Instead of Skirts and Bikinis I should Have Brought Sweaters and Fuzzy Socks

We are in Miami. We planned this trip as an escape from the cold cold temperatures in Kansas City. The last couple weeks in KC have been the coldest recorded in 20 years.

Miami is cold too.

The high today was 51, a big improvement from the ten below temperatures in KC. However, 51 and windy (and I'm convinced it was only 51 for a few minutes today, right now it is 37) is not conducive to lying on the beach and drinking frozen fruity drinks. We did go to the beach today. We wore coats and gloves there.

The bad thing is that there is no escape from the cold. This is also the coldest Miami has been in 20 years. In fact, we’ve heard that Miami has only been this cold twice in history. Miami has winter warnings because the wind chill is 20 degrees (that’s ABOVE zero), but because this weather is so atypical no place has heat. People actually choose to eat outside because that’s where the heat lamps are.

So our trip is off to a cold start.

It is supposed to get warmer. We leave tomorrow for our cruise and expect temperatures in the mid sixties. I know I’m not getting much sympathy from anyone reading this…but it has been cold.

So what have we done so far? Well, we’ve taken it pretty easy. We got in Saturday afternoon and Mark and I went to a sports bar by the hotel, where we watched unranked Mizzou beat #10 KState. Then we came back to the hotel and took advantage of their horrible happy hour service while waiting to meet my sister and her new husband Tyler.

Last night we went to Bayside, a trendy shopping and restaurant area on Biscayne Bay. We went there a couple years ago and it was full of life and fun. Lots of local vendors and live music. Last night was dead. The whole town shuts down in the cold! We ate some delicious Puerto Rican food (love the plantains) at Mambos café, and then Kay and Tyler came back while Mark and I went to Hard Rock. We drank and swapped cruise stories with some people from San Antonio and Toronto. Mark wanted to have one more and then we headed back to the free metro around 12:05. Turns out the metro closes at 12:00. Luckily it was a cheap cab ride back.

Today I really wanted to go to the Everglades, but we didn’t really plan to do that in advance and weren’t able to get it together at the last minute. We went to South Beach for lunch and then headed back to Bayside, where we did a boat tour of the city including some celebrity homes such as PDiddy, Ricky Martin, Will Smith, Shaquille ONeal, Rosie ODonnell, and the house from Scarface. We also saw some dolphins swimming right next to our boat!

Now we’re back at the hotel trying to figure out what to do tonight. Tomorrow we will have lunch on our ship after we board; it leaves port at 4. Probably wont post the rest of my journal until we get back as I’m not into paying outrageous amounts for internet. Cross your fingers for some warm weather!