"Good Things on the Horizon" a cruisin USA "Long and Lengthy" Cruise Novella

[cruisin USA]

To the right we’re all the “Swanky” Hotels. Art Deco is an amazing architectural style. Miami does it up BIG! 

[cruisin USA]

We pass through the hotels area. We come to this intersection. Ignacio tells the driver that we are going to stop for a moment(Heck with traffic). He points over to the right. There, we see the Jewish Holocaust memorial. He starts talking about the many Jewish migrants that had settled in Miami in the 40’s and 50’s. Ignacio goes on about living in Miami since he was a child. He could remember seeing people that had numbers tattooed on their arms. “Not so much, nowadays” 

Edited September 8, 2022 by cruisin USA

[cruisin USA]

He talked for a couple minutes about it the Jewish immigrants helping to build Miami into the great city it has become. The bus started up again and in a few minutes we were soon cruising South Beach. To the left was the buffered grassy area leading out to South Beach.

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To the right we passed all the fabulous boutique hotels of South beach. Miles of ‘em!

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We passed by the Versace mansion(now a hotel). This is where Versace was shot, right outside the front doors.

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We pass hotel row and start heading back across the bridge and back into the city.

[cruisin USA]

Back across the bridge and into the city. Once we passed over the bridge, it wasn’t even 10 minutes till we got to our next stop..Little Havana. The bus driver parked and we were all allowed to get off the bus. Ignacio told us we’d be stopped here for 45 minutes. He recommended we roam, stretch our legs, and maybe get a bite to eat. Food! We hadn’t eaten. We went into one of the restaurants. We both ordered Cuban sandwiches. They didn’t take long. Ham, Pulled Pork, Pickles, and mustard on a special bread. They were served with potato sticks and we were so hungry that they they got ate up before I could think to take a picture. The coke in a glass bottle hit the spot. The Cuban coffee gave us the jolt we needed to continue.

[cruisin USA]

Well fed, we went out to explore Little Havana. 

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Pretty Cool McDonald’s “Havana” style

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Stopped to watch them play Domino’s for a bit. Dominos is the GAME here apparently.

[cruisin USA]

Wasn’t too long before we had to go to meet at the bus. We load up and head to our last stop before we all head to our airports.

 

On the way, Ignacio starts setting up our last stop. He explains that we’re heading to the Wynwood district. Evidently, there was an area in Miami owned by a wealthy man. There was someone who would spray graffiti on his buildings. He would have it painted over, but the graffiti kept returning. The man came up with a plan to catch them in the act. He did, and the 2 men had a talk. Ignacio went so far as saying that they had ended up smoking the peace pie(whatever that means), and the wealthy man made the graffiti artist elevate his game into real art. This is how the Wynwood district was started. We were there right after his talk. Driving through this amazing area

[cruisin USA]

Blocks and Blocks of graffiti art. Evidently, many artist converged upon the district to make it what it is today. Pretty amazing. The bus stopped once again so we all could check it out further.

[cruisin USA]

[cruisin USA]

[cruisin USA]

The scope of all this graffiti. I have so many more pictures. These will have to do.

[cruisin USA]

Gratuitous shot of Ignacio.

[cruisin USA]

Our 20 minutes went pretty fast. We all loaded up and headed the first airport drop off, Miami. Didn’t take very long to get there(15-20 mins). We dropped everyone off at their respective terminals. Next up, our airport, Ft Lauderdale. It was about a half hour to get there. The bus driver had been radio’d about a traffic jam on the highway, so we took a shortcut. A little of the long way around, but we got there.

 

I would definitely recommend this excursion for anyone with a later flight. They had loaded or luggage into the bus at the cruise parking lot, and there it stayed until they let us off at the terminal.

 

Our flight was on time and we ended up getting home by 10pm. We. Picked doggie up the next morning and had the best reunion ever.

 

 

Well folks that’s it. My “Good Things on the Horizon” review is over. Congratulations to all who made it to the end. Sorry for the interruption. That pandemic did a number on all of us.

 

I raise my glass to you and propose my favorite cruise toast and customary way of ending my reviews

 

 

  Remember this……You Can Get as Just as Drunk on Water…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                …..As You Can on Land

 

 

Next cruise is FFS5 with John Heald aboard Carnival Magic. I promise, no font problems are going to happen with that review. 

 

This is your humble and lovable reporter on the high seas, signing off(for now).

 

 

                                                                         ☮️❤️🥳🛳

 

 

                                            

 

Edited September 8, 2022 by cruisin USA

[cruisin USA]

Epilogue…

 

We we’re pretty surprised to see this Xmas picture from Mike Pack and his staff.

 

GTFO is 2nd from left