On the day that Heather and I did our first trip, it was not planned. It was my birthday and we decided to be a little “adventurous”. This adventure was simple; we took a cab to the museum, paid the admission fee and went to explore. This is where things went wrong. Everything inside the museum was either broken, in disrepair or so outdated it was a complete waste of our time and money. We walked quickly though and did our best to interact with what the museum did have working but we were just not entertained. At this point, we left and went walking down the street wondering what to do next or if anything at all. We found a bench, sat down and just pondered. At this point, I was starting to get upset that on my 30th birthday, I haven’t explored the world enough because I have always been worried about the time and money I have at hand. As we were sitting there thinking, a horn went off behind us and we turned around and saw this funny looking golf cart/transport vehicle that was decked out in all yellow with the words BRIGHTLINE slapped across it. The idea popped into my head and I turned to Heather “Hey!, lets’ hop on the train and go somewhere”. We both had never done something like this in the whim of the moment and it was exciting to think about exploring wherever that train would take us. We checked the website at gobrightline.com, found a round trip ticket to Miami from Fort Lauderdale for only $20/person. This sounded too good to be true. We were right around the corner from the station, within walking distance. We booked our ticket, head over to the station and wait for our train. Now, the Brightline station on its own is a magical place. It is absolutely beautiful, filled with travelers from all over the world with music playing and a bar where you can grab yourself a drink while you wait. We grabbed a drink and just about that time we hear the “all aboard” call for our train down to Miami. At this point it was about 1:30 in the afternoon and we had no plan for what to do when we got there, we just “did”. Once we hopped on the train, we found our seats which were right next to a big bay window so we could watch the scenery as it flew by on our way down. As we were cruising along, an attendant came by and offered us a drink and a snack from the cart which we declined but it was still amazing to us that someone would be on the train passing out snacks while we are cruising to our destination. Slowly the train came to a stop at the Miami station which blew our mind as the train pulled in. It was huge! Like what you would imagine in the movies. Heather and I hopped off the train and immediately took the stairs down to the main level, stepped outside into the open air and looked at each other “what next?”. We laughed as we had not thought this far ahead. We pulled out our phones and typed into google “things to do near me”. Google showed us multiple things to do around us, but only one big destination within walking distance, the Bayside Market Place. We walked east towards the marketplace and never looked back. After 15 minutes we arrived at this marketplace, right next to crystal blue water and filled with people. As we walked in, we were amazed by all the different cultures, stores, foods and people from all over the world. Every person you passed was speaking a different language. We explored the market place for a little over an hour before we decided we had had enough and decided to leave. At this point, we had been walking for almost 6 hours throughout the day and were ready to call it a day. We headed back to the station, grabbed snacks from the food court in the station and boarded our train back to Fort Lauderdale. That night as we were laying in bed I turned to Heather and I told her “lets do that again soon, does not matter where we go, we don’t have to have a plan, lets just do”. And we did.
Cost of a quick “whim of the moment” day trip.
$40: Round Trip Train Ticket for Two
$20: Snacks before each train ride
Total: Priceless
Stay tuned for more of our adventures.
Pete
