Miami 2021: Diary – Day 1

We woke up just before our alarm went off and tried to organize things for the day. We first tried to get the kids Chromebooks connected to the hotel internet. To my surprise I couldn’t get either one to connect. It would connect to the network but wouldn’t bring up the registration page. I ended up calling the front desk and their suggested workaround didn’t work.

Breakfast and Technical Support

We needed to head down to breakfast to get that sorted out while I continued to work on the laptops. I brought them down to the front desk while the rest of the family got breakfast at the restaurant which was also in the lobby. The lady at the front desk found the tech support number and called them, hoping they would be available. Luckily they were and were able to manually register the laptops on their end. It only took a few minutes and the crisis was averted. Without internet they wouldn’t have been able to do their school.

While we ordered breakfast, I looked for places nearby where we could get a timely lunch for the boys. Tomatico has a particularly early lunch period starting at 10:45 while my youngest has his at 11:30. Looking in Google Maps I found a nearby bakery called Charlotte Bakery that also referenced some lunch items. I’d take him there to see if he could find something. For my youngest, I saw a nearby pizza place called the Pizza Bar that said it opened at 11:00am. I figured I could also get something for him there before my meetings which started at noon.

With lunch planned and breakfast eaten we were ready to start our day!

Working in Close Quarters

I had an early meeting that I needed to do in a more private place (i.e. I had to do a lot of talking). I had to look for a quiet place outside the room in the hotel. That was more difficult than it should have been. Everywhere in the hotel lobby they were playing music so there really was no quiet place. Outside there was a lot of wind and traffic noise. I found the quietest spot I could and luckily the noise cancelling headphones blocked out a lot of the background noise for the other parties.

My wife was in the same predicament and tried different places around the lobby but ended up having to take calls from the bathroom with the door closed. It was far from ideal but was the only place she could find that was quiet enough. We ended up jokingly calling it “the office” for the rest of our stay!

For my later meetings my earlier spot was too much in the direct sunlight but I managed to find another spot that was in the shade and relatively quiet. The problem was that the internet was a bit flakey and my calls would get jittery every few minutes. It wasn’t a great start to our stay. This hotel definitely wasn’t made for business travellers.

As Tomatico’s lunch time arrived, I walked with him to find the Charlotte Bakery. As soon as we walked in we knew my wife would love it. They had all sorts of Venezuelan and Argentinian favorites. Tomatico picked a few to try and we brought them back to the room. My wife saw them and decided her lunch time had arrived and went to get some things for herself!

I then headed to the Pizza Bar which was less than a block from the hotel, but unfortunately it was closed at 11am. I looked online to see if their website had different hours but they didn’t. I hoped it would open at 11:30 so I would have time to get something before my meetings.

I tried again at 11:30 and found it open. I discovered they have a wide range of slices to choose from and the slices are GIGANTIC. There’s no other way to describe them. I ordered 2 slices, which was a quarter of the pizza, and it filled up a 16 inch pizza box!! Eating the slice took two (or three) hands. The pizza was pretty good to boot!

Once the kids were done with their school day my wife and I balanced our remaining meetings with watching the boys playing in the pool before we were finally done for the day and could start to enjoy actually being in Miami.

Dinner and the Beach

Once my final call was done, we headed out around the hotel to find some dinner. My wife found a Cuban place Havana 1957 that is a chain. It was in an area with a lot of other restaurants. The food was really good and Tomatico LOVED my wife’s roasted chicken dish which is a specialty at the restaurant.

Afterwards we looked for some ice cream for dessert and ended up getting gelato at a place near the restaurant. Gelato for the four of us cost $37.00 BEFORE tip… It wasn’t even all that good…. We wouldn’t be going back.

From there we walked towards the beach. We eventually found the public access path the hotel had directed us to. It was a short walk from the main road and we found a paved path that went along the beach. It was dark by this time so we didn’t go on the beach but now we knew where it was. We’d have to wait until the next day.

Back at the hotel we got ready for bed. While I was officially taking the next day (Friday) off I had a lot of loose ends I needed to figure out. The boys also had their last day of school before their February break.