Farewell Miami - see you next year

Sadly, it’s debarkation day. We awoke around 7 and were happy to see that our bags were gone. We dressed, packed up and headed to the buffet for a final breakfast, since we’d missed the dining room. Never did make it there for breakfast. It was possibly the busiest place we’d been all week. We finally found a table, and grabbed some food - I had a final eggs benedict and our last really good orange juice. We still had quite a while before our group would be called - we were in group 40 and I think they were up to about 7, so we went to the sky lounge to wait for our number. Our official “meet time” was 9:40 and at about 9:55 they called all the final groups. We headed off the ship into a fairly long line at the bottom of the gangway. It seemed to take a while, although honestly, it was probably more like 10-15 minutes. Once at the bottom of the escalator (which was probably the reason it was slow, it was fairly fast to get through immigration. We then went to the baggage claim, and there were carousels. I’m used to wandering through a section of a warehouse looking at every bag. It didn’t take long to find our bags and head outside.

It took a while to figure out where the rental car pick up was - we never did figure it out. I saw a Budget truck drive by so I ran (as much as I could with suitcases) and found the van past the port area, and at a lunch truck. I asked the drivers if that was our van, and they told me to hop in. I called Beth and once we were on, and they were finished with their snack, it was off to the Budget office.

I’d heard stories of long lines on turn around days, and when we dropped the car on the way in there were lots of people waiting. Since the Equinox was the only ship in, and we were the only ones on the shuttle, there was no wait and the car was ready.

We were flying out of Ft. Lauderdale in the evening so lots of time. First thing we decided to do was visit the Wynwood Walls - an art exhibit of graffiti on building walls - the area was previously warehouses, and now features work by well known street artists. We walked around for about an hour, including a stop at a coffee house. It was very warm, so we left after an hour.

Next stop was the Holocaust Memorial in South Beach. Beth said it gets great don’t miss reviews on trip advisor. If you drive by, you see a sculpture of a hand reaching up, but if you park and go in, you see all the people sculpted with around it, and around the base. If you walk to the center, you walk among the sculptures - very moving. The walls also have panels with victims names - apparently the names are those that were submitted to them.

After that, we decided to head up to Ft. Lauderdale for lunch and then the airport. Several years ago we’d spent Thanksgiving in Ft. Lauderdale, so were familiar with it. We knew the mall there had some good restaurants, so we headed there. We ended up at the Capital Grill having burgers - very good, and better than what we’d had on the ship. From there we went to Starbucks, and put gas in the car. (When we rented they said for 14.00 we could return without gassing up - since we put in about 5.00 worth, we were glad we didn’t do it.

At the airport, we were disappointed we weren’t in the same terminal, so Beth walked me to my security checkpoint, since it was nearer to the rental car return, and we said see you in November. We both then went to our delayed flights.

My first flight was about 20 minutes late, and I had a 55 minute connection in Denver. It looked like the gates would be about 5 apart and we’d only be a few minutes late, so I was told it wouldn’t be a problem, and there were 16 of us connecting to San Francisco. When I arrived in Denver the flight to SF was going to be 30 minutes late - and I think it was just announced, since I was checking constantly while on the first flight. It ended up, by the time left, being almost 2 hours late, and I got home at 2:00 am.

It was a fun trip, and now time to start thinking about my next one - I’ll be back from the Reflection in just under two weeks.