled cheese place where we were meeting her and she arrived shortly after.

We were meeting with Lucie, whom we met in Portland at our hostel! She lives in Florida so we had to see her whilst here.

Curtis got a pesto, tomato & cheese sandwich and Kim got a BBQ pulled pork one. We also shared some (not very nice) cheese fries.

We chatted with Lucie for a few hours, about a whole host of things, such as where our favourite place in the US has been so far and a few other things.

Ms. Cheezious | Miami,FL

Rating:- 7/10

We were out with Lucie for a while and then we headed off to catch the bus about 21:00.

We weren’t sure if the bus would arrive, but luckily it did and we got back to the apartment for 21:30.

Kim did a bit of research that we need to do for our next home…and then we did some laundry preparing to move to another (brief) place tomorrow.

800 Days!

Today, we hit 800 straight days of blog posts…800!

What an insane number…that you to everyone that reads it each day. Without getting at least some people reading each day, we wouldn’t have continued writing this and our travels wouldn’t be as documented as they are today.

Thank you.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

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Miami,FL

Place 82 – Day 4: Miami,FL – Closed Museum & Coconut Grove

Kim & Curtis Hale

Closed Museum

We had a plan today to go to a museum down south.

We said to ourselves that we would walk there, which would take just an hour, but we got outside and were warm so we went for a scooter ride instead.

We got to the museum and noticed a sign outside which said it was closed on Tuesdays, which was not ideal.

We saw the gates were still open to the gardens, so we went into them and had a look around.

We got to the entrance of the actual museum and there were security there who said we had to leave. Turns out that the gardens were closed too!

Coconut Grove

We changed up our plan and walked to the rail station nearby, paid our $2.25 ticket each and boarded the train.

We only went one stop but it saved us 20 minutes of walking.

We quickly burned those saved 20 minutes when we walked way past our turning and had to turn back again.

We walked through a fairly nice area and got to CocoWalk in Coconut Grove.

This is a street with nice shops, restaurants & coffee shops.

We walked around a bit but weren’t too impressed. We wanted a snack and found a taco place which was just $3 per taco, so we got one each and continued with our day.

We wanted a coffee and we saw Starbucks but decided to go somewhere different, which was a mistake.

The place was called Blanco gelato and it was all organic etc.

Kim got a mocha coconut iced coffee and Curtis got just an iced coffee.

Kim’s was very small, expensive and just a thick sludge, but was tasty. Curtis had iced milk with a tiny bit of coffee and, again, expensive. We were quite disappointed.

Bianco Gelato | Miami, FL

Rating:- 4/10

Another Interview?

We got back in time to shower and relax a little and then at 18:30, Curtis had another interview scheduled.

As what seems to be a common theme, the interviewer never called, and no emails were returned.

So, after another wasted 30 minutes, we grabbed our steak from the fridge which we bought earlier from whole foods and made an average dinner.

The steak was delicious, a really great slab of meat, but the sauce we bought wasn’t good and overpowered the meal. Curtis also over seasoned the meat a little.

All in all, could have been better, but it’ll do!

We watched TV for the evening and ate a dessert each. Kim got a chocolate pie and Curtis got a lemon meringue pie to devour too.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Miami,FL

Place 82 – Day 3: Miami,FL – Miami Beach, South Beach & Cuban Food

Kim & Curtis Hale

Interviews

We were up at 09:30 to get ready for Curtis’ interview. He had an interview at 10:30, which was the rescheduled interview from last week.

Curtis waited around in the conference call but no one else entered. He emailed the company back and they said they told their interviewer the incorrect time. At this point, being the 2nd interview they didn’t show up to, Curtis withdrew his application for the role.

Curtis had another interview at 13:00, which someone did turn up for! He completed this interview and felt fairly pleased with it, but who knows what will happen.

Miami Beach & South Beach

We got an Uber to Miami Beach to see what is going on in that area.

We got there and Kim needed something to cover her tattoos so they don’t get burned, so we found something in a shop to do so.

We walked around the area and saw what was around before walking to the beach. When we got to the beach, we welled along it for a bit until it got too hot. The water was much too engrossed with seaweed that we weren’t going to go in that, so we left the beach and walked along on the side path instead.

The majority of Miami beach & south beach were littered with rented sun loungers, so it ruined the look and feel of the beach, too.

We stopped off at the Miami muscle beach which had nothing on the LA one, and then continued down the way towards the south pointe park pier.

South Pointe Park Pier

We arrived at the pier and, whilst it was small, it gave beautiful views of the city, as well as having the cruise ships trudging past.

Cuban Food

Forgetting about the free trolley service, we walked for 45 minutes up to a restaurant called Bella Cuba. This is one of the top Cuban restaurants in Miami and we really wanted to taste some Cuban cuisine.

We got hot garlic bread for free to start and Curtis got a beer whilst Kim got a mojito.

We both ate traditional Cuban food, which was ‘drunk’ chicken on rice and slow cooked pork with fried beans and rice as well as a couple of unknown but tasty items.

The food and service were excellent at this place and it really felt like what we imagine Cuba to be like. We would highly recommend!

Bella Cuba | Miami,FL

Rating:- 10/10

Sunset

We tried to find a place to see the sunset and we did find one eventually but realised we couldn’t really be bothered to wait, so got a photo of the city and then called an Uber.

Catch-Up

We watched a few things before bed to catch up on shows we haven’t watched for a while, which was nice. We made some plans for tomorrow and the day after and then headed to bed.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Miami,FL

Place 82 – Day 2: Miami,FL – Bayside Park & Miami Tower

Kim & Curtis Hale

Croissants & Coffee

We had a bit of a sleep in this morning, which we thought was deserved after a long and stressful day yesterday.

We needed some breakfast but had nothing here, so we went to a French cafe just 5 minutes away.

We got to La Provence cafe and ordered 2 croissants each as well as a cappuccino each.

The food was actually not bad and the coffee was good, but the service wasn’t great.

La Provence | Miami,FL

Rating:- 7.5/10

Bayside Park

We’d said all day that we didn’t plan to do anything really, so we went for a walk around Bayside Park. This is a nice park on the side of the bay with expensive boats driving around as well as vibrant palm trees with coconuts in them.

We saw the freedom tower at the end of our walk too, which is a very cool looking building.

Party?

We got back to the apartment and sat out on our balcony watching time go by.

We wanted to watch a bit of TV so we moved back into our room.

We got a text from our host saying he was having some friends over, which was not a problem, of course.

This then seemed to turn to a party, so we hid away for a few hours whilst they partied and then we got hungry so went out to find some food.

Miami Tower

Before we found food, we stopped and looked at the Miami Tower, which is a nice building which gets lit up at night.

Whole Foods

We could only find a Whole Foods as a supermarket nearby, so we went there, not expecting to like it much. We were wrong!

It is all organic, so we were expecting it to be expensive but it wasn’t a bad price at all and there was a good selection as well as interesting concepts around the store.

We settled on a lasagne as well as a bottle of wine, just to relax.

Dinner

We got back home and put the lasagne in the oven and relaxed until that was done.

We ate our lasagne and our host was watching Game of Thrones…Clearly something was happening but we’ve never watched it so we had no idea!

Tomorrow, Curtis has 2 phone interviews in the morning and early afternoon, so no plans for us until then…but let’s hope that means he gets a job!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Miami,FL

Place 82 – Day 1: Miami,FL🇺🇸 – Cancelled Bus

Kim & Curtis Hale

Check Out

We got up at 08:30, packed the remaining items, showered, had breakfast and left the house around 11:00, after a game of Monopoly Deal.

Nice Houses

We had some time to kill, so we drove down through the really nice, huge, houses.

After we looked at all the houses, we drove to an ice cream place, got ice cream and then went to Starbucks for a coffee.

We had to leave shortly after, though, as our bus was due at the bus stop (which was a gas station).

Cancelled Bus

We got to the bus stop and then checked on the bus which said it was delayed by an hour, but the image on the app said it hadn’t left the first stop yet.

We called to ask, whilst we sat and had a doughnut in Dunkin’ and they weren’t much help.

We went back to the gas station and there was an attendant inside and she said she thinks it is cancelled but will check.

Eventually, she confirmed this and said we can board the 15:50 bus instead, for free. We looked into car rental but it was far too expensive so we booked onto that bus instead.

We said goodbye to Kim’s family as they had to catch a flight back to England. It was an emotional time for Kim, too.

We waited for an hour or so until the bus arrived and were happy to get on it.

Bus Ride To Miami

We had a 5 hour ride, which was less than our previous bus was going to be anyway, so that’s good.

We had an uneventful journey with only a few scheduled stops. We even skipped a few at the end so we got in a little early.

Nice Apartment

We got an Uber to downtown Miami, where our apartment is.

We are on the 42nd floor, with amazing views of Miami and the water!

Dinner

We wanted some food and were recommended to go to the bayside marketplace which has a few well priced chains in there.

We decided on Five Guys as it was easy and we fancied a burger.

Curtis chose to have a cheeseburger with lettuce, mayo, steak sauce, grilled onions & pickles, but he got mushrooms instead of onions, for some reason.

Kim got a small cheeseburger with lettuce, steak sauce, grilled onions and mushrooms.

We got a side of small fries and shared a chocolate milkshake.

The food was pretty nice, though as said before they did get the order wrong. The milkshake was incredible though!

Five Guys | Miami,FL

Rating:- 7/10

We got back, ate our food and went to sleep…we were very tired after a long stressful day, so were looking forward to getting some sleep.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale