Waynetopia - Start of a new world: Florida Trip

It was totally unexpected. Barely a week after coming back from Niagara, I was called to my boss’ office to discuss on a department meeting. I was basically just tasked to take care of some presentation issues for the meeting.

“Well, Wayne,” Betty said, “you are more than welcome to join us for the meeting."
“Sure. Is it in the conference room?
Betty and Liz laughed.
“Boca Raton is in Florida, Wayne. Do you think you can take a few days off school and join us?”

Are you kidding me?

Boca Raton

Before I knew it, I was already flying to Florida. Checking into my room at the Boca Raton Hotel & Resort, I was shocked. I was expecting either a shared or single standard room. Instead, I had a junior executive suite all to myself. StarCite really knows how to hold high-class meetings. At the 18^th floor, the view from my room was breath-taking.

The living room.....

...the sleeping room....

...the view

Our meeting area

It was a Thursday when I arrived. The meeting ended on a Friday. That’s when the real adventure begins

South Beach, Miami

After the meeting, I was all on my own. I was unrealistically optimistic here because there were still a lot of uncertainties in my plans. I put together an almost ridiculous travel and accommodations plan for the next 2 days with almost no buffer time in between. All the stars in the heavens need to be aligned for me to pull my plan off. Thankfully, I think they were. A colleague happened to be heading down to Miami to return his rental car so I happily hitched a ride and reached Miami 2 hours ahead of schedule. Getting to South Beach required another hour-long bus ride. Alighting at my stop, I was stunned for 5 seconds as I examined the surroundings – it looked exactly like Tanjung Rhu, Singapore!

Familiar surroundings

The whole of the following day was spent exploring the beach island. The beach was picture perfect, although I really thought it was kinda overrated. I rented a bike to explore the entire island.

Perfect sky, sea and sand

Proof of me at Miami Beach

Once again, thanks to the stars (and God for aligning the stars), I just bumped into a friendly stranger who was kind enough to take me around the happening places around the Miami Beach Island.

Lincoln Road is famous for its high-end fashion and occasional celebrity appearances. Antwon, my new host was telling me all the places where you might be able to spot celebrities. There were also quite a handful of shops that had works of famous painters.

Lincoln Road

Paintings of Britto

Antwon outside an art gallery

And of course, we visited the only StarBucks that had an in-store music collection.

Yes, this is StarBucks with a music shop in it

Taking one last look at the beach, I returned my bike and left South Beach to proceed with the next part of my plan.

NASA

I picked up a car in Miami International Airport. Interesting enough, I had given one of the latest Chevy models, probably a 2005 or 2006 one. Driving the red hot Chevy with Planetshakers blasting in the stereo, I headed down to Cape Canaveral, home of the NASA visitor center. Since it was an overnight drive, I pulled over at one of the rest stops and spent the night in the car.

What would I give to make you mine

Arriving at NASA was like a dream come true because I have always wanted to be here. Space had always been one of my key interests since young. Sitting through the tour, we went through the fascinating Apollo missions to the moon and the construction of the ISS (International Space Station). I ended my NASA trip by shaking hands with an actual astronaut.