Well, I did it and she said yes! Not that I was really concerned that she wouldn’t say yes, since she has been on my case for a long time that she wanted to get married. So as you will see in the next post (though I wrote it a while ago) I had several plans to ask. Really it was just a matter of watching for the best moment. First I think I will go over some of the details of our trip to Miami and then I will get to the where and the how. It was a short trip. We were in Miami from late Thursday night until Sunday evening. I flew in from Milwaukee and RB flew in from Minneapolis. We stayed at the Marriot Biscayne Bay just a few miles from South Beach and really an easy drive from all the places we wanted to visit. We had to get a car as there are really any trains and the buses are as good for getting around as they are in many places. Thursday night we didn’t really do anything but drive to the hotel and get settled; which is fine as we got in around midnight anyway.
The next day we got up mid morning and headed out toward a roadside attraction in a town south of Miami called Homestead. The attraction is called Coral Castle. It was built by a heart broken immigrant in the early part of the twentieth century. The man who built it was heart broken because at the age of 26, his 16 year old fiancé broke off their engagement the day before their marriage because he was too old and poor. So he came to America and built a strange monument to the family he never had. The site is quite large spanning the better part of an acre. It is all built using coral excavated from the surrounding land. The castle has about ten foot walls, a small living space, and dozens of sculptures. Many of these sculptures are functional, like the grill, the bath, a heart shaped table, and a rocking chair. It was pretty spectacular. What is more amazing is that he built alone with no help and no power tools. The man was only 5 foot tall weighting 100 lbs yet he moved coral components that weighted over 9 tons! This was actually the first place I thought of doing it, but I didn’t bring the ring because I thought the cheese factor was going to be too high. In reality it might have made a nice setting it was romantic in its own way.
That afternoon we headed to South Beach. It was a beautiful day without a cloud in the sky and temperatures hanging around 80 degrees. It was a bit of work to find a place to park as the Food Network was putting on a cheese and wine festival on the beach. After driving the main strip once to see every thing though we did find open parking a few blocks away. So we walked back to the beach and had a nice lunch at a side walk bistro. Thought honestly, the Cuban sandwich I had wasn’t as good as the ones I get down the street back home. Then we walked up and down the streets looking at all the Art deco hotels and walked a long ways down the beach. Later we sat on the beach and watched the waves for a while. It would have been a perfect place to propose, but I still didn’t have the ring with me and there turned out to be some obnoxious girls just a few feet away the got loud and pretty much killed any atmosphere that had been there.
Our friends later told us that South Beach is its own world. That certainly was true. While we had lunch we saw many people go by. Most were not that note worthy but one man certainly was. He was in his late thirties I would guess and was wearing a jean skirt and gold bikini top with a baseball cap turned around. He also was listening to a 25 year old walkman while he strutted up and down the boulevard. On top of that he winked at man of the guys and gals he passed as he belted out in a deep gruff voice “You are the wind beneath my wing!” This all happened as people in BMWs, Farris, Lamborghinis, Aston Martins, Porsches, and other exotic cars came and went. In driving and walking around south beach was almost like going to an exotic car show. In the two days we were in Miami we saw more expensive cars than I have seen in the last decade combined. It certainly is its own world.
That night we met up with a friend of mine and his girlfriend that live in the area and that I had worked with in Dayton, OH on a project. They met us in the hotel bar and we had some drinks and decided to go for sushi. RB had never had sushi before so we had to do it. The place we went was very nice. It was dark and comfortable and the tables were actually placed in sections of the floor that had been lowered from the main floor. This gave the impression that people were sitting on the floor at very low tables; when in reality we sitting normally on the edge of the main floor with our feet on the lowered floor. It was a fun way of setting up the seating. The food was great, the bottles of wine were great, and the company was a lot of fun. RB loved sushi which is great because I am actually a big fan of it myself. Hopefully when they visit Minnesota we can show them as good of a time.
The next day we slept in a little longer than I had originally wanted but that’s fine its vacation. It just meant that we didn’t get lunch until later. So the first stop today was Gator Park, a private attraction on the north side of Everglades National park. Here we took a fan boat tour of Everglades. Something I think everyone should try if the get down that way. We saw several gators in the wild, along with many birds, turtles, and native plants. The guild was very knowledgeable and friendly. Or tickets to the park also included access to a zoo with several gators, snakes, and other critters and tickets to a show. The show was almost as fun, at least for me, as the fan boat ride. The staff member giving the show wrestled a large (maybe 7ft long) gator and brought out a smaller one everyone could get up close too. RB didn’t like this because he kept dropping it so it would slap her arm or leg. Every time he did this she screamed. This of course just encouraged him and everyone –except RB- thought it was great fun. She did leave unharmed though a little angry.
Next I had planned to picnic in the national park then rent some bikes and take a nature trail to a lookout tower that is rumored to have a great view of the Everglades. Unfortunately we were too late to rent bikes, and there were no picnic tables. Now I had planned to propose at lunch. I had even brought a jacket because “it was so windy”, when really it was because “the ring was in the pocket”. So I was a little bummed things weren’t quite going my way. So we sat at the edge of the parking lot and had our lunch, without a proposal. Next we decided to go on a nature hike. Just incase I brought my jacket.
After a couple of hundred feet down the main trail there was a side board walk through the swamp. We decided to take this trail. It was perfect actually, no one else was on the trail, there were beautiful surroundings and it was nice and shaded by Florida’s version of the weeping willow tree. So I figured I should do it. It actually took a minute to slow RB down - sometimes she gets to moving and just keeps going. As I didn’t know what to say I actually started out with some playful teasing. Asking “how good of a trip would this be if I asked you to marry me?” She basically said do joke about that but it would make the trip better. So I joked a little more on a scale of 1 to 10 and she said 25. So then I got down on one knee, pulled the ring out, and asked her to marry me. She thought I was kidding until she saw the ring. She was totally unprepared, which is probably why she said yes. Actually she said UH-HUH. Which I took as a yes.
Later she would tell me she was actually on the verge of getting very angry for me teasing her until she figured out I wasn’t joking! After a few minutes we finished walking down the side trail and continued on the main path. I thought it went about as perfectly as possible. She was completely surprised, loved that I did it while we were traveling, and loved that it was a unique setting. We made sure of course to buy some souvenirs at the gift shop. The only thing that didn’t work out so well that day, is that I did not put any sunscreen on and my forehead got a little burnt. But believe it or not I’m not too concerned about it, it’s not that bad.
That night we had a late dinner and desert at an authentic Cuban restraint in Little Havana. Little Havana is similar to the rest of Miami except that a lot of Cuban refugees live there after fleeing Castro’s regime. The restaurant we went to is called Versailles like the French place in Europe but there is very little European flavor there. The food was amazing. The decor was certainly unique, having crystal chandeliers, high ceilings, and expensive woodwork paired up with dinner style tables and chairs along with a cheap tile floor and a drop ceiling. The service was adequate, the selection was extensive, and the atmosphere was unbeatable. There was a mix of Cuban ex-nationals along with people from all other walks of life. I wish I could go there once a week for the next six months just to try everything on the menu. A very memorable part of the night was watching my new Fiancé sneaking glances at her new ring ever few minutes.
To wrap up the trip we slept in even later the next day, took our time packing, called my parents to let them know the good news before leaving the hotel room. Then we had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel restaurant. It was ok it had a great view of the bay but was a little expensive for eggs, toast, and ham for two. When we finally did get going we took another drive to the original expensive part of Miami called Coral Gables. There we planned on taking a free tour of a classy hotel called the Biltmore. While we did get to walk around the grounds quite a bit we were unable to take the tour because the tour guide never showed up. But it was a very nice relaxing morning/afternoon anyway. After that we took the car back, shuttled to the airport, had dinner at Chili’s and ended our trip. The whole experience was as good as it gets in my book.
No comments:
Post a Comment