My Miami Vacation

I have not been on a vacation since I was a child. There are many reasons for this that I will not get into today. Simply, it became apparent to me that I needed a vacation. Also the last professional tennis tournament I went to was the Cincinnati masters tournament when I was in middle school. Back then the tournament did not have the men and women play concurrently, so I saw only the men. Since I could use a vacation sooner rather than later, I thought the Miami Masters 1000 tournament would be a good experience.

First, I want to say that Miami, at least downtown always has some outside event going on which made driving there chaotic. In fact, I do not know which was worse, Las Vegas traffic or Miami traffic. I digress…

I have good memories from this short trip, but I experience a lot of stress as well. By far the most stressful part was driving back at night in the rain from Hard Rock Stadium. It was raining hard! But there were many highlights of this trip as well.

Journey To Miami

In my trip to Las Vegas, my friend booked my flight on Spirit Airlines, an airline I do not really like. This trip I flew Southwest, which is the airline I normally use but my trip started off on the wrong foot. As I was about to be off on my Columbus flight to Atlanta, one of the plane engines failed which ultimately led to that flight being canceled. I was in good hands though, as an old friend of my Mom (who is from Springfield, Ohio a 50 minute drive from Columbus), who specifically helped me rebooked my flight to a night flight. God was watching over me, because I have never met this man before yet he was working there at that specific day and time. Afterwards, I had a normal flight to Atlanta and then Miami.

Hertz Rent a Car and Hotel

When I got to Miami and got my bag at the baggage claim, I got on the MIA Mover and went to the Hertz Desk. I was there a while because it was 2:00 AM by the time a got there. By the time I got the car it was even later because only two people were working, and there were quite a few people waiting to rent a car. Thankfully, back when my original flight got canceled I called the hotel and told them I was going to be arriving late

The car that Hertz provided me this time was a white 2023 Cadillac CT4. I honestly like driving different types of cars. I am glad I opted for a better car for this trip because there were times I needed the safety features the car provided, like the car’s front end proximity sensor. After driving the cadillac for couple days, I am now a fan of the brand. Although, I probably would not go for a CT4. It is not that I did not like the car, it is just that I have not driven many cars in its class, and it apparently has lot of competition.

My hotel was in downtown Miami. I chose downtown Miami because it is kind of near everything. The hotel is near the beach, but also not too far from Hard Rock Stadium where the Miami Open was being held. There are also many museums, which I was interested in going on the day I did not have tickets to the Miami Open. The hotel was the JW Marriott Marquis Miami. When I got to the hotel, it was fairly dark in the lobby, but the receptionist was this man who reminded me of Frozone from The Incredibles. I digress. It was like 3:00 AM, but he set me up and I went to my room. I went to sleep immediately.

First Day

I had a weekend package with the Miami Open. How it works is each day has two sessions, a day session and a night session. I had 6 total sessions. It was a good thing I previously sold some of the sessions to free up some time to do other things because Friday, and Saturday it rained all day long.

I began my day with breakfast I ordered from the hotel. The hotel provides you with 42 dollars worth of credits you can use for food. So, I tried room service. I honestly do not remember ever getting room service before. I was really young if it ever happened because I was in grade school the last time I went on vacation. If you read, the vegas article, you already know I am always looking to try french toast. So, I got the hotel’s french toast which was not bad. It was average though.

After breakfast, I began gearing up for the Miami Open, but I realised I forgot my raincoat. So, I went to Hard Rock Stadium with the plan to go to one of the stores to get a raincoat. When I got to the parking lot, the lady scanning people’s parking passes basically told me there was no point of me going in and if I did leave and came back I would have to pay for another parking pass. I turned around and went to a Walmart that was nearby. I walked around the Walmart for awhile just trying to wait out the rain but I also needed some extra water and a raincoat. I found a raincoat for around 30 dollars. It got the job done.

When I was done with Walmart, I waited in the car for awhile trying to figure what I was going to do the rest of the day. I decided to go to the Aventura Mall, and in the mall which was huge in my opinion, I looked around bought a few things and left. Nothing significant happened except the rain stopping.

By the time I got back to Hard Rock Stadium and parked, it was almost the night session where I saw the very end of Coco Gauff’s match.

When the match ended, I waited for the men’s night session match, which was Jannik Sinner playing a lower ranked countrymen Andrea Vavassori. Before the players started warming up they changed the nets because the both the men and women’s tour have different sponsors. This actual bothered me because in Miami the men and women play concurrently, and it seems over complicated to me. There needs to be one tour for men and women for many good reasons and one is simplification.

Jannik Sinner (in white) and Andrea Vavassori Running to Baseline After Warm-up

I was looking forward to seeing this men’s match because Sinner has been the best player overall this year. He was my pick to win the Miami Open.

My big takeaways from men’s professional tennis is just the angle of their serves. Professional tennis players are usually pretty tall, and Jannik Sinner I know is 6’4. I do not remember seeing a double fault in the match and usually are one or two in a pro match. The another thing that struck me is flexibility, or joint mobility. These players can contort their body in able to get extra shots over the net. The last major thing that I noticed was how much a lot of these pros slide on hard courts. You can not even slide on hard court without the right shoe, I’m sure the pros shoes are altered so they can slide.

After 6 games, it started raining again. I looked at the forcast, and I realised that it was going to rain the rest of the night. So, I went back to the hotel.

Ride Back To Hotel

When I rent back to my hotel, it started downpouring. It was around 8:30 PM, and the amount of rain was such that you could not see very far in front of you at times. The there was heavy traffic in places along the route too, which made it even more stressful. I am so thankful the Cadillac’s safety features because it has blind spot detection, and I really needed all the help I could get to make it back to the hotel safely. I’ve driven on frozen highways in Ohio, but that kind of traffic along with the rain was something I had never seen before. Eventually, I made it back to the hotel safe and sound.

Day 2

I slept in for some reason on Saturday. It was raining again, but this time I did not have a day session pass because I sold it. Instead of going to the Miami open. I decided to go the the Frost Museum of Science. Now, it was only a mile away from my hotel so I decided to walk there. When I arrived at the museum I saw two exhibits I found interesting. There was a marine biology type one about sharks, and there was a history of flight exhibit I found more interesting.

The shark exhibit was kind of sad because many of the shark species are endangered or vulnerable. Something I found to be cool, but funny, was they had these binoculars that when you look through them, you were supposed to see like a hammerhead shark. They basically have 360 vision (pretty cool). I mena, Imagine not having a blind spot. The hammerhead shark is not endangered, but they are vulnerable meaning that their population is decreasing.

I was surprised by the flight exhibit, because they had the history of birds which was cool, but they also had the history of black aviation depicted on the walls. I knew about the Tuskegee Airmen, but I did not know that there was such a rich tradition of black pilots in the United States. When airplanes were becoming more mainstream, black people and women who wanted to learn how to fly were not allowed into the flight classes. One of those people was a black woman living in Chicago named Bessie Coleman. When she learned she would not be allowed into a flight class, she realised that many of the racial barriers in America did not exist in Europe, so she learned how to fly in France. Honestly, I think that’s amazing because she would have had learn and understand French to do this. Eventually, she started her own flight school and started teaching other women how to fly back in the United States. She was the first black person to open a flight school.

Inspired by pioneers like Bessie Coleman, John Robinson was the first black student at Curtiss-Wright School of Aviation. He later opened his own airfield.

John Robinson (The Brown Condor) The Commander of the Ethiopian Air Force

John Robinson though born in the U.S. eventually became the commander of the Ethiopian Air Force, and help defend Ethiopia from Mussolini (what a resume). His legacy is the former, and also being a key figure in integrating US flight schools.

The most awesome thing I saw at the Frost Science Museum was the black hole show, in the museum’s planetarium theatre. It was actually kind of crazy because the screen was wrapped around the room 360 degrees and was also spherical. It was like you were right there.

Planetarium Screen (1/4 of the Screen, Credit to Frost Science Museum)

I already knew somethings about black holes, so I did not learn anything new, but to see the latest simulation and model of a black hole on screen was amazing. Definitely, the highlight of the day.

It stopped raining by by 6:00 PM, so I could went to Hard Rock Stadium again, but I was not feeling it and decided to stay at the hotel. I did miss a chance to see Carlos Alcaraz in play, but maybe I will catch him at another tournament.

Day 3

Sunday was a good day.

First, I went and got breakfast. I walked to this place near nearby called B Bistro + Bakery, and you guessed it I got french toast. Although, this french toast was pretty different from regular french toast. What it was officially called was the croissant loaf french toast. It does not come with maple syrup, but with a vanilla and blueberry compote instead. I have had something similar to this in Ohio, at First Watch. I mean it couldn’t possibly have more sugar than the churro french toast I got in Vegas, but this french toast was good just in a different way. It was good to try something different and fresh.

Yelp Picture of Croissant Loaf French Toast

After breakfast, I walked back to the hotel and headed off to South Beach. It was supposed to be a 15 minute drive, but it turned into a 45 minute drive because I made a wrong turn. It seems I made a number of wrong turns in Miami, but this one took me through a long tunnel to the cruise ship terminals (definitely wrong). It took 30 minutes because of the traffic to get back on the right route, but once I did I made it to South Beach.

I paid for a place to park, and walked to the ocean. I have not seen the ocean since around the 5th grade. Seeing the ocean, was nice, and I just relaxed for awhile. That’s one of the reasons I came to Miami.

Once I was at the beach for a few hours, I needed to leave so I could catch the Jannik Sinner v. Tallon Greekspoor match. I promise I am not a Sinner fan but that was a great match up. Plus I only had tickets to watch the stadium matches.

The match was pretty crazy because Sinner was losing then there was a one hour rain delay, and after the rain delay he came back and won. Tennis is so mental, I knew the rain delay changed the whole match dynamic.

Another match, I watched was Iga Swiatek who won in three sets, but I thought that match was less exciting.

Conclusion of the Trip

There was still one more match to be played (the top russian player Medvedev), but I had a flight to catch in morning. There were no problems with Southwest on the return back and when got I back, I was grateful I went on this mini vacation. This trip afforded me the opportunity to get out of my normal routine, and do things I have not done in ages.

I am thankful that I was able go.