Welcome to Miami

On Friday, Kevin presented the idea of taking my sister and me on a day out in distant Miami. We were to check out the downtown area and perhaps Metrozoo. We would rely solely on public transportation to get us there and back. And, of course, Kevin would be accompanied by responsible adults, viz. his aunt and his grandmother.

On Saturday, Kevin's plans for the rest of the weekend opened up, so we planned for Sunday. Our party ended up consisting of Kevin, Kevin's aunt, me, my sister, Lisa, Kevin's sister Brittany (sp?), and Brittany's friend Lauren. On Sunday morning at 9:30, we caught the Tri-Rail, the tri-county commuter rail line. For part of the trip we had to get off and take a bus because they were working on the tracks. Finally our train made it to the Metro-Rail, Miami-Dade County's elevated rail system. Luckily, it's free if you have a Tri-Rail ticket. After going south a bit more, Miami came into view and we stopped downtown. We then proceeded to yet another transit system, the Metromover, a free, automated monorail-type thing that goes around the downtown-type area. That took us to the Bayfront area, where we finally got off.

I thought it might be cold, but I didn't bring a sweater on the chance that it would be warm and I would be stuck carrying around a sweater. As it turned out, it was fairly warm, with a cool breeze that got warmer throughout the day. It was already approaching lunchtime, so we had lunch at Bayfront Park. They had a mall-type place there, with a food court and everything. After that, we strolled among the buildings, basically checking out shops and things like that (well, dollar stores, really). There was this one department store called La Época that we spent slightly more than a few minutes in, though.

By this time we had figured that we wouldn't go to the zoo because it was way too far out west, and it would take most of the day to get through. So, having seen much of the heart of Miami, the more shopping-oriented people in the group wanted to take the Metrorail all the way down to the Dadeland Mall, so we did. We went to a Target there and then decided that that was enough because Kevin and I really weren't enjoying something that we could always do back home and even then sometimes got bored with anyway. (But Kevin did like how the signs in the store were in both English and Spanish, being a Spanish speaker himself.)

So after that, we went back up to downtown Miami. I suggested that we go to Southwest Eighth Street, better known as the semi-famous Calle Ocho. The main reason, though, was that I love roads almost as much as Kevin loves cities, and I wanted to take pictures of the ends of US 41 and US 441, which both end at that street. (441 and 41 and intersect with Calle Ocho together. At that point, 41 turns east along Calle Ocho, while 441 ends at the intersection. 41 continues for a few miles until it reaches US 1.) Our party walked quite a few blocks "so Jordon could get his sign picture" (namely, the end of 441). Then we wanted to go back east toward the nearest Metromover station, but we were too tired, so we took a bus. Somehow they let us all get on for free, I guess because we were confused and annoying tourists. As we got back to the rail station, I noticed that the end of US 41 was in sight, so I went ahead and snapped it as well.

So, we got to the nearest Metromover station, but it wasn't living up to its name. Specifically, the doors were open for people to go in/out, but it was stuck. Someone found out it would be an hour to get all the Metromover trains running again. So we went back to the Metrorail station a block away and had to wait a while for the next train. We could see by that time that the Metromover was working again, but we stuck to the Metrorail. It was kind of an interesting station. Brickell Station, it was. When trains stopped there, they played the beginning of Beethoven's Fifth over the speakers. On the street below was a garden dedicated to Ludwig van Beethoven. And across the street, perpendicular to the station and one block south of Calle Ocho, was a street named Beethoven's Ninth Symphony Street.

Anyway, we took the train downtown, mainly because my sister, the Starbucks fiend, had seen a small Starbucks that she wanted to go to. I thought it would be a good opportunity to try it out also. I had a mocha Frappuccino and a mint brownie bar or something. It was actually pretty good. I had previously had a negative experience at Starbucks when I had ordered a coffee that tasted like coffee. My sister advised me to have something different, like the mocha Frappuccinos she guzzles down at home, so I did. After that we sort of wandered by some condos and saw where the river enters the city. By then it was getting to be sundown.

We had a little more time to spend in the city before we had to make the 7:30 Tri-Rail northbound. Brittany said she was hungry and wanted to go to a Burger King toward the end of Calle Ocho. So we went there. Even though I heart Burger King, I wasn't hungry in the least, thanks to Starbucks. So we stayed there for a little while and took the Metrorail back to the Tri-Rail/Metrorail station, where we were 20 minutes early. On the Tri-Rail, we didn't have to take a bus for some reason. When we finally got off near home, we got off from the third floor of the car as fast as we could, but it wasn't enough, and the door closed on Lauren's arm. The train even started moving, and this guy was trying to open the doors. But then the train stopped, and Lauren could get out. And that was pretty much it.

From the Tri-Rail station to downtown Miami and back, we managed to use public transportation exclusively. Since we took advantage of the Metrorail (free with a Tri-Rail ticket), the Metromover (always free), and the Metrobus (free if you act like you don't know what you're doing), how much did it cost for a round trip all the way to Miami? Thanks to discounts and the fact that it was Sunday, the Tri-Rail round trip ticket cost only $2.

This next link may disturb some people, so if you're really sickened by the sight of violence and guts, move on. It's the Zapruder film of the John F. Kennedy assassination, but it's been stabilized to remove the shakiness of the camera. Have a look (Quicktime, at least 1024x768).

Swanksigns is a site that makes fun of weird signs.