Bienvenidos A Miami (The Finale)

Surprisingly enough I did not wake up with a hangover from the festivities from the night before. My sister and I went to a vegan place known as The Cocinita. The weather was hot as it had been all week, but it wasn’t too bad as it only took us maybe 5-6 minutes to walk there from the hotel. The place wasn’t busy, and we were able to

order and get our food right away. The atmosphere was typical of a quaint coffee shop. I had a banana mango smoothie and tofu bowel. Now it was on the pricy side. I spent roughly $30; however, you got a lot of food. I was not able to finish it all in one sitting and ended up eating the rest later in the day. The picture does not do it justice. My sister had a burrito and she ended up doing the same of saving half of it for later. We said our goodbyes to our chapter sisters heading home and headed out ourselves to the day’s first activity.

We caught a Lyft to our next adventure early and just chilled out by the water. The Nature & Island Exploration on SUP/Kayak tour with Sean was amazing!

We had a choice between a kayak and a paddle board. We had a large group and most of them had done one or the other before. We got fitted for our life vests and handed our paddles. My sister and I have never been on a kayak or paddle board before, so we chose to double up and do the double seated kayak. I didn't want to lose my phone in the water so I left it on shore in a locker and didn't get to take any more pictures. We were on a learning curve, but we managed. I just want to say we were totally not dressed appropriately for this adventure Lol My sister had on jean shorts and a t-shirt, and I had on a thin cotton sun dressed. I really don’t know what we were thinking smh When we first got in the kayak it dipped down in the water and we automatically got soaked from the water that seeped into the bottom. One by one everyone got into their kayak, and we practiced paddling. Panic set in just a bit as we drifted from the shore and from the group. I am not a strong swimmer. I can doggy paddle like no other though Lol As we drifted further and further away, I tried not to let my panic show to my sister because I noticed she was panicked as well, and I quickly figured out what I was doing wrong, and we joined the rest of the group.

As amateur as my sister and I were on kayaking we were one of the few that did not end up flipped over in the water. We took our time and enjoyed it for what it was worth. Our first stop was an island where no human was allowed. It was designated as a bird sanctuary to help the Florida bird population going.

After a small rest, we paddled around the bird island and stopped at an “intersection”. Intersection is in parentheses because it was in an area where the boats crossed into the larger body of water. Once we safely crossed the intersection, we paddled to a small beach. On this beach we were able to get out and walk around. The water was too mucky for my taste, so I stayed in the kayak. My sister decided to do the same. Some of our group found coconuts and it was hilarious to watch them try to crack them open. After many tries they were finally successful with one, but it was rotten. Go figure!

We paddled to another small island where we hung out for a bit. We were able to get out of the kayak and stretch and move around. By this time, the sun was high in the sky and frying us Lol I didn’t get out, but I did put my feet in the water. A racoon came over to the group of people that were chilling on the island, and they started feeding it watermelon Sean, the guide had bought along. Some of the others from the group wadded in the water and even my sister got out after the racoon scurried away with a full belly.

Sean said if you paddled correctly you would feel it in your shoulders. I felt it in my arms, abs and everywhere else Lol The group paddled back to the starting point and my sister and I high fived Sean as we successfully completed our first kayaking experience. It is definitely something that I would do again. Who knows? Maybe next time I will do the paddle board.

We ran into a little bit of trouble with the Lyft. So, the GPS has the driver going further down the road than necessary to get to the kayak place so I specifically put in the notes to look for the kayak flags and we would be standing there. The driver didn’t listen and when I called to tell him he passed us up he started yelling and telling me I should be in the right spot then hung up on me! When he came back through he passed us up again and didn’t even pick us up! Boy! I was hot as fire! I ended up reporting him to Lyft and I hope he got in trouble. The next Lyft driver was super nice, and I explained to him what happened. He said that the app shows the driver the passengers location so there was no reason why he couldn’t find us. I gave the new driver a huge tip for explaining the process, being so nice and he actually could drive a little bit. Lol Plus we got in his car still wet from kayaking, so I felt bad.

After making it safely back to the hotel, my sister and I showered and changed for the next activity. We had some time to kill so we ended up eating the rest of the breakfast we had from earlier and just resting. Unfortunately, the planned activity for that evening, Wynwood Party Bike Bar Crawl, got cancelled due to not enough participation so we just chilled for the rest of the night and ordered room service for dinner.

The following morning, our final day in Miami, we stayed in the bed as late as possible. All the action was finally catching up to us Lol We packed up around 10am, dropped our bags off with the concierge and went to brunch.

We went to a place called Las Olas Café’. My sister and I had a vegan burrito with rice, spinach, avocado, red onions, potatoes, and jalapenos on a wheat tortilla. For the drink I had a banana smoothie. I liked the fact that there was no added sugar just straight banana and almond milk.

Because we didn’t have a lot of time, we quickly ate and headed to the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science.

I had to do one “nerdy” thing before I left Miami Lol Being a vet I got in for free after showing my ID so only my sister had to pay. Unlike some of the museums I have been to, this one was really geared towards children. I’m not complaining at all. There were five floors of various things from space exhibition where it had displays of space food and games to show how to fly a space ship to a floor that explained the various parts of the brain to a floor dedicated to an aquarium. I learned a lot.

After spending about 2 hours in the museum, we headed back to the hotel to get our luggage. This is where MyTravels & Tours Corp. redeemed themselves because they arranged for us to get picked up from the hotel as originally paid for. Here is another instance where the driver was very nice, but his driving had me calling on the Lord Lol Once we got to the airport, we breezed through security and chilled out. Our flight got delayed a little bit from the after effects of the CrowdStrike incident, but we still were able to fly out that same night. We arrived safely back home around midnight and my sister and I parted ways to go to our individual homes. Overall, I would go back to Miami if I was about that party life, but as of now I think I enjoyed my time there and probably won’t go back any time soon. Tell me your experience in Miami in the comments.

Disclaimer: I, Artilya Key, also known as A. Key (A Key To Adventure), am not affiliated with any of the links, places or sites mentioned in this blog nor did I receive any compensation for this post. Should you need more information, please refer to the linked information or contact the company or entities. Any copywritten information belongs to that entity and is not associated with A Key To Adventure.