Miami 2021: Diary – Day 0

We were leaving on a Wednesday at 5pm which mean we needed to be at the airport around 3:00. The boys had a short day of school so they would be done at noon, but my wife and I both had full days of work and meetings.

Timing the Airport

We both had meetings around the time we needed to get to the airport so we would have to go early or late but one of us would need to take a meeting in the Lyft. Looking at my schedule my meeting was most conducive to taking it on the go. I scheduled a Lyft ride to arrive a few minutes before an earlier meeting finished so that I could hopefully jump from one meeting to taking the next in the Lyft and be at the airport before my wife’s meeting started so she could take hers from there.

The Lyft was late to pick us up and the driver missed a turn on the way to the airport so in the end both of us were on calls when we arrived at the airport. While my wife concentrated on her call, I got her PreCheck number updated (for some reason there was an extra digit in the system), our bags checked, and our boarding passes printed.

My wife had three more back to back calls, but we found a quiet part of the ticketing area for her to take them. The airport was pretty empty so it wasn’t hard to find seating or a quiet-enough place. She wouldn’t have a break between calls for another hour and a half so we wouldn’t be able to go through security until then.

The boys read and did homework while I finished my work. Luckily one of y wife’s calls ended early and we were able to use the break to get through security into the terminal before her next call. This was unfortunately a particularly busy day at work for her with critical deadlines that needed to be sorted out.

We walked to our gate and found desk seating where she continued to work while I took the boys to get dinner. Only a few restaurants were open and we ended up going to Wahlburgers for takeout. There wasn’t a line and the food came out quickly. Back at the gate we found that they messed up the order for my youngest. Ugh… I went back to the restaurant and of course there was now a line. Based on the receipt the kitchen got the order right, but the lady taking the order definitely messed it up. She just duplicated what Tomatico had ordered which was specifically NOT what my youngest had ordered. Luckily they prioritized his replacement order and got it to us in a few minutes. When I got back to the gate he was happy with the new order, though my food was cold by that point. Oh well.

My wife continued to work until boarding time, which was right on time. The plane was full, though boarding was orderly and we left on time.

Fort Lauderdale to South Beach

My wife took advantage of the free WiFi on JetBlue and was quite productive during the flight. On arrival, we got our bags (which came out on a different carousel than what had been announced) and went to the Lyft pickup area. There was a ton of traffic and lines of people waiting for a shuttle bus, but the actual Lyft area wasn’t too crowded.

We were familiar with the airport as we had taken JetBlue to Fort Lauderdale for the first leg of our Florida trip in December. Familiarity certainly helps reduce stress when traveling.

The ride to our hotel in South Beach was about 45 minutes from Fort Lauderdale. Fortunately there wasn’t any traffic and the ride was uneventful. We arrived at the Hyatt Centric South Beach just before 10pm and proceeded to the 3rd floor lobby. We were quickly checked in and told we had been upgraded to a room with a better view. We would be able to see the ocean in the morning. Unfortunately we wouldn’t be getting a suite upgrade.

In the room, we found a nice clean layout with a desk and two queen beds, but it was definitely a small room. It would be a tight squeeze with us all having to work the next few days.

We were exhausted from the long day and got ready for bed immediately. Breakfast would be served starting at 7:30am so I set my alarm to be there first thing since school started at 8:00.