Florida - Miami

Firstly I want to thank our lovely neighbours at home who gave us an 'experience' voucher (like Red Balloon) as a farewell gift. We decided to use it in Miami and we thoroughly enjoyed our time here thanks to the tours we bought with the voucher. 

We arrived late to the hotel in Miami around 10pm, exhausted after the very long day and drive from the Kennedy Space Centre. We were up early for our first tour. We took Uber to the tour meeting point but arrived to some deserted streets in the back of nowhere? Ooops, Deb had got the address slightly wrong - she had a NW (north west) in the address which changes the location considerably. Thank god we didn't get out of the car and wander around. Quick redirect, Uber gets us to the right location. We took a vintage car tour of Miami, the beach area and Wynwood. 

The driver was a lady and she gave us a good overview of the car. I found the whole experience quite cool - two chicks riding a vintage car with a lady driving us around. The car was a 1960 Ford Sunliner. It was a solid beast, squeaked in the suspension and had a big steering wheel to help turn the very average power steering. She started the engine and it just rumbled - it was bloody awesome. I was grinning in the back seat and chuckling inside. 

Holy hot wheels Batman

Batman couldn't resist taking a seat in the front. It was very similar to the bat mobile with it's long length and sharp deep corners. I desperately wanted to jump over the door and into the front seat like Batman does into the bat mobile  Batman will speak to Alfred about getting the bat mobile out for tours of Gotham - the flame out back would give that extra boost for tourists !! The tour was 2 hours and lots of people looked, waved and took photos. We saw many of the Miami areas, the art deco architecture, the beach, the Wynwood art district. Miami is not what I expected at all - it has an old look to it because of the art deco look and they retain that look on all new developments. I was expecting a Gold Coast look and feel but this was not the case. There were some very different areas and they have been developed and improved over the years. The Wynwood area is an art district. The buildings have artwork drawn on them and cafes are popping up to draw more people to the area. We covered so much ground and learnt a great deal from this tour. Our driver was excellent, so knowledgeable and I can thoroughly recommend this tour. 

 

We took a walking food tour through Little Havana in the afternoon. Little Havana is a neighbourhood of Miami and home to many Cuban immigrant residents, as well as many residents from Central and South America. Little Havana is named after Havana, the capital and largest city in Cuba. Little Havana is noted as a center of social, cultural, and political activity in Miami. It is the best known neighborhood for Cuban exiles in the world. It is characterised by its street life, with restaurants, music and other cultural activities, mom and pop enterprises, political passion, and great warmth amongst its residents. We only just discovered that US residents can now travel to Cuba as many of the hotel customers were flying there. It's quite exciting to see Cuba opening up - it would be a great place to see one day.

We had a little bite to eat before the tour and I wanted to try the coffee. Deb was up for a bravery challenge too so we both ordered expresso's with a cup of milk on the side. Holy hot shots, it was strong, REALLY strong. We added sugar and sipped away at it. The little cup held about 3 shots of expresso. We eventually poured it into the cup of milk and it was beautiful. This was indeed the best coffee I've had since being in the US. Now Deb's not a huge coffee drinker so you could imagine how 'pinged and wired' Deb was after drinking 3 shots of that black fuel !! She was a new girl. 

The walking tour took us along Calle Ocho, or Eighth Street, which is the unofficial capital of Miami's Cuban community. Known for its food and restaurants, Cuban coffee windows (or ventanitas), cigar shops, music and cultural activities, Calle Ocho is the main artery of Little Havana.

The walking tour was excellent. The people on tour were funny and chatty and we ate lots of things along the way - empanada, cuban sandwich, cuban sweet and savoury pastries, more cuban coffee, ice cream and sugar cane juice. We learnt that cuban coffee is much stronger than Italian coffee so that's why it tasted pretty rough on the tongue - I think I have hair on my tongue now from drinking it. They drink coffee like the Italian's - buy it from a window, chat to strangers and go back to work. They don't usually sit down and chat socially like we do over our milky cappacino's and lattes. 

Gotta get me one of those hats.

Rooster'ing around.

Another coffee shot

So what's the roosters all about??  From what I understood, every place has its icon. Well roosters seem to roam 'everywhere' in Cuba and here so someone as a joke decided the rooster should be an icon. And it stuck. They are everywhere and really colourful. 

One of the real highlights was visiting a cuban cigar 'factory' It was a small shop (don't let the word factory mislead you) that has won world famous recognition (like an Oscar) for rolling great cigars. The pictures below show Don Pedro Bello who owns the Bello Family's Cuba Tobacco Trading Co (1528). Since 1886, five generations have been involved in the Cuban tobacco industry. The tobacco is Cuban seed grown in the Dominican Republic and hand made by Cuban master rollers. Mr. Don was sitting there, waving as we took photos - he was a total ROCKSTAR !! I did have flashbacks to the old 80s movie 'Weekend at Bernies' but Mr. Don was very much alive.  I was fascinated watching the cigar rollers - the shop didn't stink too bad of cigar smell but I just relished knowing that I was seeing something special and legendary.  

The tour continued and the next stop was the Domino Park. Story goes that it started 'in the day' when men (older men) would wait there under the big shady trees while their wives and children would be in the cinema next door. They played domino's but they play 9's, not 6's. Today it is busy with older people, mostly men, playing domino's. They have a council member running a little booth inside the area. The rules include no gambling and you must be over 55 (but they're not totally strict on that bit). I watched in awe as this was serious business. The banging down of those domino's and the shuffling for a new game. They were not phased or distracted by our sticky beeking or photos. There were at least two walking sticks per table and I reckon there were about 100 people there. 

It was a hot day walking around, quite humid but great to be in this climate. One of the cool stops was this famous bar and lounge called Ball and Chain. It's been closed and shuttered up for 60 years but it was re-opened last year. It has live entertainment and a great open bar atmosphere. It has a fabulous history of entertainers. Here, we were treated to Majitos. God it was good, cold, refreshing and tangy.

As the tour came to a close, we stopped by a local fruit and veg shop. There is a fruit here called 'plantains'. A plantain, is one of the less sweet cultivated varieties of the genus Musa whose fruit is also known as banana. Plantains are always eaten cooked, sometimes along with their leaves and fibers, and are usually large, angular and starchy, in contrast to common or "dessert" bananas, which are typically eaten raw and without the peel, usually being smaller, more rounded and sugary; however, there is no formal scientific distinction between plantains and bananas. After removing the skin, the unripe fruit can be sliced and deep fried in hot oil to produce chips. We never got to try the chips but we saw the plantains in the fruit shop. What a bloody rude shock you'd get if you bit one of those if you thought it was a banana !!

I also tasted/drank cane sugar juice. Being a North Qld'er, I'm very used to seeing cane sugar farms but I've never tasted cane sugar raw. So this was a first. It was sweet but not overly. I couldn't drink much of it but it was nice with ice.

 

We totally enjoyed the walking food tour - again, we learnt/saw/ate and did a lot of great things. Again, I would highly recommend this tour.

To finish on a funny, here are some signs I snapped along our travels. If you can't read the sign on the bottom, it says FUDD-RUCKERS - it's a chain of burger joint we saw in the airport. 

Not sure I'd want to buy something here?

Florida - Kennedy Space Centre

Another footprint in the goal for 50 states. We enjoyed an excellent weekend in Florida. It was a super early start, up at 3 to get the 7am flight. There have been long delays at security checkpoints in the airports due to low staffing so we planned heaps of time. Naturally, the airport was quiet, the line was empty and we had over an hour and half to wait. But, better that than stressing being late. We left the dogs with a dog sitter. They are very lovely people and their little girl was so excited to have the dogs over. They have an old chocolate labrador and they all get on fine. I packed their food, beds, leads and toys and some instructions. I forgot the lady was a vegetarian so when I handed her a container of fresh mince, she had the worst look of horror on her face. I felt quite bad – she said her husband could do the mince at dinner time.

Orlando. We were pretty tired after the early start and neither of us remembered the flight taking off from DC. I only woke just prior to arriving in Orlando about 2 hours later. We hired a car and drove straight to Kennedy Space Centre at Port/Cape Canaveral. I was pretty excited about seeing this place. They recommend 2 days to see it properly so I expected to jam as much as possible in our half day. 

The Rocket Farm

Future of Lunar Modules

Where are we? 

We took a 3 hour tour which took onto the military base where all the rocket launch pads are - there's about 40 of them. We saw the launchpads for the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions and for many of the various rockets developed such as Saturn and Delta. I was so disappointed that there was a real rocket launch the day before. I had hoped it would be delayed and we might see it but sadly not. That would have been just awesome to witness. They have converted some of the 'blockhouses' (launch rooms next the launch pads) into museums. The old technology was still there and there were loads of photos and info. The equipment reminded me of my early radio tech training days. 

The pics below show the plaque out front of the blockhouse where Alan Shepherd was launched - the first American into space under Project Mercury with a Redstone rocket. The rocket is a life size replica of the space vehicle on the launch pad. 

 

 

Saturn V Rocket

The Saturn V was developed to support the Apollo program for human exploration of the moon and was later used to launch Skylab the first American space station. The Saturn V was launched 13 times from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida with no loss of crew or payload. As of 2016, the Saturn V remains the tallest, heaviest, and most powerful (highest total impulse) rocket ever brought to operational status, and holds records for the heaviest payload launched and largest payload capacity to low earth orbit (LEO) of 140,000 kg, which included the third stage and unburned propellant needed to send the Apollo Command Service Module and Lunar Module to the Moon. (thanks wiki).

Saturn V Rocket burners

The Saturn V rocket was massive. The photo doesn't show this well but it was just huge. Some of the other fascinating things we saw were real lunar modules that have returned to earth. We saw and touched the heat shields - you can see how they burnt on re-entry and the material. We saw the Apollo modules and wondered how they all squeezed in those tight spaces.  There is a rocket farm where all the rockets stand upright to show the various rockets used throughout the space years. The space museums had all kinds of memorabilia - space suits of the many astronauts, moon rock, tributes to the Apollo 13 'successful failure' and Apollo 1 where the 3 astronauts died in the fire on the launchpad during testing.

I was a very excited little engineer to wander through all this history. Space flight technology fascinates me and Deb bravely followed me to all the little places so I could see/do/touch and photo everything. Batman made an appearance and definitely wants to meet with NASA to discuss adding a rocket to the bat inventory. Certainly would give Superman a run for his money.

 

The day was getting late and it was passed the time we planned to leave. But I desperately wanted to see the space shuttle Atlantis. I never expected to ever see this place so I may as well stay a little later and see the shuttle. It was one of those 'ohhh' moments for me. They show you a video in a big theatre about the shuttle development (way back from 1971 !!) and then the next room is a huge amphitheatre type thing. Screens on all walls and roof. It showed the Atlantis, launching, flying and landing. The screen at the front then becomes see-through and behind it is the Atlantis. We both got goose bumps. There it was - the huge piece of most advanced technology ever built. Atlantis flew 33 missions from 1985 - 2001. 

 

The Atlantis museum also housed the Hubble telescope and lots of space shuttle artefacts. There was also a tribute area for the astronauts lost in both the Challenger and Endeavour shuttle disasters. Very sad indeed, I remember when they happened.

After Atlantis, we did a quick buy at the gift shop where I got a souvenir space shuttle, a cup and a jumper. I was very proud of my shuttle cause it has wheels down and the doors open on top so you can see inside - such a geek I know. So it was a late finish at the Space Centre around 5.30pm and we had a long 4 hour drive to Miami.

Read the next post to see our fantastic day in Miami.

Sun's Out for Gameday

Hooray for the sunshine and warmth !! We've got a break from the rain at least for a week. It's pretty soggy in the forest park but it will slowly dry. I took Cricket for a run yesterday. He is certainly a good little runner and good company. He just trots along and I worked on him a little to run beside me rather than pull me. He was great. We came home and grabbed Macey for the usual daily walk. It's now routine to jump in the creek for a short swim - Macey loves it. 

Spent the past few days getting organised again after the 2 weeks of work. The dogs are glad for the company again too.

I made a loaf of bread for a lady at Deb's work last week. Bread is so sweet and terrible here that most Aussies buy a bread maker and bake their own or, suffer the bread here miserably. I made her a loaf and she has since bought a bread maker. Check out these little choc she bought me to say thank you. Yum. Malted milk, passionfruit, strawberry and honey bee. 

I've been learning to season our meats for dinner. It's amazing what some garlic powder, herbs and spices can do for your meat. So much better than plain ol' gravy or sauce and healthier too. The bbq is great to have - the neighbours will be envious of the smell of our bbq.

Wanted to make pasta this week but ran out of eggs. I took Deb shopping on Sunday - she saw how challenging (frustrating?) it can be. I go to three different places to get all the stuff. Anyway, Safeway had no eggs - not one bloody egg ! So we ran out at home. And I need eggs for pasta. I might ride my bike to the shops and get some. We don't have any nearby small shops except for one which is quite special really. It's only that or off to the supermarket.







And it was game day again - a midweek afternoon game. How very civilised. I thought it would be a quiet game but no, no, no, it was full capacity 38,700. We played the New York Mets and got beat again 2-0. Last night Nats flogged them 7-4 with several home runs !! I am really jinxing the Nats as I've not seen them win in any of the 3 games I've seen. We had super tickets thanks to Bob (my man of mystery) bargaining with people selling their tickets on Craiglist which his like Gumtree classifieds. We were in the shade and even had padded seats. We were most happy on this day of sunshine and warmth. And we were so excited to get ourselves on the bigscreen. They were filming people dancing and carrying on and, there we were, doing the bamba, Peter Allen Rio dance rolling our wrists and arms...whatever, we got on the big screen and got a good cheer from the crowd. Pity we couldn't catch a photo of it. I also caught a pre-game photo with one of the racing presidents - Howard Taft - these guys are so funny. Watching them race mid game is just so funny and exciting. Anyway, Nats lost the game, we had a great day out and got ourselves famous on the big screen. What more could two Aussie ball fans want !! The other crowd pic shows a bunch of fluro high -viz vests - not sure who they were but they stood out in that big sea of Nats red !!

  

Rain, maps and sossy rolls

Oh no it's raining again....and so goes the classic Supertramp song. Apparently this is not 'normal' weather - god I hope not. It's been about 20 days of rain with a few days of cloudy weather in between. It's been a wet weekend so we all have cabin fever. Poor dogs have not had their regular walks and the guilt treatment is working well. 

I finished my two weeks of temp work and hopefully I can continue to get small blocks of work in the future. Things at home have fallen by the wayside so next week will be busy getting domestic chores done and doing daily dog walks!!

I went to an English shop today called the Pure Pasty. They make traditional English pasties, sossy rolls and pies. I dropped Deb off to meet a friend so I drove to this heavenly place. I enjoyed a sossy roll but found it a bit bland really. But I had a pastie too and it was quite yummy. I also bought some frozen sossy rolls and pies and, some real bacon and beef sausages. It was a little expensive so not something to indulge in regularly but, the experience was well worth it. It's about an hour away from home so prob won't visit there often. Still, it's nice to know it exists.

 

There was a shooting outside the White House on Friday. A guy walked up to a security checkpoint, showed a gun, wouldn't drop it so the Secret Service guy shot him. He's in critical condition. The whole area and surrounding streets went into lock down for a short while. Shootings occur on a regular basis and people are a little immune to it. I can understand that - they just continue to go outside or shop regardless of what's going on around them. Why let a little gunshot stop your day ?? Trump has also vowed to remove all gun-free zones in the US. He fully supports the shooting lobby here - typical. But he's such a hypocrite who says anything to be popular, they are showing his tweet after the Sandy Hook school shooting where he tweeted that he supported Obama's call for tighter gun control. Suddenly his views have changed. Dickhead !!

Onto a nicer subject - food. I made a Caramello Slice this week. What a sugar rush. It was two blocks of caramello choc melted down with condensed milk and biscuit crumbs to form the base. Then a layer of chocolate poured on top. I put some M&Ms on top just to complete the sugar overdose. It was hugely popular at Deb's work. I was surprised - it was just so rich but everybody loved it. They are such good guinea pigs when it comes to eating my cooking experiments.

We bought a big USA map. I applied some of my engineering skills, stapled it on a large piece of cardboard from the pile of ex-furniture boxes and added the finishing touch of a coat hanger to hang it. I guess we'll start putting coloured pins in it to show our 'footprints'. I have drafted the 3 year travel plan and have got all 50 states covered. I don't quite know 'how' we'll do it, but we have a plan! 

We also bought a GPS tracker for Cricket. It's a small metal thing that attaches to his collar. Given he runs so damn quickly and can get out of sight quickly in the forest, we thought we could at least use this to locate him if we lost him. Being a black dog makes him harder to see also. It's better than nothing. We are also going to put one of our Garmin watches on his collar one day to track his walk - we're keen to see his stats. He's just a fast runner and goes all over the place. I've been working on his recall (coming back to me) by carrying a bag of hotdog sausage bits - it has improved him staying a little closer, returning to me when called and he's walking beside me better too. Food is such a good reward for him and Macey.

It continued to rain all day Sunday - seriously, ALL day. I did some baking - made a chocolate and avocado cake from a recipe in the Triathlon mag I subscribe to. Wasn't too bad actually. It's like a brownie with avocado mixed through it. I then made some banana bread from a good friend's trusted recipe (thanks Kriddy). 

The dogs just wouldn't settle - cabin fever was raging. There was a small break in the rain so we took off on a walk. It was quite wet and muddy as you could imagine after a weekend of rain following the last 2 weeks of rain !!  Dogs loved it though. Macey was dirty with mud - she found a mud patch and decided to lay down in it. I think she was doing this to guarantee a swim to wash it off. Check out the mess in these pics.

 

Off to the baseball again this week - the forecast is sunny and warm. I am thoroughly enjoying the baseball and don't mind watching the games on TV. Well, cuppa tea calls me with some of that choc avocado cake. I've been watching a tv series called Crossing Lines - very interesting. 

Gameday

The exciting stuff first....it was game day. We spent Sunday arvo at the baseball watching the Nats get beaten 5-1 by the Miami Marlins. The crowd was 36,000 which Deb and I noted as the number of people who watched the PM debate at home last week - is that funny or disappointing? The weather was cool but the wind was cold. Apparently summer does still happen here?  We had good seats up high, they were cheap but still very good. Went with friends and just had a great time. Deb's now got her hat and we enjoyed a few hot doggies.

My friend likes the star batter called Bryce Harper - he was voted MVP (most valuable player for those non-sporty types) last year unanimously which has never been done I think. Only 23 years old and he's been playing for Nats since a young bloke. But I have to say, he's struck out and done nothing of greatness each time I've been so I'm yet to see him in fine form. Maybe I'm jinxing him?

The things that go on with the game are quite incredible. The pitcher ball speed is usually 90+mph = that's fast !! The umpire wears a suit-like uniform. If there's a good batter up and the bases are loaded or a run might be scored, the pitcher decides to throw 'balls' intentionally so the batter can't hit them. The batter stands there leaning on his bat, and the pitcher throws direct to the catcher. So batter walks after 4 balls and limits the moves on the diamond. Pretty cheeky I thought, bit like bowling underarm in cricket.

The kids LOVE the game. They always have give-aways and the kids are such devoted little fans. Very cute as they all dressed in their gear and bring their little catchers mit so they can catch a flyball should one fly off the bat into the crowd. Not me, I'd probably get hit in the bloody head cause I looked away for a minute.

The metro train to/from the game is packed but everyone gets along well enough. 

This week has been quite long and busy. I did some temp work and will do again this week. Wow, it has just knocked my routine out and I felt quite disorganised. The extra $$ will be helpful for travel adventures. 

We bought a cheap rowing machine on Amazon to help burn those calories. Below is the before and after shots. My little bat cave is filling with toys - but hard working toys !! 

 

Funny thing...saw a sexy shiny advertisement brochure in the hairdresser...it was called Ruff Plastic Surgery. I looked twice - the surgeon was called Ken Ruff so that's his name. Not quite promoting the standard you might want with plastic surgery !  

I was talking to another Aussie at work, she tells me Ben and Jerry's ice cream is from Vermont. I didn't know this. She was the queen of ice cream it seems so she knows her stuff. So I caught the bus home that day and in the bus shelter was this sign...my god, I was drooling a the ad. 

The one in the picture is vanilla with choc chips, caramel ice cream with a thick caramel core and coconut through it. It looks devine. So now I have to find this and scratch my ice cream itch. Better take a handful of lactose tablets first.

We plan to travel up to Vermont and Maine later so we will definitely be checking out Ben and Jerry's ice cream factory.

Deb took Cricket for a huge run yesterday. They went along the creek line and ended up doing around 11kms. Cricket LOVED it. He just runs, and runs, and runs, and runs...and you get the drift. Gotta love this little selfie effort. He's currently asleep next to me on the floor, snoring. Such a lovely little boy. Normally it's Macey but she'll be out with Deb. 

We have a smorgersboard of concerts we can go to. I am trying to get tix to see Aretha Franklin in August. Paul McCartner is coming, Bob Dillan, Boy George, Cyndi Lauper, Chicago...and a long list of others. 

Been busy at night planning an upcoming road trip with our friend - we'll call her bike-stand-girl - she's visiting in a few months and we are off on a trip to the south. 

Okey dokes, no more to tell for now. I need a hot shower and an early night. 

Working cramps my lifestyle

I'm doing some Temp Work for the next few weeks and wow, it's just cramping my lifestyle !! No naps, no Greys Anatomy, no internet...but I"m getting good pocket money to help pay for our travel adventures. So, the blog has been quiet cause I'm working. Stay with me though, I will maintain at least one blog a week if not my usual two.

 

Tabouli

The rain finally stopped today, it's been a week. How will we cope in snow? Not many walks with the dogs and we've all got a little cabin fever.

I went and saw the Batman V Superman movie and loved it. There is a monthly movie morning group so I joined them and it was good to meet new people. 

I had my haircut too but had a different girl to last time due to last minute change of appts. She took ages but did ok. I feel quite scalped but it will grow back as always. My usual hairdresser said hello and asked how I was settling in - had I gone to the local shopping mall. I said no,not yet. She said, very casually, oh you must go, but not today cause there's just been a shooting there !! My jaw dropped and I said what? I came home and yep, the news was plastered with it. A guy shot a few people the day before and that day too. They caught him, a police officer I think, sounded domestic violence related. I think the people killed were bystanders. Christ, this place is crazy. 

We went to a garden party at Deb's 'boss' house. It was great to see it and despite the weeks of planning that she was involved in and the week of wet weather, it was a very good afternoon of party pies, hotdogs and sausages. I met the house chef and she was a cracker with a great sense of cheeky humour. We popped in to say goodbye and she said here, take some leftovers. We said no, but she said yes, there's heaps and I've got plenty of tabouli, lesbians love tabouli !! We laughed - since when? So we have a big bag of tabouli in our fridge with mini quiches.

Cricket and Deb went for their Saturday morning long run. It's the quickest pace Deb runs each week. They run 10k and Cricket is just not puffed at all. I do my own run and then walk Mace afterwards. We met Deb so did a family walk together. Cricket was off doing his steeplechase in the forest as if hadn't just run 10k. We are thinking of getting a little GPS tag on his collar given we lost him briefly last week. 

It's Mother's Day today. My mum passed away quite a while ago. I think of her every day and am thankful for the life she gave me in order to ensure I could enjoy the life I have now. While she loved Volvos, Collingwood and country music, she was still the best mother a kid could have. 

I saw this picture on Facebook and it kinda fits me pretty well. 

Driving in DC is - bloody frustrating to say the least. The roads are poorly maintained, potholes are just bigger than big and dodging turning cars or cars double parked - is an obstacle course. If you take the inside lane, you get cars stopped and waiting to turn left. If you take the outside lane you get cars double-parked to...grab a coffee, pick up someone, talk on their phone on maybe just park there cause they can ! So it's lefty righty lefty righty all the way. So all this just upsets the flow of traffic, creates dodging and jostling, constant beeping of horns and delays. 

I start my two weeks of Temp Work tomorrow. Will be shock to me and the dogs - no company for them all day and me having to work a full day. But, I'm very excited to be near some coffee places that sell good coffee. I think my body has gone cold turkey long enough.