#there were countless friends (including mine) decked out in pink and it was so so so sweet to me | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thegrassisaalwaysgreener · 5 years

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Bienvenidos A Miami

Will Smith’s “Miami”, was forever in my head for this 5 night, 6 day trip to Miami, Florida. My friend Lafonda, who I had met at my previous Crossfit gym, had mentioned she was probably going to Wodapalooza (more details on the event coming up) in January and asked if I was interested. At this time, it was November and we had already had a huge snowstorm and I was on my first of 2 weeks up north and itching for a vacation. She was planning on going with a few others from the gym to hang out and support one of their coaches. I was all on board and booked my flights almost immediately (thanks Aeroplan☺). We were heading out two days before the actual event started and staying an extra day to see what the city had to offer. While I was a bit nervous, as I had just had knee surgery in the beginning of December, I had applied to volunteer to save on admission costs but was wait listed. Lafonda and I lucked out and scored a pair of free tickets for the weekend (which saved a few bucks). We were set to fly with Air Canada to Miami to stay in a sweet Airbnb on the water on the 16th, returning home to the cold winter late on the 21st.

Wednesday January 16, 2019 (Woah! Haven’t typed 2019 much and it looks funny) Lafonda and I had booked early morning flights so that we could have a full day to enjoy Miami. Our flight was just after 0700 so we left bright and early to drop off the car and have plenty of time at security. We ended up meeting up with Andrea, Craig and Des who also go to the gym and would be some of our roomies for the weekend. They seemed super lovely and we chatted until it was time to board. The flight from Toronto to Miami is about 3.5 hours and was relatively smooth. We all grabbed our bags and hopped in a cab just after 11 to our Air bnb- which cost about $30 American. We were staying on Brickell in the residences attached to the W hotel. Thankfully, the hotel was able to store our luggage so that we could explore sans suitcases. We headed out and wandered around the downtown core. Since most of us had never been to Miami, it was fun to just mosey around – once we had coffee of course. We made our way to the Bayside Marketplace on the water that was filled with shops, restaurants and bars. It was really neat to look around and enjoy the nice weather. We grabbed some lunch at various restaurants in the food court (which made me feel like I was in a foreign country or somewhere, where everyone was trying to get us to buy their food). Other than the birds that flocked us, we enjoyed our lunches before making our way back towards Brickell to check into our Airbnb. The airbnb was part of a larger organization who rented out “residences” attached the W hotel. We called our contact for the Airbnb and she let us into a beautiful apartment overlooking the water with two bedrooms and two bathrooms. There was plenty of room for everyone and there were even extra couches we could have slept on which was great. We started to get all settled when we realized that the wifi password and room number did not match up with what we had in our confirmation emails. After some back and forth with our contact, we realized we were actually in the wrong apartment! We gathered up all our stuff and headed down the hall to our actual apartment. Our apartment was just as nice, however a bit smaller. There were two bedrooms with a futon couch that doubled as Lafonda and mine’s bed. We rested and hung out while waiting for Nancy and Nikki to arrive. Once they arrived, we all decided on heading out for a yummy dinner down the street in the Brickell City Centre. It was an outdoor-esque mall with some very high-end stores, boutiques and restaurants. We settled on Tacology, which was a great choice! The menu was on the ipad (similar to AYCE Sushi restaurants) and took us a while to figure out. The open-air feeling of the mall and restaurant was really fun. The ambience, decorations and general atmosphere were great. We mixed and matched tacos, salsas and guacamole until we were all full. My favourite part of the meal was definitely the ceviche that Lafonda ordered. It was spicy, fresh and delicious. After paying the bill and getting our geographical bearings, we headed up the street to Publix to grab groceries. The Airbnb only provided a limited amount of toilet paper and paper towels so we grabbed the essentials, along with breakfast foods and snacks of course. By the time we made it home, we were all pretty tired so we figured we would start setting up for bed including inflating the air mattress for Andrea to sleep on. Sadly, both of the mattresses that were brought seemed to have holes in them. The girls headed out to Target to grab a new one while Craig and I watched videos on weightlifters and the copious amounts of calories they eat in one day. Once the girls returned, we all headed to bed after a very long, but fun and exciting day.

Thursday January 17, 2019 It was a bright, sunny, gorgeous day in Miami! We were all really excited about today as we were heading to Bayfront Park for Nikki to check in and then wander vendor village before heading to South Beach. We also had to keep our eyes peeled for all of the Crossfit “celebs” we would be seeing. It was really neat to just roam around and see so many fit people (including many we follow on social media haha). The highlight of the morning was meeting the beautiful and kind Sara Sigmunsdottir. She is smaller but somehow more jacked in person than she appears on social media and was more than happy to pose for a photo with us. We hopped in an Uber to take the 15 or so minute ride from Downtown Miami into South Beach. South beach is known for its beaches, nightlife, celebrity chef eateries and of course the shopping. Our first stop was… Duh, the beach! Since it was pretty cold at home, we were all excited to enjoy the sand and water. After making a pit stop at the art deco clock on Ocean Drive (mostly to use the washroom), we checked out the workout areas and beach for a bit. Some of the exercises people were doing were really funny to watch but it was nice to see people out and enjoying the nice weather. The water was definitely chillier than I had anticipated… I was decked out in my bather and was hoping to go in the water. It was a hard pass for me but I did enjoy the sand and water on my feet. After countless selfies, we walked along the path in between the water and Ocean Drive before realizing we were pretty hungry. After wandering up and down Ocean Dr., enjoying the cool art deco facades of the hotels and shops, we settled on one of the standard restaurants for lunch. Our meal at Majestic was less than stellar but it did the trick and we continued on our wander of South Beach. As a group, we had decided on a few places that we had wanted to check out (the gelato store from Jersey Shore, the Tattoo Parlour from Miami ink and the Lincoln Road Mall). En route, to these places (sadly the gelato store is now a really neat looking hostel), we went into an innumerable amount of Surf Shops to check out all of the fun 80s gear they had. It seemed as though the theme for WZA (and all of South Beach) was bright neon pinks and blues. Our “tour” of South Beach continued down to the “Love Hate Tattoo Studio” and then down towards the Lincoln Road Mall. Since we missed out on the gelato at the Jersey Shore Gelato place, we grabbed some on our tour of Espanola Way. This street was probably my second favourite part of the day (second to being on the beach of course) as it had a great vibe filled with lots of cute shops and restaurants. The gelato we grabbed at Gelato-Go was delicious and satisfied my sweet tooth. We wandered around towards Lincoln Road and enjoyed the shops and a coffee while catching up on our social media and checking for any WZA updates for Nikki’s exciting first day. Since Nikki had to be back for athlete briefing, we ordered an Uber to head back towards downtown and our Airbnb. Our Uber arrived and it was hands down, the best one I had ever been in. Neyla, or Rose as she preferred to be called drove a Chevrolet Suburban that was decked out with a disco ball, mardi gras beads and fun party headbands. She had little signs that said things like “need a charger?” or “let me know what kind of music you like”. Rose was the best and even played my request of “Miami” as we rolled into our Airbnb. We grabbed her number so that we could utilize her awesome ride throughout the trip. After relaxing and putting on an extra layer, we headed back over to Bayfront Park to get some shopping done before the briefing. We wandered around the vendor village and met some of my fave athletes including David Hippensteel and got a signed copy of Jason Khalipa’s book AMRAP mentality (and a cheeky photo). While we were there, Nancy had received a message from a friend who was volunteering on the medical team stating that they needed additional volunteers. I, was of course, totally down to volunteer and headed over to meet the gentleman that was heading up the team. After asking me a few questions (like what my credentials were and if I could start in the am), I was in and was to be there bright and early. Once the briefing was over (and so many amazing athletes had walked past us including Jess Griffith, Alec Smith and the buff BKG), we headed to the Whole Foods down the street to grab dinner and some snacks. Whole Foods was SO busy and was filled with so many fit people. It was actually funny until we noticed there was barely any food to chose from. In any case, we grabbed food and enjoyed our dinner at home while planning for an exciting day of competition (for Nikki), volunteering for me and spectating for the rest of the crew.

Friday January 18, 2019 Day 1 and go! The majority of the crew was up and out early to watch Nikki and the rest of the athletes do a Run, Swim, Run over at Crandon Park. Lafonda was a bit under the weather so she headed to a walk in clinic and I headed over to the park to meet the rest of the medical crew. I should probably give a bit of an explanation of what WZA (or Wodapalooza) is. WZA is one of the biggest fitness festivals in the world. It started in 2012 with only 145 athletes and 500 spectators for the one day event. Since then, it has been become the premier Functional Fitness Festival (it could not call itself a Crossfit event until this year when it became a Crossfit Sanctioned event). Now it is a 4-day event involving over 1500 athletes, 30,000 spectators and 500 volunteers. It started off with the Gauntlet this year, that allowed anyone and everyone to throw down on the same courts as the best of the best followed by a Weightlifting Faceoff and then the 3 day Crossfit competition. This event is not just for the Elite athletes but hosts over 30 divisions including Scaled, RX, Intermediate, Teams, Masters and Adaptive athletes. Its vendor village is second to none with tons of big names in the Crossfit world including RomWod, RPM, Reebok, Zevia, CBD Medic, Born Primitive and so many more. One of the best parts about volunteering/competing is all of the free swag you get at many of the vendors. Ok, back to the fun! While Nikki and the crew enjoyed the morning at Crandon Park, I was getting to know my medical team. I met Josh (the Medical Lead) and he showed me to the volunteer tent where I could check in and received my swag (which included new black Nano 8.0s). I grabbed my breakfast (individually packaged meals by Fia’s Fresh Meals, that had to be put in the microwave and were made up of eggs, a form of breakfast meat and sweet potatoes). Once I was fed and all set, I met up with the rest of my team to figure out where and when we were starting. The medical team at previous WZA events has not always been the best and didn’t have much in terms of policies. Since the Crossfit Games format has changed, so have the legal implications of volunteering as a medical staff. From what I was told, many people were skeptical about volunteering as a medical staff due to these issues. Our main role was decontamination (decon for short) and handing out band-aids. As a Canadian RN, I was only to assist in life threatening times (e.g CPR) and encourage any other injuries to be seen either in clinic or by the EMTs that were on standby. Not that this was much different from my previous Regional experience, but not having the coverage in terms of liability and insurance was definitely something to consider. The athlete medical tent was located in the middle of Athlete village on the other side of the security fence that was manned by a guard. It was much quieter (for the most part) in athlete village as the only people back there were the athletes, their coaches, volunteers and those working in the CBD Medical Tent. Of course, there were washrooms (that were pretty digusting by noon each day), hammocks, seating areas and volunteer services that housed our check in stuff, shirts and food. After we finished our tour of the area and had our roles, our team headed out to Flagler, which was the largest and main stage. Our head, Slab was still away at the Run, Swim, Run event so he would meet up with us soon. We grabbed our gear buckets (filled with disinfectant spray, towels, gloves and band-aids) and took our spots. For the most part, we would just stand, watch and wait. If there was an issue on the field, the plan was that the primary judge would flag down the head judge who would then flag us down. In between heats, we would check the equipment for blood or bodily fluids and give them a clean. During the heats, we would hang out and enjoy the amazing show of athletics. During the day, we would spell each other off for breaks. Unlike Regionals, there wasn’t a specific rotation or anything, which made things easier in some ways and trickier in others. I was able to get out a few times during the day to get some shopping done and hang out with the crew. Since meals were provided for us (the pulled pork and yuka fries were definitely my fave meal of the weekend), we would have to wait in the huge line to warm them up (3 microwaves for hundreds of people) before heading out to enjoy the time with friends or the action. Each team (Flagler, The Deck and Bayside) stayed at their location for the whole day despite talk of rotating the groups throughout the day. Flagler field was probably one of the most fun places to be as you got to see a bit of everything from the scaled athletes to elite and teams. The crew had decided to go to Wolfgang’s Steakhouse for dinner which I sadly missed since I didn’t finished “work” until just after 2000. I grabbed dinner at the park and headed over to pick up the key from everyone at dinner. One of the downsides of the Airbnb was that we only had 1 key fob for all of us, so we had to keep in touch and figure out who needed the key and when. I was exhausted, sweaty and wanted to shower so I started heading back to the Airbnb for the night. We enjoyed a chill evening, catching up on our days before bed (Lafonda sleeping on the air mattress to spare me from getting her gross cold- thanks;)

Saturday January 19th, 2019 Day two of competition was on! I had to be at the park bright and early (7am) so I tried my best to be a quiet mouse and head out without waking anyone else. I was scheduled to be at the Deck (smallest stage, newest and in the middle of the park) with my team however, the first event wasn’t until later in the morning so I headed to Bayside to help out. The first event of the morning was another swim event (apparently the run, swim, run was more of a wade and this swim was going to be a lot more challenging than the day before). After the swim, athletes ran back onto the “field” and took on the ski erg and heavy double unders. The amount of swimmers that needed help was scary. There were 4 fire/rescue staff out on the water for the dozens of swimmers that were out each heat, which made me, as a former lifeguard very uncomfortable. Despite my discomfort and concern for the swimmers, we had a good crew (the Scaled Canadian Broads/Baysite B*tches) and the sun was shining. It was going to be a glorious day and I even had a few moments to relax, bayside in the hammocks. Once more staff arrived and the events started on the Deck, I was back over there to help out and ensure safety there. Our team was a bit short staffed as two members of the team were dealing with a medical issue. I was sad that I was going to be missing out on the Christmas Abbott meet and greet (Christmas is a Crossfit athlete and author of the Bad Ass Body Diet as well as Big Brother Contestant). Thank goodness for Lafonda who was able to stand in line and meet her and even get an autographed poster! After watching some amazing scaled athletes and teens, it was time for me to grab some lunch (C4 Xtend BCAAs are not considered meals despite drinking 20 a day it seemed). I grabbed my lunch and caught up with the group, who had just finished watching Nikki’s morning event and were wandering around. Funny enough, we ended up running into Christmas Abbott! She is just the sweetest! I was so happy that we met her and were even able to sneak in a photo and a selfie that she posted to her insta(twice;)). After my break, I headed back to the Deck to watch some amazing intermediate/RX athletes and some masters compete. The Deck events were finished around 6 pm and so I joined the rest of the crew at Flagler to cheer Nikki on in her last event of the day. It felt good to be up in the stands, cheering others on (and resting my very sore feet and legs). After Nikki’s event, I went to Bayside to help out with the final events. The last heat of the final event of the day was the first of the Adaptive competitors that I had seen and was in awe. They divided the athletes into groups of standing and wheelchair along with scaled and RXed. Each Athlete had an “aid” of some sort to help them either hold their wheelchair so they could lean forward to pick things up or just for support. This event involved the ski erg and skipping which was amazing to watch. To me, this is what the whole event is really about, being inclusive of all ages, stages and abilities. I was really inspired after an amazing 2nd day and was reflecting on my own abilities post knee surgery (which pales in comparison to having lifelong limitations in many ways). Once I was finally done for the day (around 2000), I headed over to meet the group at Farfalle for an Italian dinner. I had anticipated that they would be inside, seated already, however we ended up waiting 30 mins after our reservation This was not ideal for a large group of hungry people. The service was subpar and the food was average but it was nice to be all together to catch up on the day’s activities. Niki (1K as opposed to 2 Ks;)) had flown in earlier in the morning and I hadn’t spent much time with her, so it was very nice to catch up. After figuring out how to split the bill (or attempting to do so), we grabbed our take out cannoli and walked the 10 mins back to the Airbnb. Once again, we had a bit of a hang out before heading to bed for a final day of competition, volunteering and spectating.

Sunday January 20, 2019 Today was the last day of competition- So bittersweet! The forecast had called for some rain this morning so I was anxious to get over to Bayfront before the torrential downpours started. And boy did it ever! It poured rain for quite some time and bouts of lightening were seen and thunder was heard all throughout the park. We had to go into the Emergency Action Plan and anyone that was at the park had to head across the street to the Intercontinental Hotel. Luckily, it was still early, so most of the athletes and spectators weren’t there yet. After sweeping the park and telling people that they had to leave, we made our way across the street for some shelter and coffee. It was quite the sight to see- so many people just sprawled out on the floor of the lobby with huge lines for the Starbucks (of course) and the restaurants. We waited in the 30 min or so line at Starbucks for treats and coffee before sitting down to wait out the storm. The time for us to return kept changing but we had planned to be back for about 10am. The hope was that the rain would stop and we could get everything cleaned up and ready for the 11 am start. I had told the crew at the Frat House that the morning event was cancelled (which meant so was Nikki’s first event) so they headed to do some shopping in South Beach before coming back for the final event. One of the head Medical team members and I walked back around 10 am and were almost told we couldn’t go back in. He smoothed talked his way in and we hung out in the medical tent, reorganizing and cleaning up while enjoying Lesser Evils Paleo Puffs (The non cheese, cheesy ones are bomb if you haven’t tried them). Around 1045, everyone else was allowed back in, which meant the events would not realistically start by 11. Not that I am an event planner, but I thought it was interesting the events they decided to run and which ones they cancelled. To me, it would’ve made the most sense to cancel the whole first event and continue on with the 2nd event and ensure the Elite, Masters and Teens got to compete as they were the ones who were competing for Games spots. In any case, the event restarted around 1145 and I was stationed Bayside. Once the rain clouds left, it ended up being a lovely day and I was glad to be near the water. I caught up with the group for a quick photo by the spectator workout area and Reebok sign before grabbing a sushi burrito from Wasabi Juan’s (which was underwhelming but still better than eating the provided food I had eaten for 3 days). I headed back to Bayside to enjoy the rest of the afternoon watching some amazing athletes. The final group to take the Bayside court were the adaptive individuals who again, were amazing. Once the final heat was done, there were group photos and even an emotional proposal in front of everyone that made us all tear up. While we were gathering up our stuff, I noticed that Ben Bergeron was on the court with one of his younger adaptive athletes (who kicked butt). I was so excited to meet him as I listen to his podcasts and have read his book and think the way he trains his athletes, is a family man and maintains a well-established box is amazing. Of course, I could barely speak while we were chatting but it was awesome to meet him and take a selfie with him and his daughter Harley. After kicking myself for not saying more to Ben, I wandered around picking up a few more things (mostly things from Reebok that went on sale) before heading to Flagler to watch the Elite teams. I found the Elite Teams amazing to watch, especially because a lot of my faves were on the field kicking butt. I ended up at the end of the field watching from the sidelines, nice and close to Crossfit Mayhem Independence and the 4 time Fittest Man on Earth, Rich Froning. It was incredible to watch them all in the final event that involved the assault bike, muscle ups, the barbell and of course, the worm. Once the teams were finished, it seemed as though tons of spectators left so I managed to cut through and join my friends in the stands (after stepping in a huge mud puddle). It was super fun and exciting to watch the final event for both the elite male and females. Obviously, we were super stoked to watch Pat Vellner kill it but also excited to see some of the other athletes hyped up for the last event. The ladies race was also super exciting as Sara and Tia were both doing super well and were almost tied until Sara was no repped on a clean which opened the margin for Tia to take the event and then take the ticket to Madison (which was already hers due to a 90 some-odd point lead). I really enjoyed the final events and all of the energy at Flagler but was super disappointed in a lot of the fans that didn’t stay to finish watching the event. There were still plenty of great athletes (even some games athletes), on the field competing and tons of people were leaving. Not only were they leaving, but they were blocking the way for those that wanted to watch. I sat and stayed until the timer went off out of respect and interest to see who would come in under the time cap. I ended up getting lost from the group but managed to find Lafonda and grab all my stuff from the medical tent and say my goodbyes. We caught up with the rest of the crew at the Intercontinental and ended up having dinner there at Toro Toro. There were tons of people watching the football game and cheering on the Pats (cough Ben Bergeron). We had a lovely final dinner together of burgers and beers (for some) before heading back to the Airbnb for our last night. Lafonda and I spent a while organizing all my sweet swag (including a workhorse and media WZA shirt) and attempting to make it all fit into our bags (thank goodness her’s had tons of room in it). We started to clean up and organize the main areas as Lafonda and I would be leaving early in the morning for a tour of the Everglades and Nikki and Nancy had a mid morning flight. We finished our packing and organizing before enjoying our last night with the beautiful views from our Airbnb.

Monday January 21st, 2019 Sadly, it was our last day in beautiful Miami. Thank goodness it was a picture perfect morning! We were up and ready for our exciting day around 8 ish. We had some breakfast before cleaning up and finalizing the packing. We said our goodbyes and made our way down to the W to give them our suitcases for our day trip. As a confession- I LOVE CSI Miami and in particular, Horatio Caine (which Craig did a great job of mimicking for my benefit). I had always wanted to check out the Everglades, especially on one of the airboats featured in the opening credits of CSI. I had gotten us a Groupon (tour with 305 Miami) so we had cheap tours of the Everglades including a gator show that I was looking forward to. Lafonda was a good sport and came with me. We made our way back to Bayside, where we were being picked up and checked in. Since we were a bit early, Starbucks was a must visit (until I was told I couldn’t bring my coffee onto the bus). The drive was about an hour towards the Everglade National park. During the drive, we learned random facts like the Miami International airport sees 1000 flights a day and there is an estimated 2 million gators in the area. Apparently, more people die of vending machine accidents than gator accidents per year (Not sure what that says about ‘Muricans, but I digress). Once we arrived, we went to watch the Gator show with Chris (Who was super cute, smart and I think single;)). We learned many fun facts about the gators like that they can hold their breath for 6 hours but don’t breathe under water, that in Florida there are both crocs and gators but that gators are different in their shape, snout and often colouring. Gators have 80 teeth at one time and go through many hundreds throughout their lifetime. They can bite down with the force of about 2 tones, which is pretty crazy. During the show, Chris spent time up close and personal with the gators and showed us their teeth, how hard they can chomp (the sound is scary) and some other neat physical characteristics of the gator. After the show, we wandered around and checked out the other small animals in the area (including some raccoons, a pig and a goat), before getting in line to hop on our airboat. If you don’t know what an airboat is, it is basically a flat-bottomed watercraft that is propelled by an aircraft-type propeller. It is powered by either an aircraft or car engine and is typically made out of aluminum. They are WAY louder than I had thought but also smoother than anticipated and can go about 60 mph. Our tour guide for the boat tour was Dylan and he was super funny with a quirky personality. He made some really great dad jokes and was very knowledgeable about the Everglades. The Everglades are roughly 4000 square miles of a large ecosystem with many smaller interdependent ecosystems. Most people think the Everglades are just a big swamp when it is actually a slow moving river. It is an endless river of grass, mainly Cattail grass that helps with filtration by absorbing the impurities from the water, which is pretty cool. We saw many different types of wildlife including American black vultures, turkey vultures, a few other birds and of course the gators! We learned a bit more about the gators including the fact that they have lateral vision, eat most fish and small animals. Dylan also taught us about the spatterdock, heart shaped lily pad looking plants that can grow up to 6 feet tall and are a good indicator of how deep the water is. We learned how to tell if there was a caterpillar living in the plant (called a bonnet worm which Dylan pretended he was going to eat). Dylan also showed us how to make a gauze type band-aid from the cattail grass , which was super neat and helpful. The 2nd grass that is found in the Everglades and is called saw grass which can be very sharp if you rub down the grass. If you take a closer look, you can see the saws that can cut you. If you rub up the grass, it feels like a normal piece of grass. The whole boat tour was about and hour in total before we made our way back to the meeting spot. We hopped back on the bus for the 45 min drive back into the city. Unfortunately, about 10 minutes into the drive, there was an issue with the bus’ engine. There was a bit of delayed communication from the driver so we ended up sitting around waiting to find out what was wrong for a good 15 minutes. Apparently a belt had come loose and we were unable to continue the drive in our bus. I decided to take a snooze for a bit, since we were told it was going to be a 20-30 min wait for another bus to get to us. I managed to nap while Lafonda chatted with the lovely mother-son duo from New Zealand on our tour. Once I woke up, I joined them and got to know that he had actually come in 7th in the Teen division at Wodapalooza. It was nice to hear about his experiences in not only the comp but also in the states. We discussed some spots in NZ that I had been to and a bit about their hometown of Christchurch. They were super lovely and made the long wait for a new bus more bearable. Finally, after about an hour and a half of waiting, a new bus arrived to take us back into Downtown. We managed to make it back downtown before rush hour to meet up with Craig and Des who were chilling near Bayfront after a few delicious mojitos. We made a few last minute stops before heading towards the Brickell Centre. We grabbed coffee and enjoyed some chill time before grabbing our stuff at the hotel. Of course, Neyla was our driver to the airport and we enjoyed some great tunes and an updated decor (she had swapped the pink decorations for blue). We were a bit worried about the airport due to the TSA agents being on strike, so we went to the airport with plenty of time to spare. Somehow, we were through security in less than 15 minutes- even quicker than Lafonda and her VIP line. We had known that our flight was delayed so we found a nice spot near our gate to hang out and drop our stuff. Unfortunately, most of the vendors and restaurants closed around 9 so we had less of variety to choose from for dinner. I had a delicious Cuban sandwich from Earl of Sandwiches that was way better than expected. We boarded our flight around 10pm or so. I napped and listened to a podcast for the 3ish hour flight back home. We were all super tired and very glad to make it home just before 1 am. Security was a breeze as was grabbing out bags. Lafonda and I waited a few minutes for my car to be dropped off before heading home on the sketchy roads (thanks to the huge snow storm the GTHA got). While I didn’t have the typical “Miami” experience, I had a great trip. I always like a trip that involves fitness, good food, weather and some learning. I would definitely go back to Miami for a more relaxing vacay and to spend a bit more time chilling on the beach. Until next time Miami!

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