Field Trip B: "Big City Day"

Today we checked Field Trip B off our list: "Big City Day" - it's billed title to the kids, but privately I called it Public Transportation Day - because that was what we experienced mostly. And lest anyone think that Public Transportation would have any remote connection with public restrooms, I must let you know, pregnant women of the world, there is not.

Our day started by catching a bus in our part of town. Caleb has begged to ride the city bus since he was tiny, but bus travel has always been sort of mysterious to me. I couldn't find out if it was ok to take carseat bound kids on the bus. I did eventually learn that not only can they ride, they can ride for free - provided they are 42 inches tall or shorter. Caleb is 41 inches in shoes! Whew!

I also knew from experience that bus drivers are the secretaries of the road. You don't pull anything past them. Rob and I mistakenly thought we could buy rail transfers from the bus (you could in the past), but the bus driver corrected us...firmly!
Fortunately, a super helpful attendant at the Metrorail identified us immediately at non-regulars and helped us buy an Easy Pass for the day. For $5 you can ride bus or rail where ever you want, as much as you want. Otherwise, it's $2 each time you board.

The Metrorail is much less intimidating to me. I rode it 5 days a week when I worked near downtown. It is really a shame that it only goes a few places in Miami because it is fast and convenient.

Yea trains!

Once downtown, Rob had made arrangements to visit an attorney he knew who worked in the SunTrust building.

He let us look out the conference room window (17 stories up). On the roof of the building next door, we saw a playground! I guess there was a school in the building.

Caleb at an important meeting.

The door of the SunTrust building.

While in the area, we had lunch from a street vendor. This is my giant hot dog. Nitrates, smitrates! It was good :) And the vendor was the sweetest lady. She saw we had our hands full and Annalise really wanted the ketchup wiped off her face, so she came over and helped her out.

Most of our downtown experience came while riding the Metromover. Even without the Easy Pass, the Metromover is free. Plus it comes often and stops just about everywhere.

From the Metromover we saw the Freedom Tower (pictured), the bay (cruise ships), and of course all the big buildings.

Caleb in the driver's seat - the Metromovers are run by computer.

I think she has this public transportation thing down!

One of the Metromover stops is Riverwalk. I read a review of Riverwalk online that wasn't very flattering. The reviewer thought it wasn't pedestrian friendly enough and that parts of it are blocked. But for a family traveling with small kids, it was just long enough for us. Plus it was shady and cooler.

Artwork at the Riverwalk station.

Caleb really wanted a picture with this statue by the drawbridge!

This is the famous Miami Circle - yes that little patch of grass. You can read more about the Miami Circle HERE, but the short of it is mysterious ancient circle shaped cutting in the rock by the river. No one is exactly sure who made it or why it is there, but it's presumed to be a special native-American site. You can't really get that close to it, hence the unimpressive picture.

So Miami! Caleb asked me to take this picture!

Being downtown we saw a lot of interesting signs, like...

There was no explanation as to who was kissing and riding.

Here is the sign for the historic Ft. Dallas Park - and the funding must have run out because the sign was all there was to see!

This is an advertisement on the Metrorail for a church that is led by our church's former associate pastor. It actually meets at the BCM on the UM campus. It is not a big church and we were surprised to see so many signs for it.

And this one made me think - if this is a no panhandling zone, does that mean there is an official panhandling zone somewhere?

Part of my motivation for going downtown was that I want to let the kids experience what their neighborhood has to offer - if we lived in South Arkansas, I'd want them to go see a wild dogwood tree in the woods (actually I'd still like for them to see that), but we live in Miami and it has a major downtown area! It was a nice day trip and being locals we knew better than to get stuck at Bayside the whole time. I put together a quick video about our day: