Pre-Game

Hello! Here I am again. Welcome to the new readers. At the end of this post you will find a short list of things to know about this blog.

Alaska Ice

Below are some photos I took shortly after takeoff from Anchorage. We usually find ourselves on a red-eye flight, so it was nice to be able to see something this time. 

I read The Correspondent, by Virginia Evans, on the plane. Really good book.

Mt. Spurr, slightly right of center, a dormant volcano

Mt. Susitna, the “Sleeping Lady”

Mountains and glaciers

As we flew over College Fjord, I had a nice view of Harvard Glacier. I marked it with a yellow arrow. Yale Glacier is marked with a blue arrow.

Miami Nice, Miami Vice

Friday, January 23, 2026

We arrived in Miami to great weather!

Getting from the airport to our hotel was not a full-on nightmare, but it was definitely a very bad dream. We cycled through three Uber drivers who were supposed to arrive in “15 minutes” each time, but each one took longer and they each were cancelled by Uber four or five minutes before they arrived. The fourth driver showed up, but by this time we had wasted an hour.

During the drive to our hotel, I was struck by two things. 1) The traffic here is really terrible. 2) Miami is a stunningly beautiful city. Modern high-rise buildings, most of them white, most of them residential. A lot of lush tropical greenery. Public art all over the place.

Our hotel was an extremely nice Hampton Inn in the Brickell neighborhood. We used to stay at Hampton Inns a lot, but have had too many disappointing and unpleasant experiences in them, so now we usually try not to choose them. The worst was 4 or 5 years ago, in Boca Raton, of all places. We woke up in the middle of the night because police were banging on the door directly across from us with regard to some kind of domestic disturbance. There was a lot of conversation taking place right outside our door.

The Miami-Brickell Hampton Inn is clean and stylish and has a lot of amenities, including a bar and a pool deck on the 6th floor. It’s very expensive and it’s always quite full. (We have stayed here before.) But we had a free night from Hilton Honors, so we cashed it in.

Within three blocks you can find a grocery store, a Walgreen’s and dozens of tempting restaurants. There is also a greenway, The Underline, a 10-mile linear park under the Metro tracks. 

Around the corner there is a Museums Magnet School. There are four or five of these schools in Miami. The school we saw was described as “a museum-based learning environment focused on exploration, exhibition, and critical thinking.” This explanation leaves me wanting to know a bit more.

Also, we noticed some cute little robot carts on some of the street corners. These sidewalk robots can deliver food, documents, or small packages.

We chose Coyotacos for dinner because it was close by, very casual and had interesting items on the menu, including $6 margaritas. I had a Pollo al Carbon taco and a banana daiquiri. Ken had a birria burrito and a margarita. Service was very prompt. I would go back, but there were a lot of other places there I would like to go to, so maybe I need to stay in Miami for a week. (Sorry, we forgot to take photos of the restaurant and the food.)

Both robots were offering a free cup of coffee, but we didn’t care for any at that time.

All Aboard

Saturday, January 24, 2026

Because of the problems getting an Uber yesterday, I switched to Lyft and pre-booked a car to take us to the port in the late morning. I think there were 8 ships leaving today. It’s always extra busy on a Saturday because most 7-day cruises start and end on a Saturday.

We drove through a part of downtown that seemed to consist of a number of enormous court buildings. It made me think about how overwhelming our legal system must seem to most folks, but also, as a lawyer, I couldn’t help reflecting on how central the legal system is to the smooth functioning of our society.

The port isn’t far away, but it was hard to get there. At one point we had to wait for a drawbridge that was up. When we finally got near the port, we had to go over a causeway, and all the traffic had to funnel into one or two lanes. At the entrance to the port there was something like a toll plaza, and only one booth was open. Six lanes of traffic had to go through. On the other side, we encountered traffic that was just inching along.The signage was confusing because the route to the ships appeared to require following signs pointing to the port exit. We were expecting to have to go past at least four other ships before we arrived at ours, but somehow our driver managed to get a cop to let us go through a parking lot and that probably saved us 20-30 minutes. We came out on the far left side of a road with 5 or 6 lanes. Our pier was on the right side no more than a few hundred feet ahead. Our driver brilliantly got across and we were able to turn off to our ship at the last possible minute.  Ken says he never wants to use the Port of Miami again.

FINALLY, we reached our ship, Holland America’s Zuiderdam. From this point on, everything went like clockwork. Our room was so nice we forgot to take photos. (Will do so later and post on blog.) We wandered around a little. I stopped at the library. The book selection was a little sparse, but much better than most other cruise lines. They didn’t seem to have any books published in 2025. Dinner was delicious.

All in all, we are very pleased with the Zuiderdam. It is pronounced Zy-der-dahm, with a long “I” sound, not Zoo-der-dam or Zwee-der-dam. It is Dutch and means “south dam.”

The ship was recently in dry dock and new carpeting was installed, among other things. The decor of the ship is mostly Art Deco., but there are several quirky features, which we will discuss in due course.

Today’s fabric is Banana Leaf Tropical Palm Pink by dentzdecor for Spoonflower. 

About the blog

1. Please feel free to comment through the Blogger app. I love getting comments.

2. Unless you put your name in a comment or use a Google screen name, I can’t tell who wrote a comment. It’s ok if you wish to post anonymously, however. I also can’t tell who opens a blog post.

3. This is a travel blog. I try to keep politics out of it. Do not assume I am unaware of current events just because I don’t mention them.

4. You are receiving this blog because you asked to be placed on my mailing list. If you wish to stop receiving it, let me know. I understand that reading about someone else's vacation might not be fun for you. However, before you quit (or right now), please look at “Why Do I Blog” for a better understanding of this blog.

5. Most of the photos were taken by Ken. I took a few of them. If someone else took one, I try to give them credit.