Morning of Rest

Lizy was feeling too sick to go sightseeing. I got us bagels and lox from the Bagel Emporium and we ate in bed. I read Theodore a little more of King Lear without so much acting this time before putting him down for a nap. Lizy napped too. She looked like she needed it. I wrote some notes in my journal for this blog while they slept. When they both woke up we packed the room and checked out of the hotel making sure we were out of there by noon to avoid having to pay a fee.

Hanging out at the Pool

The front desk held our bags and we went up to the rooftop pool. At the front desk they told us that the pool had a “Tapas” restaurant at the pool. I think I looked confused because the front desk person said to me, “Like small plates. It’s a spanish word. It’s popular in Spain.” I knew what Tapas meant.

When I got to the pool I read the menu for the snack bar. They just had regular American main dishes. A poke bowl, BLTs, Caesar salad. None of the dishes seemed like tapas to me.

We got some food and I swam in the pool. It wasn’t a very big pool, but it was nice to be in the water.

I forgot to put in an order for a diet coke for Lizy with our food. I walked back over to the bar to order it. The waitress noted I had already closed our tab. I had figured we wouldn’t order anything after our lunch.

“It’s tough to remember everything you need to do when you have a baby,” she said.

“Ya.”

“The coke’s on the house. I remember when my son was that age.”

It was nice of her to give us the free coke.

Waiting for the Lyft

Around 2pm I ordered a Lyft to take us to the airport. As we were waiting in the lobby something peculiar happened.

A big Escalade pulled up at the hotel. A middle-aged, business-type guy came out of the van. He had sort of a nervous energy about him. Coming out after him was his companion, a much younger woman. Although he was dressed for the board room, she was dressed for a night out. Again, it was 2pm.

It looked like she was trying to set him at ease. At least from her body language. She had lots of visible plastic surgery.

I whispered to the porter who was also looking at the couple, “Is that a prostitute?”

“They just got the room for the day,” said the porter.

Drive to the Airport

On the drive to the airport Lizy pointed out to me a statue of a pink snail in front of a war museum. What a weird juxtaposition.

The Lyft driver had a little helicopter on his dashboard. I asked him if he like helicopters.

“Not much english,” he said.

“Helicopter,” I said, while this time pointing at the helicopter figurine.

“Oh,” he twirled his finger as if to indicate the rotating blades of a helicopter, “Sol.”

“Is he a pilot or something?” Lizy asked from the back.

Again he twirled his fingers and said, “Sol.”

“That’s cool,” she said.

After we drove for some time in silence he pointed to the helicopter again. I saw that the blades were moving. This time he pointed to the sun and said, “Sol.”

“Oh, you were saying it’s solar powered,” I said.

The Airport

It was one of the more frantic airport experiences I’ve had in my life. It started amping up in the security line. They made us remove the car seat from the bag I had just put it into. Then they made us completely break down our stroller into its constituent parts so it could fit through the x-ray machine. I thought I could get away with wearing my crocs, but they made me take them off. They put the car seat, seat side down in the x-ray machine, which caused it to pick up dust. The dust almost took Lizy over the edge, but she held it together, so she could deal with Theodore who started crying. I was rushing so we could start walking with him. She was rocking him back and forth while I was trying to repack the car seat.

I was almost finished, but Theodore was really crying now, so I read Lizy the gate number from my mobile boarding pass and she started pushing him in the stroller. I followed closely behind. I tried to catch up, but I was carrying a lot of stuff. It felt like I was walking for ages.

Right at the end of the terminal I finally found Lizy at the gate. But something seemed wrong. Not many people were waiting. We were a little early, but not that early. Lizy had started to breast feed Theodore to calm him down. I talked to a woman at the gate desk about when we were boarding.

“When is the flight boarding?” I asked.

“We’re just finishing now,” she said.

“The sfo flight?” I asked.

“No, it’s to Denver.”

“When’s the SFO flight boarding?” I asked.

“What’s the flight number?”

“A1025.”

She typed on her computer for a little bit, “The gate changed a few hours ago. You’re at D38 now.”

The system didn’t update the boarding pass on your phone with an update gate number. Now I knew at least. By the look on Lizy’s face I knew she wasn’t appreciating the learning opportunity.

We’d have to all the way back the way we came and then about the same distance in the other direction to the other side of the terminal. Lizy looked like she wanted to kill me, but she pulled her breast out of Theodore’s mouth who started crying again and we started heading to the other gate. I tried to follow them, but the crying faded into the crowds.

When we got to D36 people were already in line to board. I bolted across the hall to a cuban sandwich shop and got two sandwiches and filled our water bottles. I got back to the gate and Lizy was already at the front ushering me over so we could board.

Conclusion

I didn’t see much of Miami. From what I did see I was surprised by how latin it felt. Especially how people drove. Everyone ran red lights slowly, like people did in Mexico City. It really put us at ease about flying with Theodore. I think it may have been easier than flying with just Lizy.

Months later I still mull over why the professor was so hesitant to take ownership of his Breakfast of Champions merchandise. I guess that’s what I’ll think of when I think of Miami.