The Miami Seaquarium is a place everyone should visit once. Once is enough. One shot through the place helps make a nice transistion from your non-tropical home to Florida and the Caribbean. Ok so the place was kind of a ripoff, you gotta get ripped off at least once or its not a real vacation. The day we went the big Killer Whale show had been cancelled. (So all that time I spent telling the kids it was a GOOD idea to stand really close to the tank, leaning over to see better at times was a waste) Since that was pretty much the big attraction and only thing we couldnt see at an amusement park back home in Kansas that was pretty much it for that place. There was this one big tank with some fish in it that was kinda cool (pics at left). While we were there a large group of kids came in. I was hoping they would beat on the tank causing a shark to break through the window but it didnt happen. I also noticed several stains on the floors and rowdy guests. That combined with the closed snack bars all over the place and really long wait for a cab to get out of there ruined my seaquarium experience. It will be a long time till I take another seaquarium-based vacation.
MIA's new site is cool. Check the "links" section, there are some great ones there. There is also important information about Picking Up and Dropping Off travelers, ground transportation, even where to eat!
Downtown Miami means Bayside, the Seaport and a hotel that's close to both. We always come in town from our other home in the midwest at least one day early. Its the only way to go. No worries about airlines going broke midflight and dumping us out, two to a parachute, over Atlanta causing us to miss the sailing. Worse than that we would miss our prenight dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. If you go there ask for Roley. He's a student at the University of Miami studying film. You can say you met him when he was just a waiter. But hes much more. On our first trip he mapped out a plan for us to see all the good stuff that Miami had to offer (ok so it was on the back of a cocktail napkin). We probably would have found South Beach without his directions but Roley is a great example of how friendly people are here. When he moves along to make his fortune in Hollywood (actually he wants to film music videos) we will have to find somebody else I guess.
