Miami 2022: Diary – Day 5

I got up early with my alarm and quietly snuck out for a run before everyone else was awake. I had a great run along the beach path. It was extremely windy so it was a lot of work on the first leg but easier on the way back! Back at the hotel everyone was still asleep so I did my best to take a quiet shower but they were awake by the time I finished.

For breakfast Tomatico joined us to get something at the bakery. He enjoyed his ham and cheese croissant. My wife used her coupon to get her breakfast.

Morning Work

My wife had a busy afternoon for a change so I ended up working in the morning while she watched the boys at the pool until around 11:00. I had asked for late checkout the previous day so we could stay in the room until 4:00 and I could play foosball with the boys until 4:30 when my wife’s last call was scheduled to end.

When the boys came back from the pool with my wife, they quickly showered and changed so I could take them to get lunch. Tomatico got his cachapas again and we got Pizza Bar. Since this was our last day in Miami Beach we just HAD to get gelato again. I considered trying something new, but couldn’t resist getting the pineapple flavor yet again. I didn’t regret it.

Back at the hotel, we signed out the bikes again and rode them to the park to play more Frisbee. It was a lot more windy and it was harder to play. We did our best, but it was tough. Back at the hotel we played some more foosball and headed up to the room.

Switching Hotels

We found my wife had just finished up her call. She had about 45 minutes until her next call, which she would be able to take from the road so we decided to check out and move to the new hotel instead of waiting until the end of the workday. This worked because the boys were done with the pool for the day and pretty tired. The change would keep them occupied!

We quickly packed our stuff and brought it downstairs to checkout. Checkout was uneventful and we updated the credit card to pay the resort fees and other expenses we had accrued. We ordered our Lyft and were predicted to get to the next hotel with plenty of time before my wife’s next meeting. Unfortunately, traffic was much worse than predicted. It took us 45 minutes to go the 7 miles between the hotels and my wife had to take her call on the go. Luckily she wasn’t running the meeting.

On checkin at the new hotel, it was obvious the Hyatt Regency Miami was a completely different animal than the Moxy Miami South Beach! The Hyatt is a classic convention hotel while the Moxy is much more of a south beach party destination. It doesn’t make one better than the other, but the difference in the vibe was stark.

We checked in and they confirmed we were in the type of suite we expected. We got our keys and were up to our room in just a few minutes. When we entered our room, there were several plates of food and drinks with gift cards for someone else. It seems they gave us a room that was supposed to be for someone else. While the family wanted to eat the chocolate covered strawberries, I’m sure whomever “Kay” was would have been disappointed, so I called down to the front desk. Housekeeping arrived promptly to take the gifts away.

The rooms was otherwise fine. We had a nice view of the river and a drawbridge the kids would enjoy when it was in action. The room was enormous compared to the room at the Moxy, though everything about the hotel seems a little older. Not necessarily worn, but a bit dated in design. It was nice having a proper desk to work on and space to spread out, though.

Dinner

I finished up some work from the morning and once my wife was done with her work it was time to find a place for dinner. There are quite a few options within walking distance and we chose a Venezuelan restaurant that had some American dishes that was a short walk away. It was called Friends Market & Bistro.

When we arrived we found it was sort of a convenience store with a cafe/restaurant all in one. After we ordered, my wife checked out the market while we waited for the food. She found many sweets she loved as a child and bought a few “for later”. When we all really enjoyed the food and decided we’d definitely come back before the trip was over!

Afterwards, we walked towards the Brickell shopping area to let my wife explore the mall. The boys and I decided to take a ride on the MetroMover, which is a free automated monorail/train that goes throughout downtown Miami with a stop near the hotel. There is a station attached to the mall and trains come every 10 minutes or so.

We ended up getting off a couple stops too soon and had to wait for the next train once we realized we couldn’t easily walk back to the hotel from where we were because we were on the wrong side of the river. We got off at the next stop and make the short walk back to the hotel.

Back up in the room we watched some more of the Winter Olympics before calling it a night.