Miami 2022: Diary – Day 3

It was Monday already! While I had to work, I had notified my co-workers that I would be working in the afternoon. Much of my company was at an offsite for a product launch in New Orleans so I expected things to be less busy than usual so I could concentrate on my tasks when I was able to work.

Breakfast

Tomatico wanted to get breakfast at the hotel, so he ended up getting a breakfast quesadilla while my wife got a breakfast burrito from the taco stand/bodega in the hotel lobby. While they waited, our youngest and I headed to a nearby French bakery. It served lots of fresh pastries and breads. I got a baguette and my youngest got a giant plain croissant and a smaller chocolate croissant. They were all excellent. I was impressed how fresh and good the baguette was. It was almost as good as France!

Tomatico said his quesadilla was the best he’s ever had. It had lots of cheese on it which I’m sure contributed. My wife really liked the breakfast burrito as well, though she says it was giant. Both were expensive but at least they were a decent value.

Beach Time

Back at the hotel it was time for my wife to get to work. I got the boys to pack up stuff for the beach, including their baseball stuff, a football, and a frisbee. The beach is only 3 short blocks from the hotel. The weather was about 70 degrees and windy so it wasn’t prime beach weather, but the boys didn’t mind. They played baseball and football for a bit and then I joined them to play Frisbee. There were very few people around and nobody was in the water (we didn’t even consider going in).

After about 2 hours at the beach we decided to get some lunch. Tomatico wanted to try one of the places he had discovered on last year’s trip. The walk there took about 15 minutes. Tomatico was disappointed that they run out of cachapas, which are a Venezuelan dish (think pancakes stuffed with cheese). Instead he got something else stuffed with cheese.

After our youngest and I also finished eating we walked a few minutes to a gelato place called I Scream Gelato which we had noticed near the Pizza Bar. We hadn’t been before and decided to give it a try. Inside we found several interesting flavors, including donut, kinder bueno, and pineapple. We tried a few different flavors and surprisingly I ended up getting pineapple, getting out of my comfort zone! Pineapple as a flavor is one that can often be bad if not done right, but this one was done very well. It actually tasted like pineapple and didn’t get “old” after eating more of it like some flavors can. We all really enjoyed the flavors we got and would certainly return before we left Miami Beach.

Afternoon Activities

Back at the hotel, my wife was still on her calls so I took the boys up to the pool while I began my work day. She came up after 45 minutes and did some more work at the pool while I retreated back to the room so I could focus more on my work. After another hour at the pool and some time at the foosball table, the boys were in need of some rest so they came back to the room to read and relax.

My wife took my youngest to the local library where he read some books until it was getting towards dinner time. It was Valentines day and getting a Lyft/Uber was nearly impossible so we’d have to stay local for dinner. We split up to make it easier to find a place. Tomatico any my wife found a nearby Columbian place they really enjoyed. Our youngest and I tried a nearby pizza place that wasn’t very impressive. We were still hungry and walked around searching for something else. The first place we went to was closed. We were getting increasingly desperate from walking around and ended up at a fast food place. It looked promising, but the food took forever to come out and it was way overcooked, dry and nearly inedible. We struck out twice and still weren’t full so we stopped to get a pint of ice cream at a convenience store. At least that hit the spot!

Back in the room we were all a bit tired so we put on the Winter Olympics in the background for the boys while my wife and I continued working. I ended up getting quite a bit done and, again, the bunkbeds were working well to compartmentalize the workspaces.

The room was unconventional but it was growing on us even though it was so small.