Melbourne DAY 6 – Thursday 9th September 2010
Miami to Melbourne
Weather 90 Degrees HOT
Awake at 5.30am
Miami has been wonderful and I have enjoyed every moment, but it’s a very ‘full on’ place and I’m looking forward to moving to tranquil Melbourne.
Michael fights with the coffee machine whilst I lay in bed watching the news and weather, I get more and more obsessed with both as the holiday progresses.
News today includes a 12ft tiger shark that’s been caught in the Bahamas, nothing unusual there you may think, but when they open it up the shark contains human remains! A leg, intestine and part of a torso – grizzly!
The tropical storm IGOR is also on the horizon.
I decide to put on my running kit and run along South Beach as the sun came up. I’m so glad I did this because it was a wonderful experience and one I will never forget. A lot of homeless people seem to sleep on the beach and whilst I ran people were waking up and some were showering in the many beach side showers, a really strange spectacle. It was already getting into the high 70’s and getting hotter with every inch the sun rose, there was a gently breeze blowing near the ocean which helped a little.
When the sun started to feel too hot, I decided to run back, the sand was softening in the heat and the run back was a lot more challenging, I was running faster just to get out of the heat!
After a shower we headed for our final Miami breakfast at Jerry’s – well where else LOL! Poached eggs and wholemeal toast for me and Michael’s usual 3 egg omelette.
Back at the hotel we packed and on our final check of the terrace we realise our neighbours are still partying and drinking beer, it’s 9.30am in the morning for goodness sake, I really wouldn’t want that hangover!
We check out $381 for 4 nights of total luxury, bargain! We take a taxi back to the airport and the car hire centre, the lines are long for Hertz, but we bypass these and head to the gold club collection point on the 3rd floor. The lady said that we were not entitled to use our gold status because it was a third party booking. She said on this occasion she would overlook this and continued with processing the car. We took additional roadside assistance $3 per day and we were done and on our way in about 15 minutes.
Also we decided to pre-pay the fuel so we could return it empty. We did this because we noticed that the price offered by Hertz was 10c per gallon cheaper than the garage outside the airport and we didn’t want to be trailing around looking for gas when we returned the car.
A Bad picture of the car
We took our own Sat Nav, Michael decided to argue with her decision to take us on the turnpike, Michael headed for the I95, this wasn’t his best decision, it was jammed, so we decided the ‘Sat Nag’ lady was right and we soon joined the 75.
We stopped at Fort Pierce and bought sandwiches and water from the Earl of Sandwich, very nice.
About another 20 minutes into the journey we noticed the grey skies and soon we were in shocking weather, the rain took visibility down to about 2 metres we slowed down to about 15 miles per hour.
The horrid weather
We passed 3 accidents in 10 minutes.
1. TV truck – upside down, it had just happened
2. Jack knifed truck – this looked really bad, opposite carriage way – police etc on scene
3. Porsche – on the meridian, really banged up, again looked like it had just happened.
There were road works making the lanes narrow and it’s was quite a tense 30 minutes till we were clear.
We saw a Wallymart, so stopped to pick up water, cereal, milk coffee, snacks and of course beer!
This hotel was again a freebie on Holiday Inn Points, and once again we were upgraded and offered a further upgrade to a Suite for $30 per night, which we accepted.
Room 823 was amazing a two room suite with a large wrap around balcony facing the ocean.
We unpacked lazed around and enjoyed a beer on the balcony, it was really hot out there, by 6pm we were both hungry and decided to eat at the hotel. There is a lovely outdoor area overlooking the beach, it’s got a cool island vibe going on, a tiki bar and tiki stage where a band was performing Jack Johnson type tunes.
We ordered 5 appetisers to share instead of mains, and were disappointed; four of them were pretty awful that included, Onion Rings, Gator Tail, Shrimp Cocktail and Crab Cake Sliders. However, the Tuna Sashimi was wonderful.
Seen as the beach was about 10 steps away from where we were seated we had a lovely walk and paddle along the beach
While most of Melbourne is located on the Florida mainland, a small portion is located on a barrier island this is where the Crowne Plaza is. The Indian River Lagoon separates the mainland from the island. The island is a narrow strip of land that separates the Lagoon from the Atlantic Ocean.
After walking for about an hour the sun was going down so we found a comfy sofa on the decking and sat drinking cocktails listening to the music and have a good giggle
We stayed there until about 9.30pm and then off to the very comfy bed, after channel surfing for a while we were both in the land of nod before 10.30pm