Jan/100
Orange Bowl Honeymoon
My wife and I celebrated our belated honeymoon by taking a trip to Miami to watch the Iowa Hawkeyes play in the Orange Bowl. Besides the coldest weather Florida has seen in the last decade, it was a great trip and I can't wait to do it again soon. This was actually the first bowl game that I have ever attended and I've learned a few things that should help me out in the future if I am lucky enough to go once more. Here are some things of note that we experienced during our trip.
First, our tickets were ordered through the University before the bowl games were announced. Because it was up in the air on where exactly we would be playing, we decided the best solution was to ensure we got tickets. MISTAKE! Yes, we were able to get a ticket right away, but the University seats put us up in the nose bleed section of the stadium. If I had to do it all over again, I'd take my chances on a ticket broker or scalp tickets before the game and pay the extra cash. Don't get me wrong, having guaranteed tickets to the game is great, but having the lower level seats looked far better.
Secondly, we decided to take a flight out of Milwaukee instead of a surrounding airport (Omaha, Cedar Rapids, Quad Cities, etc...). The price for a round trip flight from Cedar Rapids was going to cost about $1,800 (O-M-G) when I was checking online. Omaha and Quad Cities were similar in price between each other at around $800 (not too bad). When I learned I could fly into Ft. Lauderdale from Milwaukee at $470 (YES!) round trip for my wife and I. It was a no-brainer. The trip to Milwaukee was only about 4.5 hours from Cedar Rapids with good weather. The trip home, on the other hand, took about 6 hours in the middle of a snow storm. Did the driving suck? Yes. You know what, it was worth the extra $400-$1,400 in savings versus other places. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
Some notes about our lodging experience. I decided to book a hotel in Ft. Lauderdale closer to our airport the night we arrived and the night before departure. The night we went to the bowl game, I booked a hotel in South Beach that was a little closer to the Stadium. If I had to do it over again, I think I would just choose one hotel location and just stick with that. For the amount of time that I was supposedly saving in driving it really wasn't worth moving all of our stuff and figuring out different parking and checkout/checkins.
Speaking of hotels, the only good thing about getting the South Beach hotel was that we got to have a great experience. I originally booked at a hotel (cant recall name) that upon arriving had other customers complaining to the staff that people had been walking into their rooms unannounced multiple times. Didn't really feel comfortable staying there after hearing that but we didn't have to worry because they over-booked the hotel and sent us off to a place called "The Catalina" which was suppose to be of equal stature. I can't really describe the room we stayed in, so I'll just post a picture of the hotel we got moved to...
Its a good thing we didn't really have to spend too much time in this place. I felt like I was back in the 60's mixed with a little bit of the year 2000. Not to mention the absence of parking due to its proximity of the beach. Not like that was a bad thing! Just sayin'.
Did someone say beach? Oh yeah, that was probably one of my highlights of the whole trip. I seriously want to go back when its a little bit warmer and enjoy the waves while getting a nice tan. We saw a bunch of Hawkeye fans while we were on South Beach including Amari Spieveys family. I didn't really want to complain about flying after hearing how they drove all the way from Connecticut to watch the game. They were nice folks and hope all turns out well for Amari in the NFL. My wife and I took a nice walk down the beach and enjoyed the beautiful blue water. I just wish we had more time to soak it up.
A little Captain In Me
The day after the game we went to the Zoo and just relaxed. Had to work off some of that Orange Bowl hangover. Here are a few pictures of some of the stuff we came across.
Had a great time Miami! Hope to be back soon.
