A Little Bump in the Road

So I should be in La Paz right now... but I'm not. No worries though because I got to spend the day enjoying the sun (a little too much, judging from my sunburned shoulders and face) in Miami Beach, Florida. I will take you back to yesterday. I was supposed leave SFO at 1:05pm, land in Miami to catch my connecting flight to La Paz, which was leaving an hour after I would be landing in Miami. Not much wiggle room, American Airlines. My flight out of SFO was delayed because of weather and then we were late to the gate in Miami. I pushed past people and ran 2 gates over just in time for the staff to walk out and say, "Are you Jenny Gonser? Sorry, you are too late". I tried not to panic. This was just my first bump in the road on my journey :). So I was put in a hotel a quick shuttle away from the airport and given some vouchers for food. This hotel was nice, people! I was in a double room, had a huge shower with FOUR different shower heads, a weird looking rectangular toilet, and a nice bath robe. Around midnight I went down to the bar and ordered a yummy burger and fries to go. I even got a tiny glass jar of dijon mustard. I think this might have been my first time having a hotel room to myself. Pretty nice.

This morning I woke up and used the rest of my vouchers to buy into the breakfast buffet: eggs, potatoes, fruit, pastries, cereal, yogurt, coffee. Good stuff. While I sat alone in a booth, I started to look up what there was to do at Miami Beach, where I was planning to spend my day. That's when I saw Miami has the Museum of Ice Cream! As some of you know I'm slightly lactose intolerant, but that didn't stop me. I bought my ticket, realized it was for next Saturday (oops), called them and they gave me the very last ticket for today. Things were looking up. After checking out and taking a quick Lyft to the Museum, I realized I was 45 minutes early. Considering I was wearing hiking boots, pants and a long sleeve in 85 degree weather, I started walking to find a place I could buy a tank top and flip flops. After walking into one store and seeing triple digit prices for flip flips, I settled for Walgreens.

The Museum of Ice Cream in Miami has only 3 stars on yelp. After exploring all 4 floors, eating chocolate soft serve, a mango mochi, a frozen banana, and key lim pie ice cream, playing with pink moon sand, and asking the bubbly staff to take my picture one too many times, I can attest that the yelp raters were wrong. I had a blast even though I was all by myself! 10/10 would recommend. The rest of the day I sat on the beach and walked along it for about 45 minutes. Miami was poppin'. A couple events were going on, a global horse jumping competition (I don't know the formal name for that) right on the beach and a Miami gay pride celebration. For lunch I went to a cuban restaurant, where I ate too much chicken and plantains and got some weird looks from the waiters (probably because I look like I am 15 and I was eating alone). After exploring South Beach for a bit longer, I hopped in a Lyft and headed back to the hotel where I would shuttle to the airport. In my short time here, I have had a great experience with my Miami Lyft drivers. This ride, with Fernando, was my favorite because when I told him I liked his shirt he apologized and said he didn't speak English. So I spoke with him in Spanish! Turns out he designed his shirt and he gave me his card. The drive was about 20 or 30 minutes, probably my longest conversation in Spanish yet but there are many more to come. Thank you Fernando for being patient with me :). Right now I am at the Miami airport and I am excited to sleep on the plane and wake up in the morning when I land in La Paz. ¡Gracias por leer! Hasta la proxima vez.

The center courtyard of the museum.
Visitors are supposed to stand on the podium
and reach for their dreams.

The banana swing in the bubble gum forest and
a frozen chocolate covered banana in my hand

Sprinkle pool! Spoiler alert: they are
not real sprinkles, just plastic

The top floor of the museum, with a view of the beach

My yummy lunch

This was at the gay pride event, so colorful!