Friday, 6 December 2024

Austin to Miami

It’s Friday evening and we have arrived at our Miami Airport hotel for one night’s stay before boarding our cruise tomorrow. We are checked in and have had dinner in the hotel’s bar/lounge. Although the short flight was fine, there were a few travel snafus along the way, which you will read about below.

Thursday, 5 December 2024

Austin, TX

Our only full day in Austin is cloudy and cool. Akiko prepares a hearty breakfast and coffee. We are heading out at noon to Taylor, TX, a small country town where a friend runs the best Korean restaurant east of Tucson. It's supposed to take an hour to reach Taylor, but road congestion and accidents cause many obstructions and delays. We reach the restaurant about 1:45pm; we are greeted warmly by the owner and chef, Naomi Kim. In exchange for the excellent service we receive, Akiko has brought along a supply of home-made cookies.

The four of us devour and share a number of Korean specialities with subtle American hints: potato and cheese dumplings, noodle bowl with rice and several kinds of kimchi (spicy pickles), fried scallion and potato pancakes, fresh fish sandwich cut in four large pieces, and beef short ribs served with potatoes and vegetables—more than enough to eat for the four of us.

The return traffic to Austin is much better than driving up and we have time to stop for large, delicious donuts at The Lone Star Bakery, a tradition in Broad Rock, TX. The donuts will serve as a light dinne for the four of us.

Friday, 6 December 2024

Austin to Miami

After gathering our travel gear and sharing a light breakfast of croissants, fruit, and coffee, we are ready for Steve and Akiko to drive us to Austin-Bergstrom Airport for our non-stop Southwest flight to Miami. We arrive quite early, which we like to do in case there are any problems. We are able to check our bags outside the terminal and then it’s a short walk to the wheelchair waiting area.

Very soon we are on a very long ride to security and the departure gate. I get through security very quickly, although I have a full pat-down due to my titanium left hip. Unlike Tucson, Austin’s machinery is advanced enough that computers and other devices do not have to be removed from carry-ons. But after I get my stuff together, Will is nowhere to be seen. I wait and wait with visions of what happened at CDG in Paris last spring (you can link back at the bottom of the page if you have forgotten). Finally, I talk with an agent who tells me there is a problem with Will’s boarding pass, but that he is now on his way. Fortunately at this point he doesn’t have to remove his orthopedic book as he did in Phoenix. It turns out his boarding pass was printed with the wrong birthdate and it all had to be corrected before security would let him pass.

After another very long ride to the gate we still have plenty of time before boarding. Luckily, things go smoothly from here and the two hour 40 minute flight takes us to Miami without any additional problems.

In Miami, where the weather is beautiful, with bright blue skies and very low humidity, we wait about 30 minutes for the free shuttle to the Sonesta Airport Hotel. What the driver doesn’t tell us is that there are two different Sonesta hotels around the corner from each other and he drops us at the wrong one. The hotel clerk tells us we can do the walk in five minutes—not very likely with two large suitcases, one small suitcase and two carry-ons; not to mention that Will is still wearing his boot! So we wait another 20 minutes for the same shuttle driver to deliver us to the correct hotel.

Finally at the right place, management is very sympathetic and helpful, getting us up to our fifth floor room very quickly. The hotel is being completely renovated, but the parts that have been completed—including our room and all the public areas—are really quite nice. We have hamburgers and French fries, with very cold Heinekens, before settling in for a well-deserved restful night.

Tomorrow we board the Marina and I promise there will be more and more photos.