Miami Florida!

Hello! So last time I did Rome part #2 and I'm not done with with Rome #3, I did some really cool thing, stay tuned!

So let us get into the Miami adventure! Vámonos!

It all starts with a normal school day, all us kids were half asleep, while the teacher was babbling (this is NOT what you sound like Mr. M! Ha ha) and then the phone rings.... A few kids start to peek up, hoping that it was a call to let one of them leave from the chamber we call the classroom! The teacher put the phone down and said, "Rourke, you're leaving" I knew what it was, I was going to Miami! I sprang up almost touching the ceiling, ran right to my locker, got my bag and headed out. I got into the car went straight to the airport, we got on the plane and then in what seemed link a blink, we were all in Miami, Florida. We hopped out of the plane, hopped into the car, hopped out of the car and were in our hotel room all by 11:00PM, what a day!

The reason why we went to Florida is that my dad had to do some work and my Mom and Me decided to tag along. So onto the next day, while my Dad was at a meeting, my Mom and me decided that we wanted to go to the Zoo. It wasn't just any Zoo it was the Miami Zoo! What's cool about it is it's the only subtropical zoo in all of the USA. The zoo boast over 3,000 animals, it is 3 miles around and has over 750 acres of space, it is a big place! So big me and my Mom decided we needed to rent on one of those two people bikes, at first I got to steer, but we got yelled at so my mom had to drive. We saw Cheetas, Alligators, Monkeys, Zebras, your typical Zoo animals. What was really funny/cute was this baby Rhino, who was playing with a ball, or rather was trying to play but he couldn't get it out of the water. He kept trying to push it out with his head, but it kept bouncing bouncing back in. Finally he got enough speed and pushed the ball up and out of the water, however he now had too much speed and the ball rolled all the way down into the moat that protected us from him. The poor Rhino was so mad about his ball and was hitting the sand and getting so angry, we felt really bad but at the same time couldn't stop laughing. Hopefully the workers came in and got it for him. We biked around the zoo for about 2hrs and then headed back to the hotel to find ice cream. Surprisingly we couldn't find a local ice cream place, only a Haagen Daz, but it worked and we went for a walk on the beach, or rather we tried. The beach was sooo windy that we were getting sand in our ice creams, so we had to leave. The rest of day was quiet, we went to dinner at a local sushi place and crashed into bed not long after eating.

"Ring Ring!!" I squinted my eyes and got up from the bed, looked at my iPad clock and was ready for a new day. I rattled my parents awake and we packed up our stuff, we were moving hotels but before we left SoBe we were going to have coffee with our good friend Mr. Ibra, who is a friend of ours from NYC. Last year we all were in Cuba together for Uncle Jeff's birthday (you can read about this trip in my first blog post). Mr. Ibra was going to run his 125th Marathon over the weekend! He is an amazing runner and a lot of fun!

We drove to the hotel and checked into the Mandarin. We unpacked and headed poolside for lunch. I had a pina colada, my first one in Miami, Yummy! After lunch we had to return the car that we rented. We didn't think it would take too long, but boy were we wrong... The traffic was so bad, the Miami Marathon was happening the next day and many streets were blocked off so we were just stuck, not moving at all. The car rental was only about 1 mile from the hotel but by the time we got back (we ended up walking back) it was several hours later. That night we were all so tired we got room service and crashed, though I did get to go for a quick night swim!

Saturday was the best day, we spent the whole day hanging out at the pool swimming. We ordered poolside lunch, sat in the jacuzzi and I must have spent four hours in the water swimming! By the time we headed up to the room it was around 6 pm and we were all tired but in a good way, it was a great way to spend our last day in Miami.

Now for a fun fact! Miami county covers 2,408 square miles of which 354 square miles is water. The western half of the county forms part of the Everglades National Park, one of the nation's most extensive wilderness preserves.

TIPS FOR MIAMI FLORIDA!!

Here are a few tips for Florida:

Florida weather can be very unpredictable. One minute you are sitting peacefully at a pool, and then the rain starts and the lightening starts booming, AND IT SEEMS LIKE ITS THE END OF THE WORLD!! And then just like that the sun comes back out! So dress in layers and carry an umbrella

A few things to pack for your trip:

Sunscreen, you probably can figure out why. Pack a bathing suit, almost every time I go to Florida I go swimming. Bring a book or anything that will entertain you for the pool. Pack mostly Short sleeve shirts and one long sleeve, a sweatshirt (it does get cold), a nice pair of pants just in case you go to a nice restaurant. My last and final tip is while in Miami make sure to get Cuban food, it is delicious!

Hello! So I just want to say thank you all so much for reading everything I write and looking at the website. Thank you so much for taking the time to leave me so many comments I appreciate all of you who helped make this happen, I want you to say thank you to my Mom who edits and puts up the photos and my Dad who gave me courage and made my website. Thank you. -Rourke

PS. You guys are the best! Also gals!