At the beginning of the year I participated in a pie baking competition with a grand prize of a trip for two to Florida Keys. My teammate and I baked the best Keylime pie, pandering to the judges. Topping it the graham cracker dust shaped like Florida and The Keys. We ended up winning this competition and had decided to take the trip in fall. This was to avoid the hotter weather and so that it would coincide with their local, annual beer festival.
Fast forward the time to travel was here. Although weeks before, after ironing out the itinerary and learning of all the down time we would have across the four days; my baking mate and I decided that I should go on the trip with my partner instead.
Truthfully I do not travel well, I am one of those people who likes things the way I do, and has a set routine. When I plan and things don’t go as planned, I get irritated. I am conscious of my need for downtime and quiet concentration, and as well as overall privacy. I always say, “I want to be able to let my body do what it wants”, and having someone with me for 96 hours would not give me that. This would be a tough travel for my closest friend, let alone with a more casual friend, whom I have never spent more than a handful of hours with alone.
Not to mention, all the unscheduled downtime with ability to enjoy the beaches, the resort, and taking in some of the local sights. All of which I truthfully, could not see ourselves engaging in together. Thankfully, she was understanding, and with our friendship in mind, we decided that I would take my partner instead.
And thankfully I did as there would be some turbulence on this trip, with credit card issues and delays; and I did lose my cool, but he was able to bring it back to me.
Ken is the king of Airport and airline comfort, and as soon as he knew he was coming along, he started organizing everything we would need for a day of travel there, and one on the way back.
This preparation included purchasing me a pair of noise cancelling headphones. He already has a pair by Apple, so went and got me one from Sony, which I actually prefer given how lightweight they are.
He also ordered us neck pillows so that we would be able to rest well on the plane. They are adjustable and can conform to the shape you mould them in to, stiff and firm. They also have a snap buckle that allows them to fully encircle the neck. They would also later double as neck pillows that we used in the hotel. In truth, we actually use such rounded pillows for every day sleeping and cannot imagine not having it for four nights.
I have been eyeing it and finally thought it’s the right time to purchase a water bottle that includes a magnetic piece that I could mount my phone onto. This would allow us to film with a stand that doubled as a water bottle. Both of which we would need in this hot or climate, trying to catch memories of the both of us together. Little did we know the glue would fail, the magnetic piece would fall out and I was to hot to carry around a hot water bottle.
And lastly, not essential, but just something fun to have. He also purchased me a Jollibee sweatshirt with hood, which I have also been coveting. A warm layer to be comfortable and cosy in during our three hour wait before our flight and the five hour air time, not including the two hours layover.
Our flight was early in the morning to be able to get to our destination as early as possible. Seeing as it is considered an international flight, the protocol is that you arrive three hours ahead of schedule. Which we did. My partner cleverly scheduled an Uber pick up so that we were not left scrambling at 3 o’clock in the morning to catch out 6am flight to Dallas.
We boarded on time and thanks to how little we slept and how we had our creature comforts, we were able to nap on the first half of our airline travel.
We had a 2.5hr layover from Vancouver to Dallas Forth Worth, and after trying to get on an earlier flight, only to learn that it was fully booked, we looked to kill the time with some food.
I had bought some Chinese style cocktail buns and cup noodles, but I ate most of the former and my partner wasn’t feeling the latter, wanting something fresh instead.
So after walking the expanse of “A” wing we sought out Pappasito’s Cantina for their “legendary Tex-Mex”. We were reassured seeing that there were 2.5 locations side by side and each full.
We started with some drinks, looking for a full meal and one to carry us into our 4 hour flight to come.
It was a darken bar with a Mexican and Spanish influence from oil paintings of pull fighting to a boar bust wearing a sombrero.
With prompting from my partner, knowing what I like, I steered towards the Watermelon Margarita with Milagro Silver tequila, watermelon, lemon & lime juices. The tequila was pleasant in this, but masked by the artificial candied watermelon flavour. It reminded me of a liquid Jolly Rancher, with a booziness crept up behind you.
My partner ordered their new El Cocomo cocktails with Don Q Cristal rum, house-made hibiscus grenadine, coconut, fresh lime juice, mint, and Topo Chico. This was another sweet cocktail that did well to his its feature spirit. Minty and citrus fresh, with a thicker mouthfeel from the coconut water.
For food we decided to choose the platter featured on the front of their menu. It offered a taste of their specialities of fajitas and the brochette-style shrimp all in one, thus allowing us to try a little of everything.
Plato Del Mar with jumbo brochette-style shrimp, beef & chicken fajita, guacamole, and pico de gallo. This was a satisfying serving for two. Each order comes with 4 flour tortillas, so we had 2 each. A build your own burrito platter with plenty of tender meat cooked over a flame for a consistent char, and all the fixings to dress it the way you want it. We tasted but ultimately passed on the watery beans. I liked the flavour, but didn’t want its weight sitting heavy within me during a flight. And we added on a scoop of sour cream and some shredded cheese for us both. However this was not cheap, $5 for the total extras.
In the end, the above did what my partner had intended it to. We were left stuffed and a little buzz, the perfect food-coma to have us knocked out for our next 2 hour flight, off to our final destination.
Both flights from Vancouver to Dallas, then Dallas to Miami were with American Airlines. We liked the service and the hospitality, especially the agent that helped us check-in cheery at 6am and taught us how to use the handy American Airlines app to choose our seats, and ensure we would be seated together.
However, the plane itself we found cramped with some of the tightest rows of seats. There was no way to reach the ground before you, without hitting your head on the tray table in front. However thanks to our travel purchases, mentioned above we arrived in Miami more comfortable than we had expected.
They had to check-in our carry-on language and after claiming our bags we sought out our car booking reservation with Budget. This is where the momentum declined and we ended up spending 2.5 hours at the air port bouncing from one car company to anotherc trying to see which could and would take our forms of payment. The issue was my prepaid travel Mastercard had no chip and my partner’s Visa-Debit didn’t have his name on it. So we were left stranded with no vehicle.
As it neared 9pm and the car rental places were planning on closing, and we had missed the mark for getting a bus to our 2 hours plus destination. We ended up having to spend the night at a hotel nearby.
AC by Marriott in Doral had a last minute room for us and a complimentary shuttle to pick us up from the airport. We got to our destination and were clamouring to get clean.
We were given a handi-capable room and as a result had so much space.
The washroom had a walk-in shower with detachable shower head and seat. I was just not a fan of the low water pressure and how the narrow stall meant the plastic shower curtain stuck to your body. Within there were hair and body care products by Kohl and a bar of soap on the sink.
By the time we settled and got clean it was 10:30pm and too late to venture out, given that most things were closed or closing soon on thus Thursday night. This included our hotel’s restaurant and bar.
We made it in time to purchase a bottle of wine to enjoy a glass in the lobby, before taking the rest back upstairs to our room.
I liked that the lobby also had a mini mart of specialty items like chips, candy, and beverages. Many of which did tempt me with their unique flavours like egg and caviar chips.
In the end we decided to Uber a more substantial dinner seeing as we were too tired to walk out. This was a shame cause it would have been our only chance to explore Doral, since we were already here.
My partner was looking at sushi and shawarma, but I insisted that Vancouver has it better and given our location we should focus on something more Spanish. We agreed on the Carne en Vara Express Doral foodtruck for Venezuelan style BBQ. Inspired from El Llano, their meat is 100% wood-fired. We ordered a pound of their beef, which came with a choice of sides.
The steak was tender and my partner would declare it the best thing he had all trip. For sides we had the fried yuca which were like yam fries, crispy and soft at the centre. Plus a creamy slaw for something fresh. And because we could not go without trying the Chicharron we got a serving of that. It was a good mix of fatty and lean, I just could have used a sauce for dipping it into, but the generous 1.5 lime halves helped to inject flavour.
We would eat this and fall asleep watching Korean zombie movies. Our day or travel and turmoil done.
