Tag: Florida

New Orleans,LA

Place 84 – Day 1: New Orleans,LA 🇺🇸 – Voodoo Museum, Bourbon St, Louis Armstrong Park & Po-Boys

Kim & Curtis Hale

Flight

We had a flight at 07:35, so it was an early start.

We got to the airport around 05:30, checked our bags and headed right to the gate.

We got a little bored so we walked around and Curtis got a coffee.

Soon enough, we boarded the plane (which was to New Orleans, Kansas & Chicago!) And managed to get seats together.

The flight was just 1 hour 36 minutes and then we were in New Orleans!

Breakfast

The weather was terrible for our arrival! We got dropped at our Airbnb but couldn’t check in yet. We left our bags and walked to a bakery for breakfast.

We found Laurel Street Bakery which is fairly close to us. We were very hungry, so ordered a lot of food. We were tired too, so got a big coffee each.

Laurel Street Bakery | New Orleans,LA

Rating:- 8/10

Curtis had scrambled eggs, toast and bacon with fruit whilst Kim also had fruit but with french toast and bacon.

The food was pretty good and the coffee was perfect!

Bus Ticket Adventure

We decided we would get a bus ticket for 5 days, so we had to first pay for a single bus ticket ($1.25 each) and get about 10 minutes down the street to a ticket machine. Unfortunately, as we stepped off the bus, the rain came down and we got drenched!

It then turned out we needed exact cash for the machine and our card didn’t work in the machine, so we went to McDonald’s to get change. They said they wouldn’t be able to change it, so we had to go to the gas station next door who gladly changed it for us.

We got our tickets and were able to travel, but by this point we were drenched, it was still raining and we were very tired. Luckily, our room was ready so we went back to the Airbnb to shower and change out of our wet clothes.

Once this was done, Curtis fell asleep for a couple of hours and Kim did some admin. By the time Curtis awoke, it had stopped raining and the weather had cleared up.

Very Kind Host

We went out to the bus stop just by our house and as we were waiting, our Airbnb host arrived back home and offered us a lift down to the French Quarter, which was very nice of her to do!

We had a plan to go to the voodoo museum, so we walked that way, accidentally coming into contact with the famous Bourbon Street, which was fun.

Voodoo Museum

The voodoo museum was just $5 each and pretty small, but it had tid bits of information around the place, real artifacts from the history of voodoo and a lot of interesting things. We spent much longer than anticipated in there, considering it was just 2 rooms.

Voodoo Museum | New Orleans,LA

Rating:- 7/10

Louis Armstrong Park

We briefly visited the Louis Armstrong park, which seemed to just be full of abandoned buildings. That being said, the buildings were cool and the main one an old auditorium.

We walked all around the park and saw some cool buildings and even cooler bridges.

Po-Boys

We got hungry so it was food time.

Our host had told us about Po-Boys which are a traditional Louisiana sandwich, so we found the place she recommended which was called Mahony’s.

Curtis had the traditional fried shrimp sandwich and Kim had an angus beef sandwich.

They were pretty good, but the beef was much better than the shrimp.

We got a cocktail each too with Curtis getting an old fashioned and Kim having a coconut mojito.

Mahony’s | New Orleans,LA

Rating:- 8/10

Bourbon Street

We went for a drink on Bourbon street, after finding the cheapest place we could.

We also wandered around to see what was there and also watched a group of children playing the drums. The atmosphere was pretty good but we were also very tired.

Canal

We walked down to the canal for a quick look and saw that they have a steamboat that goes from there, which was awesome to watch!

*Ugh*, Public Transport

We were almost asleep by this point, so went to take the tram and then bus home.

We waited for the tram for a while and nothing showed…we ended up waiting way too long but finally got on the tram in the right direction.

We then waited 10 minutes for a bus to take us home and once got back we were pretty done.

We watched a bit of TV, did some more admin and went to bed.

Long, long day.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

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Fort Lauderdale,FL

Place 83 – Day 2: Fort Lauderdale,FL – Bugs, Bagels & Long Shot

Kim & Curtis Hale

Bugs!

Curtis had another interview at 12:00 today, so we slept in until 11:00.

When we woke up, all was well, until Curtis went for shower! Once he got out of the shower and sat on the bed, he noticed a flying ant on himself. He flicked it off and shortly after felt one, but on the other side of himself..when he flicked this one off of him, he noticed that the bed bad a few on…after standing up, he noticed the bed was covered in the flies and then this is when he got Kim to show her.

When Kim came in and was shocked to see them, she looked around and was even more shocked than before…they had burrowed themselves in via a hole in the wall above a door connecting us to another room and there must have been hundreds!

We called the person we are renting from and they said they were going to send cleaners over in an hour to resolve, so we sat outside the front with the door open, hoping they would all fly out.

We couldn’t go anywhere until Curtis did his interview, which, after finding another method due to the phone playing up again, didn’t last too long but seemed very promising.

Bagels

We left before housekeeping did to get some breakfast and then watch something at the cinema. The weather was quite nice all morning, but was due to storm so we couldn’t really be bothered to go anywhere.

We found a bagel shop near by the cinema and got a bagel each. It wasn’t great but did the job.

Long Shot

We watched the film Long Shot at the cinema. The film was quite good, actually, but we didn’t really know what to expect anyway.

The cinema screen was quite small and there were few seats, but it was a ‘dine in’ cinema, so you get fancy, fully reclining leather armchairs with a tray that pulls across them so you can order food and drinks to your seat, which was far too expensive so we didn’t do that.

Long Shot

Rating:- 7/10

Rain

It did begin to rain when we left the cinema.

We went to the supermarket to see if there was anything we wanted for dinner, but there was nothing, so we left and walked back, which in total took about 45 minutes.

We got back just it started to thunderstorm again.

Pizza

We ordered pizza from Domino’s and sat and watched TV. That is pretty much the end of Fort Lauderdale for us, but we didn’t really plan to do too much here as we are mostly using it for a base to fly from.

We are going to be flying early tomorrow, so up nice and early, so we’re just making sure everything is packed and getting some sleep.

The next place should be awesome, though possibly stormy again!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Fort Lauderdale,FL

Place 83 – Day 1: Fort Lauderdale,FL 🇺🇸 – Fancy Train & Thunderstorms

Kim & Curtis Hale

Breakfast

We needed to have some breakfast, so we got packed and then walked just down the road to an Argentine cafe in which Curtis got an almond croissant and a chocolate croissant whilst Kim got a ham and cheese bagel. We each got a cappucino too, but that wasn’t great.

Close Bistro & Cafe | Miami,FL

Rating:- 6/10

Fancy Train

We decided to take the train to Fort Lauderdale instead of a bus as it was quicker and bit nicer…

We got to the station, which looked excellent, got our tickets and checked our bag in.

We waited in the really nice waiting area and then around 30 minutes later we boarded the train.

All seats are assigned and we got the accessible seats so we had insane leg room!

We were only on the train for 30 minutes but the train was very comfy, quiet, fast and pretty cheap. We quite enjoyed it.

Freebee

We got our of the station after collecting our bag and were going to take an Uber to our apartment. Instead, were offered a ride in a ‘freebee’. This is a new trial being ran which is a good sized electric vehicle which takes people around the city free.

Unfortunately, our apartment was out of the zone they are currently operating in, but there was an insane amount of rain so the driver was kind enough to drop us right at our apartment!

The Apartment

Our apartment is within another building, but we have our own bathroom and cupboard and it’s good enough.

Unfortunately, as we arrived, a thunderstorm started and so we were pretty much house bound, which was good because we were also feeling very lazy.

Uber Eats

We were so lazy, and fearing the storm, that we ordered Uber Eats instead of going out. We had a free delivery deal anyway, so might as well use it!

We got some Japanese food which was, again, adequate. Nothing to write home about (literally) but not bad.

Braving The Storm

We wanted some snacks and provisions, so we braved the storm and walked down to the supermarket. We managed to get a bit of the lightning flashing on camera, but we did see some actual lightning bolts!

We came back and just watched TV. Unfortunately, the weather isn’t meant to be good tomorrow either, so we’ll just have to sleep!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

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

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

Orlando,FL

Place 81 – Day 11: Orlando,FL – 6.5 Hour Tattoos

Kim & Curtis Hale

Up Early

We were up at a good time to get down to Orlando.

We didn’t eat any breakfast, but we stopped at IHOP on the way, and just as it started to rain, too!

Tattoos

We went from IHOP to a tattoo place. Kim, Abbie & Tom were getting tattoos today.

The tattoos went very well, and the tattoo artist was very knowledgeable, friendly and talented!

Kim and Abbie got a matching tattoo, of interlocking rings.

Kim also got a colourful elephant which has a few significant meanings to her and Abbie also got a flower.

Tom got a chinese inspired tattoo on his back which looks pretty cool.

All-in-all, we were in the tattoo parlour for 6.5 hours! We went to get a coffee briefly, mostly just to kill time, but by the time we left it was 18:00.

Vegan Dinner & A Drag Show?

We planned to go to a drag show today, but first the plan was food!

Abbie is vegetarian, so we wanted to find some food she could eat and the tattoo artist is a vegan, so she recommended some vegan places.

We went to a place right next to where the drag was located.

We aren’t going to rate this place as, being vegan, we aren’t used to the alternatives used so we don’t think it would be fair.

That being said, Curtis got something that was a vegan chicken burger with a side of mac and ‘cheese’, Kim had a ‘pulled pork’ sandwich, Maggie had another sandwich of sorts and Tom had a ‘not-dog’ chilli dog.

Neither of us were overly thrilled with the food, but that wasn’t to say, necessarily, because it was vegan, but it just wasn’t that great. Abbie and Tom both very much enjoyed their food, though and everyone said the ‘not-dogs’ were delicious.

We left here and went round the corner as it was meant to be opening time for the drag show, but it seemed very much empty…and closed!

We went to a bar just down the road, which was owned by the same people, and we found out that it was not on tonight. This was a great shame as Kim was very much looking forward to it, but we did get a refund, after the booking company were very unpleasant on the phone.

Card Games It Is Then

We drove back home and decided that we may as well play card games.

We played about 3 games in total but were all the tired and realised we had to pack, too.

Packing

We got to packing, getting most of it done in the evening.

We have everything ready and now it’s just time to sleep.

Kim’s family are heading back to England tomorrow and we are taking a long bus journey.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Orlando,FL

Place 81 – Day 10: Orlando,FL – Interview That Didn’t Happen

Kim & Curtis Hale

Interview & Surfing

Kim and Abbie were up early to go to the beach and do some surfing. The beach was beautiful in the morning sun.

Kim started surfing with one board, but it didn’t seem to be working so she swapped and was much better on that one!

Curtis woke up shortly after they left and had some breakfast and a coffee.

Curtis had a phone interview planned for 10:30, so he had to wait in for that.

It got to 10:40 and still no call, so he emailed but with no response.

Curtis them, oddly, recieved a voicemail even though the phone hadn’t rang at all, so Curtis tried to call back but the number was restricted. Due to this. Curtis emailed again and stated what had happened and now the interview is re-scheduled for next week and via a different system.

Return From Surfing

On the way back from surfing, Kim, Abbie and Tom stopped off at McDonald’s for some food and then went back home.

Kim and Abbie relaxed whilst Tom sorted out shipping and packaging his bike.

We eventually decided we were all hungry and wanted to go for dinner, so we found a spot and went there.

Dinner

We chose an Italian place and it seemed nice from the ratings online.

Curtis had a lasagne, Abbie & Maggie had the vegetarian lasagne, Tom had a calzone and Kim had a pizza.

The food was just ok, if not a bit below average. Some was cold and some was hot but lacking flavour. Nothing really excited us too much, except for the hot bread we got as a starter!

Pizza Vola | Orlando,FL

Rating:- 5.5/10

Final Card Games?

We played what would probably the final card games we play, with Tom picking up the win in Monopoly Deal and Abbie & Maggie winning UNO.

Busy Day Ahead

We have a long, busy, day ahead tomorrow, but fun stuff planned!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale