Miami 2022: Diary Day 7

We got up and went down to the breakfast buffet again. The lobby was a LOT busier than the previous day as there was a convention event.

Morning Adventures

Since my wife was taking the day off, she took the boy in the morning. They went to a graffiti park and then to the Bayside Marketplace for some lunch and shopping. She found getting a Lyft was difficult and getting around downtown was slow, even though it wasn’t far from the hotel.

Back in the room I was able to focus on my work in the morning. I snuck out to get some takeout for lunch between meetings. The family got back to the room in the early afternoon and quietly watched TV while I worked and my wife relaxed.

Speed Boat!

When I finished my last meeting, I took the boys back to the Bayside Marketplace so we could go on a speedboat tour. We had done one last year and we all loved it. I had purchased tickets to the last tour of the day to make sure we’d have time to get there. My wife wasn’t interested so she was happy to go back to the mall for her own dinner and some more window shopping.

Instead of calling a Lyft, we knew we could get to our tour more quickly and easily by using the free MetroMover train due to our adventures the previous evening. We made our way to the station using the tunnel connected to the hotel and got to the station just as the train arrived. Three short stops later we got off about a block from the Bayside Marketplace.

We checked in with the speedboat tour and asked if we could get on an earlier ride. They had availability and they put us on that trip. They have two different types of boats. One is a speedboat and the other is a jet boat. We had gone on the speedboat last year and the ride we were switched to was the jet boat so we would be able to compare the experiences.

The boat was about 2/3 full so we had no problem finding three seats together in the bow of the boat. The tour route in the jet boat was the same as the speedboat tour and we got to see the same famous mansions. While it wasn’t new, it was still a lot of fun!

On the tour, Tomatico saw someone in another (private) boat that looked like someone he had gone to summer camp with the previous summer. When he got back he texted them to see if it was them and it turned out to be who he thought it was. Small world!

On the tour, it was fun watching people that clearly haven’t spent much time on a boat hold on for dear life every time we hit a wave or made a somewhat sharp turn. The boys loved every minute of it and we got lots of pictures of the mansions.

Dinner and the Gym

After the boat ride, we went to get some dinner at Chili’s for a surprisingly great meal. It even came with a cookie and ice cream for dessert that really hit the spot. We could tell it was good when we were all claiming to be too full to eat it, but at the same time fighting and scraping for the last few pieces!

After dinner we headed back to the hotel by taking the MetroMover. We were getting the hang of using it to get around. The car we were in was completely empty so we got to stand up front where the driver would be (the cars are driverless).

Back at the hotel, Tomatico wanted to go to the gym to work off the dessert with some exercise. We went both went down but I left the cardio to him. I sat on a bike and watch the Olympics while he sweated it out on the elyptical. I was still feeling sore from my run on the beach path a few days prior!

Back in the room we called it a night. The next day (a Saturday) would be our last full day before heading home on Sunday morning.