"Florida - The Sunshine State".... Really?!?!?!

                       

Well yes, we were at Miami over the weekend..... It was a nice, short 'n sweet, two-day outing! Miami is a beautiful city with beautiful beaches. I was amazed by the deep blue waters of the Atlantic!! The city is full of life.....The excitement and enthusiasm is contagious!! It is indeed THE Party City!!

The drive from Miami to Key West along "US 1" was very scenic. You get to see a lot of small islands called the "FLORIDA KEYS" on the way to Key West (Key West is the farthest inhabited Florida Key) There was some construction happening on US 1 and the speed limits were low, because of which it took us a little longer than usual... But it was worth every bit! With the famous sunset at Mallory square, shopping on Duval Street and all the thrilling water sports, Key West does quality as one of the most preferred vacation destinations!!!

While it was a nice getaway from the usual grind, our trip had its share of miseries too! Let me start from Day 1.... Our flight from Chicago to Miami was on Thursday morning 9:04 AM. We were at the airport by around 7:30 AM and joined the queue for check-in luggage. It was a big queue and we got to the airways agent after a long 30 mins wait. And guess what she says?!?!!? "I'm sorry you are TWO mins late and I cannot check-in your luggage"  Can you believe that?!?! She said we could get in, if we left our stuff back!!! How could we possibly do that?!?! And it wasn't like we were very late or something... we still had an hour's time before our flight took off. But they didn't budge!!! We finally had to postpone our booking to the flight at 5:45 PM :(. We decided to come home as we still had a lot of time in hand. And guess what was waiting for us on our way back home??!?! Our car got a flat tire!!! The next few hours went in getting that fixed. We then caught the evening flight to Miami, that put us at Miami late in the night. We wake up the next morning to heavy rains and thunderstorms :((((. We had already lost more than half a day because of the "missed flight", which we hadn't actually missed... and then the rains!!! It was not until noon that we could step out of the room. The rest of the day was much better.... Small stretches of sunshine in between the dark clouds!!! And every time it got a little sunny, we hurriedly grabbed a few shots of the beach and the places around..... And due to the bad weather, the water sports were also canceled in Miami that day :(. We saw around the city a little, spent some time at the beach, dined at a place on Ocean Drive, and of course, clicked pictures whenever the weather permitted !!! :)

We were all set to drive through the Florida Keys the next day.... The weather seemed pretty good and we were all excited!! We did the glass bottom boat tour at Key Largo - Thanx to my friend Shubha for having suggested this.... It was really good!! We got to see the coral reefs without going snorkeling or scuba diving!!! We were hoping that the weather would remain the same throughout the day.... But not everything we hope for, comes true!  By the time we reached Key West, it got cloudy again. Sunset at Mallory square didn't seem anything like what I had heard or seen on the Internet :((.  There were a whole lot of people at Mallory Square, waiting for the sunset. Everyone there seemed disappointed.... But only until the street performances started happening. The other thing that Mallory  Square is famous for, is the Street performers!! Those performers were really good... exceptional, I must say, at whatever skills and tricks they performed!!   There were jugglers, sword swallowers, silver men and many more! We then strolled around Duval Street - The most happening street in Key West! It is mainly a shopping area with lot of bars and cafes too! Duval street was indeed nice!! It had this, "very sweet 'n cozy" atmosphere. The weather didn't really bother us much here... :).  Got back to Miami late that night, packed up and reached the airport well ahead of time the next morning, to catch our flight back to Chicago...... We didn't wanna take any chances this time! :)

After such an experience, we wondered..... "Florida - The Sunshine State" Really?!?!?!

In spite of all the spoil sport the weather played, we did enjoy our trip and we did have a blast!! Another set of delays due to bad weather, on our way back, and we finally managed to reach Chicago last evening. Naveen was asking me .... "After such an experience, would you like to go Miami again some other time?" I said... "Yes, absolutely!! I loved Miami. But I would never fly!!! Even if I did, I would never carry check-in luggage!!" :) All in all, an eventful vacation!!