Friday, October 18
Mike Leahy was my roommate both in the hotel and on the ship. We were due to arrive at the Miami airport within minutes of each other.
At the airport, the hotel shuttle took a long time to arrive. It finally did, I got on, and sent Mike a text message. Thirty seconds later, at the next terminal, Mike got on the shuttle.
The Howard Johnson Plaza Hotel was about 30-45 minutes from the airport, and bless them, they tried so hard to be a fine hotel, but it was kind of ratty and the service was strange. Mike and I met a few new people, including Damon Capehart, then went to the hotel restaurant.
The door was open and the restaurant was large, but the only person was an employee talking on her phone. She seemed surprised to see us. We told her we wanted some food, and she took us back to the lobby and said we'd have to sit there, not in the restaurant. Then she went to fetch some menus. After she brought us our menus she took our drink orders, even though it would have saved her a trip if she'd done that when she'd seated us. Heck, she could have brought the menus with her the first time. Our drinks turned out to be a couple of 12-ounce cans and glasses of ice. The food took a while, and it was okay.
Later that afternoon, the restaurant was closed. I wonder if it was supposed to be closed all afternoon, but had accidentally been open, and they didn't want to turn us away when we walked in. It was all very strange.
John and Judi Heath were worried they would miss the wedding. They, too, had waited a long time for the hotel shuttle, and we strongly suspect there was only one shuttle making that long round trip. However, they arrived with plenty of time to spare.
We gathered in the wedding room. Some of the cruise guests were there: Pamela Salem and her friend Mary, and Carole Ann Ford and her husband Harry. They were surprised to learn that they were about to be guests at a wedding.
Sylvester McCoy arrived. After a long flight from England, he was feeling poorly and suffering from jetlag, but he rarely let on. He served a dual role in the wedding, first giving away the bride, then acting as the best man.
Dan and Wendy missed a golden opportunity. When Joey Reynolds, who officiated the wedding, asked, "Who gives this woman away?" the answer should have been, "Yes."
Anyway, the bride and groom traded some silly vows, kissed, and danced to a slow cover version of "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)."
After the wedding was the Bon Voyage Party. Guests took the stage to answer questions. Sylvester was up about another four hours beyond the wedding, answering questions and signing autographs, still never letting on how fatigued he was.
I ate dinner with the wedding party, and got to know both the Murphys and the Wisemans. Even better, I got to sit in the restaurant this time. Yay, me!
Photos and videos of the wedding
Photos and videos of the Bon Voyage Party
Saturday, October 19
We boarded the Carnival cruise ship Liberty. The ship had two dining rooms, Gold and Silver. Our group always ate in the Silver dining room during the second dinner, at 8:15.
After dinner this first night, we all met one another. We gathered in the ship's library (library = a dozen books, three tables, and wallpaper designed to look like bookshelves) and laughed a lot. Those of us who volunteered to write fan fiction separated into teams, and I placed myself on the team writing a story featuring Susan. Because I could.
Sunday, October 20
We sailed the ocean. Captain Jack Sparrow did not attack us. He must have heard I was on board.
Some of the group began congregating in a club near the dining room in the hour before dinner. It had live music every evening. I joined them some nights, including this night. The company was great, but I've never liked places that play the music so loud that conversation is difficult (what's the point?). On this night, Kirsten took Sylvester onto the dance floor.
Photos and videos of Saturday and Sunday
Monday, October 21 -- Cozumel, Mexico
Caves!
I signed up for the Secret River shore excursion, but I seriously underestimated the time it would take to get off the ship and make it to the end of the pier. Long line getting off the ship. Very long pier.
However, I think they make their schedule with stragglers like me in mind, and all was well. I joined eight others from our Doctor Who group. The people in charge wanted groups of ten or less, and we made a group of nine, so it all worked out.
Carl jokingly complained a couple of times that in the hairy chest contest the night before, he had come in second. He felt he should have won. After he mentioned it a second time, I said, "Let it go!" He said, "No!"
Our van broke down halfway there, on a dirt road in the middle of the rain forest. I told our guide, "You don't understand! This is how every horror movie I've ever seen starts!" But they had a replacement van within a few minutes, so it was all right.
Our destination was a cave system, discovered in 2008 by a Mayan who owns the land. How did he discover the caves? He was hunting an iguana, chased it down a hole, and voila.
We put our stuff in lockers, changed into swimsuits, rinsed ourselves off under a shower, and put on wet suits and life vests. Then we each put on a helmet with a light attached.
Before descending, we stopped for a brief Mayan ceremony involving smoke. I don't remember much about it (and no, my lack of memory isn't from the smoke; it wasn't that kind of smoke). This ceremony was intended to make sure the Mayan deities and traditions were respected before entering the caves.
The cave system is enormous, and only about 17% of it has been explored. There were no lights mounted within the caves, but the route for tourists was clearly marked, and at one point we ascended some wooden stairs to get us up a four-foot drop. The only light came from our helmet lights and from the guide's flashlight. Although we traveled a particular route, there were constantly many other openings to either side down which a person could have wandered easily. It was very labyrinthine.
We spent part of the time hiking and part of the time wading or swimming, for an underground river permeates the cave system. Surprisingly (to me), this river does not flood when it rains. It moves very slowly, and it contains fish. We saw a catfish at one point. Sadly, Gollum was not there. Or maybe it's just that we didn't see Gollum. Hmmmm......
The river provides the drinking water for the people who live in the area, which is why we showered before descending.
At one point during the tour, the river was too deep to stand, and we just floated along for a while.
We were not cold, as one would think. The water was perhaps a little cold, but we were wearing wet suits, and above ground, it was a blazingly hot day. The cave and the water felt very pleasant.
The stalactites and stalagmites were beautiful. Also descending from the roof of the caves were very long tree roots from the rain forest above, sometimes dangling, sometimes intertwining with the stalactites, sometimes embedded in the rock face like a lattice.
I was last in line, and I often turned around to look behind me. Seeing nothing but a dark cavern in front of me, illuminated only by my helmet light, was somehow eerie and exciting.
At one point, we turned off all our lights and sat silently in the water for a few minutes, surrounded by complete darkness, just feeling peaceful.
An official photographer accompanied our group, and we could purchase these photos after the tour, which I did.
We were then treated to a buffet of Mayan food, which was delicious.
Back to the ship. I think it was this night that I was taking a walk of the upper deck and ran into Andrew Cartmel, who loved watching the sun set. He said he would be there every night to watch the sun set, and I have no doubt he was.
At dinner, Pamela Salem became fixated with her wine glass, but not in the way you'd think. The wine refracted the light from the ceiling, focusing it onto the table cloth in a shifting pattern that looked like the face of a cat opening and closing its mouth. So, of course, she started talking to the cat. And, of course, when someone in my vicinity starts talking to a table cloth cat created by light refracting through her wine glass, I'm gonna film it.
Photos and videos of the cave excursion
Photos and videos of the rest of Monday
Tuesday, October 22 - Belize
Mayan ruins!
We were off to see the ancient Mayan city of Altun Ha. Our guides were Oscar and Areesa (not sure of the spelling of her name; her nickname was pronounced ree-see, and I'm not sure of the spelling of that, either). They were both very informative.
I was one of a number of people who, as a group, bought and shared a can of bug spray. (John Heath was also part of our bug spray group, but he got bitten anyway. John's a computer programmer; he should know better about debugging.) That spray can ended up in my bag since I was the last to use it. Its ultimate fate was to be tossed into a trash can in the Miami airport because I couldn't take liquids on the plane.
We spent a nice and very informative day touring Altun Ha, and it was lovely. The sky was clear and the day was very hot. Most of us climbed to the top of a steep pyramid near the end of the tour.
John and Judi ate at a restaurant on site which I would have eaten at also had I seen it earlier. Instead, I bought some dried banana chips, which were pretty good.
After returning from Altun Ha, we had some time before we had to be back on board, so Stephen Ballew, John and Judi Heath, and I started to walk around. There are people hanging around the port who attach themselves to tourists, appointing themselves unofficial tour guides, eager to be friends, doing it all for a tip at the end of the day. They're so gregarious that it's difficult to say "No" to them, and they know this perfectly well. A guy named "Frank" joined us, and we had a meal at a local restaurant. Frank was very nice and friendly, good to talk to, but I would still rather have been without the unasked-for tour guide.
I really enjoy Belize. I have been there twice, and each time I felt spiritually at peace, but I'm not sure why. There's something about the people, the scenery, the look of the houses, and the feel of the cities and towns. Everyone seems so hard-working and yet very laid-back at the same time, and very friendly. I get the feeling that I could walk almost anywhere in the country, knock on any door at random, and make a new friend; I don't know that I actually could, but that's the feeling I get.
Back to the cruise ship:
The ship had a nice water slide which took ten to twelve seconds to get from top to bottom, and I rode it this afternoon. They wouldn't let people go head-first, only feet-first. I had forgotten that Carnival cruise ships use saltwater in their pools, and at the end of the slide I shot out into a small pool and got a load of saltwater up my nose. I liked it so much I did it five more times (holding my nose at the end).
That night was the first of two formal nights.
Wednesday, October 23 -- Isla Roatan, Honduras
Dolphins!
We swam with dolphins at The Roatan Institute for Marine Science.
Dan Harris arranged an extra dolphin session just for the Doctor Who group, since RIMS's regular sessions were sold out and some of us (like me!) had missed getting tickets.
This was the event I was looking forward to the most, as swimming with dolphins has always been on my list of things to experience.
Throughout the Caribbean, there are dozens of companies which offer the opportunity to swim with dolphins. If Dan hadn't arranged the extra session at RIMS, I might have signed up for one of the dolphin excursions in Cozumel on Monday with another company (thus missing the cave excursion), since it was something I wanted to do so very much. However, some of these companies neglect their dolphins, keeping them in tanks and in poor conditions, and I would never have given any of those people my business, so for a variety of reasons, I'm grateful that Dan got us that extra session. RIMS is a professional institute, and they treat their dolphins very well.
We were separated into small groups, and the dolphin with my group was Maury. Maury is the child of Gracie, which was the dolphin in the group next to ours. Gracie is also the dolphin with whom the Doctor Who cruise swam the last time they were there, with Wendy Padbury.
Dolphins are beautiful, intelligent, graceful, and so very fast and strong. It was wonderful.
After returning to port, we had several hours before we had to be on board, so I went zip-lining.
They strapped about twenty pounds of harness and clips to me, then had me watch a safety video. The video was in English, but the man in the video spoke with such a pronounced accent that I didn't get most of it. The only thing I really understood was that I had to grab the wire above and behind me if I wanted to slow down (the zipliner wears thick gloves). Then I was ushered into the back of an old pickup and away we went. I was the only customer in the truck.
The pickup climbed slowly up the steep mountainside, along a dirt road through the rain forest. We got out and hiked about another hundred yards further up the mountain, and the trail was very steep. We reached the base of a platform, but I had to pause to catch my breath and drink some water from a cooler which they very thoughtfully provide at that spot, precisely for old obese people like me.
I asked them how long the zip line was, and they said it was just over 900 feet.
The platform was about twenty feet high and reached by a spiral staircase, and the entire thing, staircase and all, was painted a deep forest green. When we reached the top, the sign indicated that the zip line was only about 150 feet or so (I forget the exact number). I didn't question this; since I was new, I assumed I was being put on a beginner line or something.
Two guides accompanied me. The first took off down the line while the second hooked me up. One strap of my harness was connected to the zip line, and a safety strap was connected to a second steel wire running parallel to the zip line. He told me to hold the straps with both hands. I immediately thought of the safety video, which had told me to keep one hand on the wire. When I mentioned braking, he said, "Oh, no, we'll do that for you." And away I went.
It was really fun! I was about 60 feet above the ground, zooming through a corridor among the treetops. At the end of the line was a braking mechanism, and the other guide caught me and steadied me. The braking mechanism is about twenty feet from the end, and it's easy to become absolutely certain that you're about to die because you feel like there's no way on Earth you can stop before becoming one with the platform wall, yet it does stop you just fine.
The guide moved me ninety degrees around the platform to the next line, and that's when I realized what the 900 feet was all about -- the entire trip was done in stages, from platform to platform. I had been expecting one long 900-foot wire. On each platform, one guide would go ahead to the next station while the other would clip me in, then follow me.
The guides' accent was sometimes difficult to understand. Since ziplining was second nature to them, they also moved quickly, and they kept assuming that I understood when I was clipped on and that it was okay to go, which worried me a little. I kept taking an extra second to verify that it was okay before I launched myself into space. Call me weird, but it was important.
Just as I was getting used to it, they changed it up. On the third segment, the guide said, "Okay, on this one, you'll have to brake," and he started to shove me off.
"Wait!" I cried. "Time out!" I was not expecting him to say that, and they were rushing me along so quickly that I was flustered. I wanted to be absolutely certain I had heard what I thought I'd just heard. I took a few extra seconds to make sure my right hand was around the wire above and behind me, and he verified that that was what I needed to do, and I was flying again.
Why did they not have a braking mechanism on this stage? Beats me.
I had no experience braking on a zip line, so I misjudged it. I stopped myself about ten feet shy of the platform and was just hanging there, so I had to turn around so that my back was to the platform, reach up to the wire, and pull myself along hand over hand. (That was something else I actually understood from the safety video.)
I had to brake on one other segment, and on that one I got it right.
I don't know how many segments there were. It felt like a dozen, but I doubt it was that many. Somewhere near the end, the guide said, "Okay, this one's fast," and I thought, "You mean the others were slow?" But I had no time to chitchat because the next moment I was zooming through the jungle.
On the second-to-last segment, they told me to spread my arms wide and smile because they would be taking my photo. So I did, and of course I bought the photos after it was all over.
From the moment I paid the fee to the moment I collected my photos, the whole thing took about 45 minutes. It was incredibly fun!
I walked with Ashlee and Alice back to the ship. Standing in line to board, either Ashlee or Alice noticed a towel featuring a drawing of a Dalek, hanging in a cabin window just above us. I would learn weeks later that this was the cabin of the Bergman family.
Photos and videos of the dolphin excursion and of zip-lining
Thursday, October 24 -- Grand Cayman
Stingrays!
We piled into a boat and took off into the Caribbean. The boat had two decks and a supply of punch, some of it spiked with rum. After about 45 minutes we reached a spot where the water was not very deep. Stingrays gathered, which we expected, and a wild dolphin arrived, which we did not.
The stingrays are capable of hurting people, but they rarely do. They're gentle, graceful creatures, moving slowly, close to the sea bed. However, they can move very fast when they want, as we saw when the dolphin chased a few around. The dolphin was having loads of fun chasing stingrays; whether the stingrays were having as much fun being chased by the dolphin was difficult to say.
That dolphin wanted to play! It rubbed its face against the anchor and anchor rope like a cat on a cardboard box. It frolicked in the sea, enjoying people and the stingrays alike. It had a nasty scar on its side, evidence of some long-ago disagreement among marine animals. Near the end of the session, I touched the dolphin as it swam past.
Shortly after getting into the water, I saw an unattended life jacket floating on the sea. When I tried to pick it up, everyone stopped me because it was holding a small bucket of fish which the trip organizers used to attract the stingrays.
They captured one and held it so that each person could pet it and have his or her photo taken with it. It was very docile, but flapped water into the face of a couple of people (myself included) who probably held it wrong.
One stingray went up Wendy Murphy's leg, all the way up to her knee. I tried to get one to do the same for me, but I was unsuccessful. Only later did Wendy tell me that she'd managed to get the stingray to do that by placing a piece of fish between her toes, which, of course, I did not think to do.
After about 45 mintues we said good-bye to the stingrays and to the dolphin. We went to another spot where the water was deeper and snorkeled for about half an hour, then came back to port.
That night was the second of two formal nights. The wedding party dressed in their wedding finery so that the ship's photographers could take formal photographs. Everyone gathered in the atrium for the group photo and for some dancing (not at the same time), and Kirsten pulled me onto the dance floor, which was so sweet of her. Assembled for the group photo, Sylvester kept us entertained by leading us in a rendition of the Doctor Who theme song, then shouted "Exterminate!" to the whole ship. It was grand.
I wandered the ship that night, seeing different people at different points. I spent some time with Gabby, John Connors, Damon Erickson, Kirsten, and Kerry. ("Absolute Evil. Nazis. Pickles." You had to be there.)
I then spent some time in the piano bar with Dan Murphy, his parents, Wendy, and Stephen Ballew. I requested "Can't Fight This Feeling" by REO Speedwagon, and the pianist didn't know it! It has one of the prettiest piano openings of any love song ever and was a number one hit, and this guy had never heard of it. Amazing. What are they teaching kids these days?
But he sort of made up for it, because later (after Wendy and Dan's parents had left for bed) he played "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" by The Pretenders, the song David Tennant made a video out of and which fans have been singing at Gallifrey One. I took to the center of the floor and began marching in place just like in those videos, and Dan and Stephen quickly joined me. We were quite the spectacle, marching in our tuxedos and suits and ties. A woman who turned out to be a cruise director in training joined us halfway through. It was grand.
Dan headed for bed, so Stephen and I wandered the ship. We went to the upper decks for a little while, but went back inside when it began raining. Since I was still dressed up, it occurred to me to have my photo taken by a professional photographer. There were several set up by the shops and the casino, but the thought had occurred to me literally just minutes after they had all closed, so that didn't happen. That's why you get the dim, crappy photo taken by my phone, instead.
Stephen and I found a couch and talked for a few hours. Twice, we were joined by a cruise passenger who was not a member of our group but who had heard of us and wanted to talk Doctor Who. One of these people had a daughter or niece, I think, who was on board and wanted to meet Sylvester McCoy, and we told him where to find us in the dining room the next evening, but I don't know if they came by.
I think I finally went to bed some time around 3:00 AM.
Photos and videos of the stingray excursion
Photos and videos of dancing and dressing up on Thursday night
Friday, October 25
We sailed the ocean.
Johanna had brought Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Monopoly and Doctor Who Uno, and about ten of us gathered in the library to play during the morning. Johanna, John Hawkins, Ashlee, Joel and myself played Monopoly. Dan Harris took over for John for a while. At the table next to us, Mark Cafurello, Wendy, and Dan Murphy played Uno.
There was a miniature golf course on the top deck, and I had intended to play it this day, but the top decks were closed due to high winds. The ocean swells were a little high and the sky was overcast. So the mini golf was the one thing on the trip that I wanted to do but didn't get to.
By the pizzeria on the Lido deck, I talked for a long while with John Connors, Gabby, Stephen Ballew, and (I think) Ashlee and Alice.
Then I took Gabby and John to my cabin, because Gabby wanted to view an inner cabin to see if it would affect her claustrophobia, as she was thinking of getting an inner cabin on future cruises. As we left, we saw the Bergmans, whose cabin was across the hall, placing luggage in the corridor. We asked to see their room since they had a window, and we visited with them for a few minutes. Then we went up several decks and John and Gabby showed me their cabin so I could see what a cabin with a balcony looked like. We spent a few minutes on the balcony just talking and looking at the ocean.
When I told John and Gabby about the Dalek towel hanging in a cabin window, which Ashlee, Alice and I had seen Wednesday, they told me it was theirs, because they had hung a Dalek towel in the window. However, the window with the towel had not been a balcony window (and that did not occur to me when I was talking with John and Gabby), so it couldn't have been theirs. Weeks later, after viewing the photo, Jamie Bergman confirmed that it was, in fact, the Bergman cabin which had the Dalek towel we had seen -- the same cabin John, Gabby and I had been in just a few minutes before our conversation.
After dinner we gathered in the ship's conference room, and our guests read aloud the stories we had written throughout the week. Carole Ann Ford read the story my group had written, "An Unearthly Rescue." Then the guests signed lots of autographs.
The Capehart family's cabin had been almost directly across the hall from mine, but I had spent very little time with them. After the autographs, Damon Capehart came up to me and said he was from Dallas, and that he had heard I was from Dallas, also. I told him that I actually live in Allen, a suburb. He said, "We live in Allen." I was surprised, and said, "Well, specifically, I live near the intersection of Bethany and Allen Heights." He froze for a moment, then said, "We shop at the same Kroger!" It turned out that the Capeharts live about mile from me. It's a weird world.
After all the good times, it was off to bed because, sadly, we would be arriving back in Miami the next morning.
Saturday, October 26
The cruise was over.
On previous cruises, the group had done something ashore upon returning. In anticipation of this, I had scheduled my return flight on Sunday night. However, almost everyone was going their separate ways immediately, most going straight to the airport.
Mike Leahy and I shared a taxi to the airport and I rented a car, found a Motel 6, and immediately looked up parasailing. The only parasailing company was in Miami Beach, but they weren't operating at the moment due to high winds. So I took a tour of the Everglades.
I went to Coopertown Boat Tours, where I saw some turtles, alligators, and snakes in their small zoo. Then I joined a boat full of about a dozen people, none of whom I knew, and took an Everglades tour which lasted about thirty minutes. At the beginning of the tour I spotted one alligator which I don't think anyone else saw; I have it on video.
I learned that the Everglades is not a swamp, it is actually the world's slowest river. It flows from Lake Okeechobee to the sea at about one mile per day.
I also learned that alligators are territorial. The guides had named the alligators along the tour route, and our guide took us to several spots at which he actually called out to the alligators; I'm not sure if that actually works or if that was just to show the tourists why we had stopped. We saw one alligator up close, named Scar.
Coopertown Boat Tours has a restaurant which serves alligator burgers, but it was closed when our tour returned. On the way back into Miami I came across a barbecue restaurant (what Florida calls barbecue, anyway). They had a clown, loud music, and small ponies for children to ride. I had my alligator burger there. It was okay, but I couldn't finish it.
I made plans to meet Stephanie and her mother the next day for breakfast in downtown Miami.
Photos and videos of the Everglades and other stuff on Saturday
Sunday, October 27
I wanted to go parasailing in Miami Beach. I had a coupon which gave me a discount if I went in the morning. I called at 8:00 sharp, and they said the wind was not a problem. But getting to the parasailing people was not simple.
First, there was a marathon going on, and police wouldn't allow traffic to cross the marathon route, so I spent about twenty minutes waiting before finally giving up and searching for an alternate route. (In similar situations elsewhere, I have seen police allow cars through whenever there was a gap in the runners or bikers, which is why I waited; I expected them to do the same here. They did not.) After turning around, it took me about another twenty minutes to find an alternate route with a bridge over the marathon. Once in the city of Miami Beach, I failed to read a sign in time and was shunted the wrong way, up a street which had no way to cross the median and go back the other way, until I finally did it illegally, as it was my only option. Then it took me fifteen minutes to find a place to park. The pamphlet of the parasailing business, and the physical address, both said that it was at a certain hotel; searching this hotel, I finally learned that they were not actually in the hotel, they were on the beach behind the hotel. (I was expecting an office at which I would sign up, and that I would then be taken to the beach from said office.) Since I was not staying at the hotel, I was not allowed through the back gate onto the beach, which would have saved me about fifteen minutes and would have cost the hotel staff absolutely nothing. Then I couldn't find the path which led from the street to the beach. After 90 minutes of driving and walking, I finally arrived at the parasailing booth, where I was told that they were closed.
Throughout this ordeal, I had been calling the parasailing company for help, asking directions, clarifying directions when they didn't make sense, asking where I could park, etc. So I was quite surprised to find that they were not open.
"You told me on the phone that you open at 8:00," I said.
"No," the woman replied. "I said that we open for phone calls at 8:00. We don't actually open for real until 10:00."
So, apparently, I had to have ESP to know that when they said "open," they only meant one kind of open.
At this point, it was about 9:45, and I couldn't wait around because I was scheduled to have breakfast with Stephanie and her mother. I had hoped to have the parasailing over with by then.
I left and went to Stephanie's hotel. This, too, was not simple.
First, the exit I needed was closed because of the marathon. I did not know this in advance, and since I could not read the map while simultaneously driving on the highway, I became lost immediately. When I finally found a way back around to their hotel, I couldn't find a place to park near it. I finally found a parking garage which was shared by several hotels, but then couldn't find my way into the hotel which was my destination; I first walked into the wrong hotel, then into a shopping mall. Signs were absent. The few directions I got were vague. I finally found the hotel, walking from the parking garage across a huge plaza with no people in sight. Right smack in the middle of Miami, a space as large as several football fields was as quiet as if the world had ended. Once entering the hotel, there was still no one present, because the entrance was on a floor which was being renovated. I'm sure I wasn't even supposed to be there.
I finally met Stephanie and her mother, and we took the long hike back to the parking garage, where by this time I was so upset (not at them, just in general, and trying not to let it show) that I couldn't remember on which level I had parked the car. I didn't want them to tire themselves out just on my account, so I told them to wait while I found the car and came to pick them up. I checked two levels before finding my car, and I was still so upset and angry that once I found my car I forgot where I had left my friends.
I hate Miami. Seriously. I #@&*ing hate it. Miami can kiss my ass.
(You may wonder why I didn't use a GPS. The real problem was the marathon, and no GPS would have helped with that, because it would have continuously told me to go through it. The other problems had to do with unclear information from the parasailing company, finding a place to park, finding out that the parasailing company was on the beach, finding a way to the beach, and later, finding a way from the parking garage to Stephanie's hotel, none of which had anything to do with road directions. Throughout the entire ordeal, the instance in which I was shunted up the wrong road when the highway ended was the only one in which a GPS might have made even the slightest bit of difference to my morning.)
Stephanie, her mother and I went to brunch, and if it wasn't for Stephanie's GPS, we wouldn't have gotten anywhere. The road system of downtown Miami is just as bad as the road system of downtown Dallas, and I never thought I would say that about any other city in America. Have I mentioned my feelings about Miami recently? I have? Oh, good.
We ate brunch and had a lovely time. I dropped them off so they could do a bit of shopping, then headed back to Miami Beach.
This time, I knew where I was going, I knew where the parking garage was (paying for it a second time), and I knew where the path to the beach was. When I got there, the woman gave me the morning discount for my coupon, because I had been there that morning. I think she felt a little sympathetic because she knew I was frustrated about being told wrong information regarding when they opened.
But her communication was still bad. She said, "No shoes while parasailing." Leaving my shoes on, I walked toward the dinghy which would take us to the motorboat. She called me back and said I needed to leave my shoes there. I told her that I thought her directive meant that I was simply supposed to take my shoes off when it was my turn to parasail (and I think that that would be the obvious conclusion anyone would come to after hearing her words). She didn't say, "You can't take your shoes with you at all," she just said, "No shoes while parasailing." What she said was not what she meant.
The dinghy took me and two girls from New York City to a motorboat. The girls went first, together, then it was my turn. Each parasailing session lasted about twenty minutes. The customer could pay extra for photographs, which I did.
It was so fun! What surprised me most was how quiet it was, although that shouldn't have surprised me. They claim that I was about 600 feet above the surface of the ocean, and up there, the sound of the motorboat was barely audible. The wind was negligible, the sky crystal clear. It was a beautiful day. There was no sense of flight, or of forward movement of any kind; it felt more like I was floating in place, even though I could see that I was moving in relation to the shore. It was very, very peaceful.
Near the end of each session, they bring the parasailer down to the surface of the ocean and dip his or her feet in the water. (I think they told us not to stick our feet out straight in front of us when they do this.) My coupon had also stated that I was to get my feet dipped twice, which I didn't care about either way, but sure enough, they dipped my feet twice. Special me.
I knew I was really pushing the time limit of getting to the airport, but I didn't care. This was something I'd wanted to do for a long time, and it was worth it. Swimming with dolphins and parasailing were two items on my bucket list, and on this trip, I got to do both.
I underestimated the distance from Miami Beach to the airport, and I had trouble finding the entrance to the car rental area. After the day I'd had, I was still somewhat upset, and I was extremely frazzled trying to reach my flight on time. I missed the airport tram by seconds and had to wait for the next one. I was hot and tired and sweaty. My luggage kept falling over. At one checkpoint I left my phone behind and had to go back and get it. I was a complete mess. Although I reached the terminal half an hour before my flight, I had missed the deadline to check luggage. I had never missed a flight in my life due to my own failings, but I did it that day. First time for everything.
The lady behind the counter was super nice and got me stand-by on the first of three other flights also going to Dallas, and I got on the first one and made it home late Sunday night.