Sister Trip to Miami Beach!

Our parents loved to travel, and so my sisters and I decided to budget some of our inheritance money for traveling together.  We hope this is the first of many trips!

However, this trip almost didn't happen for me at all  as you can tell from this text I sent to Terry from the plane . . .

I had everything go wrong this morning. Got to the airport without my purse. At 5 am I drove back home to get it (after begging my way out of long term parking without paying) at speeds up to 110 mph. On the way back I ran out of gas in sight of the airport. Was resigned to my fate when I got a text that my flight was delayed 15 min. Caught an Uber and am now sitting in the plane!

My car needs to be picked up though. It is near the Sonic right by the airport. You can’t miss the Hoosier Slayer (by the way, you need to clean that off the window, it’s been two weeks since the Gator Bowl). It needs gas obviously. Sorry. At least we don’t have to pay for long term parking now.

I just can’t believe I made it! Alternative was probably to go tonight for big bucks or just skip the trip entirely. Thank the Lord my plane had a low tire which caused the delay!

I can tell you that experience was probably the biggest adrenaline rush of my life - and that includes my first solo flight when I was training for my pilot's license.  My sisters were pretty nervous, too.  But almost missing the trip entirely just made me appreciate the trip that much more.

Carol, who chose our destination of Miami Beach, planned our days pretty well.  We arrived on a Friday and toured a beautiful lighthouse at Key Biscayne.  It was quite windy!

On Saturday, we headed to the Everglades and took a guided tram tour through the park.  We saw gators and lots of birds, and of course had plenty of time for more conversation.  

If you think that tower looks like the one at Clingman's Dome, you are right!  I asked our tour guide, and he said this one was modeled after the one in the Smokies.

On our last day in Miami, we got up early to see the sunrise on the beach and then headed to Vizcaya Mansion.

Vizcaya was beautiful, and we enjoyed exploring the mansion and the grounds.   

We had not had much luck with restaurants on the trip in spite of our best efforts, but our lunch near Vizcaya was AWESOME!  We ate at a place called Monty's, and it had a great atmosphere and delicious food!

We ended our trip with a stroll around Miami Beach that evening.  I have a feeling we probably won't be back as Miami Beach is sort of a budget breaker.  But it won't be our last Sister Trip!