Drive on

Hei Bloggen!

Today we drove from Miami to Tampa. Stopped by Sjømannskirken, but it was closed. Missed the exit to Everglades City, so didn't see any alligators, stopped in Naples for an ice cream, and then to Tampa.

Got a nice hotel, watched the NHL game, and went out. Super hungover, so can't write more now.

Tampa Skyline

Lightning vs Blue Jackets

Beach in Naples

Hungover transport

Not much to write about today, woke up tired and hungover. Packed our bags, and headed back to Miami.

Stian had his first day in the drivers seat, and did very well, while I had to be the GPS-operator.

The drive from Key West was much nicer without rain, so we had a good time. Sindre didn't see much, since he was mostly sleeping while listening to DDE and Tønes.

In Miami we checked into our hotel, got a huge pizza, and ended up falling asleep in the evening. We woke up around 10pm and decided to go out a short trip to this apparently very fancy lounge. We had an stupidly expensive "mojito", and made up stories about the other people there, before we decided to go home and save up energy for the long drive to Tampa, and the NHL-match tomorrow.

Did You Say Fish?

After a good night sleep, we were ready for one the highly anticipated fishing trip out of Key West. We woke up at 7, packed our bags and set off. First to the drive through ATM (nice touch america), then subway for breakfast, and then to the marina to find our boat.At the marina we met Cory, a canadian guy who was joining the fun.

Our biggest fish

We all paid, loaded the beer into the boat, and set of. All quite nervous for the conditions at sea, because there was a frisky wind. Luckily for us, the waves were quite small inn the beginning of the trip, so we managed to stay happy for at least the first part of the trip. After a good hour of boating, the first fish bit, and we put our Canadian friend in charge of getting the fish into the boat. This didn't go very well, because it snapped of after 10 minutes of fighting, to bad, seemed to be a big one!

Sindres biggest fish

Up next was me and Sindre, when two fish bit at the same time. We pulled up two nice Mahi Mahis, at around 7 kg. Quite big, but nothing compared to what was coming. Stian took the next one, and got an even bigger one, at 18 kg! Cory then got the biggest so far, but it escaped when our first mate tried to get it onboard. We heard on the radio later that another boat caught a 20+kg mahimai with a hook in its mouth, probably his. Finally I got a blackfin tuna, and then our luck ran out. The waves grew big, the fish stopped biting, and we mostly felt sick.

Safely back on dry land we did some posing with our fish, went to the pool to relax, and then into town for dinner and drinks. Key West is really a charming little city.

We had a good time, and I even beat both Sindre and Stian in pool (will never happen again), and went to bed way after midnight.

All in all a great day! :)

Where we fished

DIE DIE DIE! Fishfwrestling

The big one that got away

Catch of the day

Nice at the pool.

Miami to Key West

Art Deco on Ocean Drive

New day, new possibilities. We woke up early, due to our room being at the ground floor, with a busy street as the closest neighbor. Since the hangover hadn't set in, we decided to get out and about.

After buying sunscreen and jandals, we headed to the beach for some swimming, sleeping and tanning. The water was nice and refreshing, and the sun scorching. We survived with only minor sunburns, caused by sloppy application of the sunscreen.

South Beach

Stian enjoying the beach

When we decided that our winter white bodies had received the needed dose of sun, we started to walk north, to get lunch, an american sim-card and the rental car. We all felt quite nice, until we arrived at the car rental office, where we all pretty much hit the wall. After filling out some paperwork, and being tricked into buying some extra insurance, we were on our way in the fancy Chevrolet Malibu. Not the feel of a premium European car, but it does the job.

I got the task of transporting us to Key West, and the other guys took the role as DJ/beer drinkers.

After a suprisingly long and slow drive on very straight roads, we arrived in Key West in a torrential rain storm. This will hopefully be over before fishing tomorrow.

Dinner was consumed at IHOP, for the first, and probably last time.

The lack of sleep is catching up on us, so tonight will be an early one, to make us prepared for the fishing trip tomorrow

No captions needed

Ironing is essential

Headed in to the storm

Where we were today

We're going to Miami

Finally, two days late, it was time to pack the bags and set of to the retirement state, Florida.

After a night of lousy sleep, I headed to pick up Sindre at 0430, and then Stian. We arrived at the airport with plenty of time to sleep, and met up with Tommy and Siri who were going on the same plane to Frankfurt. Not at lot of conversation were made, due to a combined lack of sleep.

View from our flight to Frankfurt

The plane boarded, and left on time, with me on a window seat, and Sindre next to me. Stian was on his own booking, so he had to sit far away. The flight was uneventful all the way to landing, where the pilot had to abort, and go around 100 meters above the runway. Funny feeling when the engines suddenly are turned on full throttle when you expect to land. But, after a new trip around the airport, we landed safely on the second try.

We've heard plenty of terrifying transfer stories at Frankfurt, of long walks and missed planes, so we were ready to really run to our next flight, due to the short transfer time, and delayed arrival. This turned out to not to be a problem, and we got to the gate in less than ten minutes.

At the gate, the crew were happy to give us new seats, so Stian
didn't have to sit alone 30 rows behind us. This flight went by without any exciting events.
In Toronto we went through US Customs, nice touch, and decided to spend some money on lounge access. Good decision. for 220 NOK we had free drinks, good food and comfortable chairs. Well spent.

Crossing the atlantic

Airplane fish. Quite dry to be honest

Lounge. Sweetness

Got through customs!

Almost in Miami

We were able to change our seats on this flight as well, so we could sit together. And the lady behind the desk decided to be nice, and gave us the emergency exit seats. This was very nice, after this already long trip. The flight to Miami was quite bumpy due to a storm over the south, but we slept through most of it. I really learned to appreciate the noise cancellation of my Bose Quietcomfort.

In Miami we decided to push through, even though we had been traveling for over 20 hrs, and got quite drunk. Still waiting for the hangover to kick in.

Best pizza ever, not.

Strike

Early action on this trip.

Because of the strike in Lufthansa, our first flight on Saturday was cancelled.

We made our travel agent aware of this yesterday, and he was suprised, because in his system the flight wasn't cancelled. Even when you check the Air Canada site today, it's still listed as Scheduled.

Our agent initially told us that it was impossible to re-book us to another flight, and said that we could get our money refunded for the flight. This was not an option, because we'd already booked hotels, rental cars and other stuff, which could not be refunded.

After a lot of nagging, emailing and phoning, our agent in cooperation with Air Canada found room for us on the Monday flight, so we will get to Miami, just two days later than planned. Sucks a bit to lose the Saturday night in Miami, but right now we're just happy that we got a flight in the end.

Ny tur, samme blog

Tenkte å ta opp tråden i denne bloggen på den kommende turen til USA med Sindre og Stian.