Extended Layover Adventure: Miami

More extended layover love!  This post is a follow-up to my earlier post on the extended layover.

This past Thanksgiving, I signed up for an airline credit card (Delta Amex - more on this in an upcoming post!) and after a few laborious hours of internet searching bought a one-way ticket to Port-au-Prince, Haiti (more on this in an upcoming post as well!).

I finagled my flight to have a 50-hour weekend layover in Miami, which is possibly the best city in America to spend a weekend in.  I lived in Miami for 2 years before moving to New Orleans, so I was able to stay with friends and not pay for lodging or transportation which, in a city as potentially expensive as Miami, was a huge help to my budget.

The view from my friend's apartment in Little Havana.  Marlins Stadium with downtown in the background.

My first day in Miami was disappointingly stormy.  Instead of beach time, my friend and I headed into the neighborhood of Doral for arepas.  We tried a new restaurant that puts an American twist on arepas, stuffing the corn pockets with combinations like chicken salad and avocado instead of the traditional white cheese.  

Mmmm arepas and plantains!

That night, I met up with some friends and we went to a party in Brickell, the trendy downtown area of Miami.  A common misconception of Miami is that the city itself is on the beach -- it's not, Downtown Miami sits on the Bay of Biscayne, but there's no beach.  You have to cross over the causeway (fancy word for bridge) to get to South Beach or North Beach which makes it inconvenient to not have a car in this city. 

Going out in Miami is an expensive and very late activity.  Drinks cost around $10 each and the best dance spots don't get busy until around 1 am.  Clubs typically charge a cover, which can sometimes be avoided by going with a large group of ladies (sorry, guys!) or through a promoter.  There's often deals that can get you a party bus, open bar, and entrance to a club for around $40 per person - which is MUCH cheaper than normal.  Club promoters will often walk South Beach and, although their interactions may seem sketchy, are worth talking to if you're planning a night out.

The next day, the weather cleared up and we were able to hit the beach for a few hours!  We went to South Beach and ate lunch at my favorite SoBe restaurant, La Sandwicherie.  I ordered the prosciutto and brie sandwich with extra cornichons and extra dressing.  They make their own dressing and it is amazing!  I wish I'd checked a bag so I could've bought a bottle to bring home!

Friends!  And South Beach

Downtown Miami from the causeway

That night, I went out in Wynwood, a neighborhood that has changed considerably since I lived in Miami.  Wynwood is most known for the "Wynwood Walls" urban art exhibit and as the location of Miami's monthly Art Walk.  The area is full of murals, art galleries, and a growing bar scene.  

Before he went to Ohio..

The next morning, I packed my bags, said "adios" to the 305, and headed to Fort Lauderdale Airport for my flight to Haiti!  

Extended Layover Adventures: Denver!

As a follow-up to my most recent post, I thought I'd give y'all a peek into the awesomeness of the extended layover with a (very) late post about my trip to Denver this summer.

First of all, DENVER IS AWESOME.  It's located smack-dab in the middle of the USA which makes it pretty darn convenient to fly into from anywhere in the lower 48.  It's the hub of Frontier Airlines and Continental routes through there as well.  

Image from: http://www.denver-den.airports-guides.com/den_airport_maps.html

I took a 54 hour extended layover there on my way home to NOLA from visiting my parents in Oregon.  Since the majority of Frontier flights route through Denver, it was pretty easy for me to find a cheap 1-way ticket that allowed me spend the weekend at no extra cost in the Mile High City.  I stayed with my friend Drew, who I've known since I was 4, which made the entire trip even cheaper!

We spent my first day just enjoying everything that Denver has to offer.  Even without a car, it's easy to get around the city because of the widespread implementation of the B-Cycle, reasonably-priced rental bicycles with hubs all throughout the city.  We biked to the capitol building and got fresh brewed coffee at Thump (as an Oregonian, I was born and bred to be a coffee snob but the brews at Thump deserve an A+).

Thump!

Me at the Capitol Building

As one of the fastest growing cities in the US, Denver has quite a few growing scenes - the foodie scene, music scene, and micro-brew scene are a few.  That night, we went to a free block party / concert that was put on by a local brewery.

The next day, I checked an item off my bucket list: we visited Rocky Mountain National Park!

After living in flat (and I mean, FLAT... the highest point in Miami is a garbage dump) places for the last 3 years, I'm now astounded by the natural beauty of any mountain.  However, the beauty of the Rockies in the summer blew my mind.  Not to mention that the thin air makes the sky look extra blue!

Look at that sky!!!

We spent an entire day in the park, driving the windy roads to different view points then getting out and exploring.  At the highest elevation, I started to experience altitude sickness.  It started out as just getting winded and being a little dizzy, but turned into full-on disorientation by the time we reached the summit. As we browsed the gift shop I got separated from my friends... and then couldn't remember what they looked like!  Afraid I wouldn't recognize them, I wandered around and just looked hard at peoples' faces for them to recognize me -- and hoped they were the right people!  After about 10 minutes, this strategy was successful and I was forced to sit for a while and drink water. 

We made it!

At one viewpoint, we saw some of the famed wildlife - a marmot!  It was not friendly and chased us away from its rock.  

Marmot!

#nofilter -- for real the sky is THAT blue.

 After a full day of driving, we stopped for dinner in Longmont, Colorado at Oskar Blues Brewery and enjoyed fried food and some freshly tapped Dale's Pale Ale.   The perfect ending to a great day!

The next day, I took the Super Shuttle to the airport (it's very convenient!) and flew home!  Successful free trip :-)

What's your favorite thing to do in Denver?  Have you been to the Rocky Mountains in the summer?  Did you get altitude sickness?  

Travel Tip: The Extended Layover

I wanted to share with y'all one of the best discoveries I've made since moving back to the US: the extended layover.  

Unlike Miami, New Orleans isn't exactly a travel hub and as a result I've traveled much less frequently since moving here.  As tickets are now generally more expensive, I now spend a lot more time researching ticket prices and trends before I buy.  Thus, the discovery of the extended layover.

Yes, it's already the premise of the Anthony Bourdain show "The Layover" and the New York Times column -- but what I didn't realize was that this actually works in real life!  Since 2014 I've taken 2 trips with built-in extended layovers, essentially building a free mini-trip into my itinerary.  The tickets are usually the same price as any other ticket but allow you to spend a day (or a few) in a new place!

When I plan a trip, I try to keep my dates flexible to a certain extent in order to get the best ticket prices.  For example, if I have a week from work for a holiday, I will look at flying out on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday but returning only on the following Saturday.  This way, I can consider not only price trends but also layover cities before booking.  

For the most part, I use Kayak and the Google ITA software to compare prices. I almost always search for one way flights first, to see if an extended layover is possible. 

If an extended layover flight exists for the trip, it will show up on the search results. On Kayak, update the sort settings to "Duration: Longest to Shortest" and click "show details" to check out your options!  

Below is a screen shot of an "extended layover" flight from New Orleans to London.  This flight includes a 22-hour layover in Istanbul for the same price as flights with a normal layover time.  

Using this strategy, I was able to spend a weekend in Colorado on my way home from visiting my parents in Oregon and a weekend on Miami when I flew to Haiti.  

Have you ever taken an extended layover flight?  Where did you go?  What did you do?

A long-overdue update

Hi readers and intrepid Taiwan explorers,

I am so humbled to still have readers since leaving Taiwan almost 4 years ago! Even after all this time, I can honestly say that I truly miss the beauty of the island and the kindness of its people every day. 

As for me, I am currently a public school teacher in the US.  I still frequently travel and will be updating this blog with my more recent adventures!  

I have been posting many of my Asia travel photos on my Instagram .  Follow me @girl.gets.away

For those of you looking to travel to Taiwan, GO!  As soon as possible!  You won't be disappointed :-)

Dragon Boated

As promised, here's the post-race Dragon Boat update!

Post-race victory photo

First of all, it's H-O-T today, 90 with high humidity, and it's beginning to feel like summer again. We arrived scooter-gang style at Dong Shan River park around noonish and were given chicken lunch boxes, another summertime favorite (not).

Since we weren't allowed to practice at all, we watched the other teams row for a bit before it was our turn to hit the water.  Dragon boat rowing is a big deal in Taiwan and most teams practice daily for months ahead of the big competition... but not us!

Professionals

Also professionals...

The boats seat 18 rowers (2 rows of 9) plus a steerer at the back and drummer and flag-grabber at the front.  A few weeks ago, I volunteered to be the flag-grabber under the false assumption that "flag person" meant I wouldn't have to be in the boat and instead would be doing something similar to waving a flag from the shore... I couldn't have been more wrong.

"Flag person" (aka flag-grabber) actually climbs up on the front of the boat and leans off in order to grab the flag for their team.  This is just as difficult and bizarre as it sounds:

Hang 10!

I wasn't too sure how to actually get my body onto the dragon's face, so I just kind of dragged myself up there as far as I could and leeeaned!  It turns out the good flag-grabbers will hop onto the dragon's head with their knees and then lower their bodies down parallel to the water.  Now I know for next time!

The best part about being flag-grabber is that you don't have to do too much until the very end of the race except cheer your team on and, if you're me, take videos of them!  My video uploader software isn't working at the moment, but I'll get them up ASAP.

Action shot!

My team ended up getting last in our heat, but only by a few seconds -- which isn't too bad considering it was all of our first time even setting foot in a dragon boat!

Now it's time to eat shaved ice and cool off.  Tomorrow is my big singing performance, wish me 加油！

The beginning of the end

I have only 10 days left in Taiwan -- I honestly can't believe this year's gone by so quickly!  While I am definitely sad to have to say goodbye to this beautiful country with its lovely people and delicious food, I'm eager to get back stateside and into my very own classroom!!

This is how I imagine next year. 

I'm glad to say that this year has solidified my love of teaching.  Although I've become a skeptic of the organization I'll soon be working for, Teach for America (TFA),  I do whole-heartedly support their mission of eliminating educational inequality in America.  However, the topic of TFA is one for another day (or another blog -- see the end of post for deets!) and I'll be sticking to Fulbright business for now.

I've been busy lately trying to tie up lose ends before departing to the good ol' USA.

Thanks to the hard work and creative genius of fellow ETA's Andrew, Jill and Glen, we were able to pull together the best surprise roast Taiwan's ever seen.  We got to spend Friday afternoon in the company of all 16 ETA's who were literally crying with laughter at how flippin' funny the four of us are how well we've gotten to know each other over the past 11 months.  Jokes included fake middle names, superlatives, and celebrity personae.

In case you're curious, I was crowned something similar to "Most likely to learn 7 languages 'just for the hell of it' while teaching full-time and maintaining a perfect South Beach tan" and my celebrity personae were a Jersey Shore groupie and Audrey Hepburn (talk about flattery!  I hope it's because I always look fresh.  For a definition of "looking fresh" watch this clip at 1:20).

Afterward, we had the final Friday family dinner at my apartment with oh-so-delicious salad, soup, and pasta prepared by none other than Eric, Brittni and my roomie Harry.

Tomorrow, we're all rowing in the Dragon Boat festival which is going to be hilarious because the government won't let us practice before the actual race.  I'll post an update after I've recovered from the post-embarrassment shock.

And so begins the packing and cleaning...

Hiking Ren Shan

Today, I was invited by my friend Stew to accompany her and her Chinese teacher, Zhan Laoshi (with whom I also went to the Miaoli Lantern Festival) to go hiking at Ren Shan Mountain.  The springtime weather was absolutely gorgeous again today and ended up being perfect hiking weather.

We left in the afternoon and spent about three hours hiking and exploring the gardens atop the mountain.  Sounds intense, but there's a big difference between Taiwanese / Chinese-style "hiking" and American-style "hiking."  In Taiwanese-Chinese "hiking," going uphill is not necessarily involved at all -- it pretty much just means walking around outside.  Sometimes, like today, there are lots and lots of paved stairs involved.  I experienced "hiking" like this in China as well at the Great Wall and Huang Shan.   Once, as we were "hiking" around a flat lake, my co-teacher asked me, "I hear that in America when you go hiking you have to use your HANDS??!!"

After the hike we drove to a mountain temple to eat ice cream, a much-deserved post-hike treat.

The views from both the mountain and the temple were incredible!  We could see all of Yilan county and even Turtle Island off in the distance.

Mountaintop garden

You could smell the trees!

Stew sippin' on the holy mountain water

Inside the temple

Stew teaches us how to tell if your lion statue is male or female

Oh...

Green Expo

The best days of school (for the students, at least) are always always always FIELD TRIP days!!!

This Friday, all four 6th grade classes -- about 120 kids -- packed up and went on an all-day field trip to the Yilan county garbage / recycling center and the bigger (and understandably more popular) Yilan Green Expo.

This was my first time hanging out with my kids outside of school and it was awesome!  They were all very well behaved and we had a good time walking around in the sunshine.

The single highlight of the garbage and recycling center was this GIANT claw machine that picked up bunches of garbage to be dropped into a trash compactor.  I was pretty creeped out by it (reminded me too much of all those futuristic machines you see destroying the human race in movies) but the kids all thought it was awesome.

Next, it was off to the very well-publicized Yilan Green Expo.  There are posters all over NE Taiwan advertising the Green Expo and its "Return to Nature" theme.  The Expo doesn't open to the public until next month but for now only hosts special visiting tour groups and schools.

I spent my afternoon walking around the Expo with a group of 5 lovely girls.  We looked at cool fish, played on a bootcamp-style equipment playground, looked at cute animals, ate ice cream and sushi, and rode on a railroad cart -- just like in Donkey Kong!  

Despite all the press, I didn't think the Expo was all that great.  From what I've heard, last year's was a lot bigger and better.  However, it was in a beautiful location and we couldn't have asked for better weather or more ice cream.

DK-style!!