The Great Eggs Benny-a-thon

So, today I was checking out the blog with a view to refreshing it a little before this year's Eurovision extravaganza, only to find that I never bothered to finish the report from the last trip. I never did get around to telling you about Miami, Anaheim or Vegas. In my defence I was more concerned in Miami with not melting to death, and in Anaheim and Vegas I was too tired to operate the iPad (you'll see) so it is no surprise that it never happened.

My mid week sojourn to Miami was spent at South Beach.

This place is essentially the Gold Coast, but with Maseratis. No idea how all these amazing cars are in such good condition, people drive CRAZY in Miami. I even got to see some serious road rage - a guy actually jumped out of his car, got a crow bar from the boot and went to attack another driver - thankfully he got back in his car and sped off without hurting the other guy when all of us on the medium strip started screaming at him that we had already called 911 and police sirens could be heard. I seriously thought my afternoon was going to involve filling in police reports.

The variety of cars along the beach strip was fairly diverse.

 I was about the only person wearing an actual top (apparently you just stroll around in a bikini top and short shorts) and one of the few that were still sober at noon on a Tuesday. Everywhere you went people were sitting at beach side cafes drinking cocktails bigger than your head (even at breakfast). Whilst the level of bikinis in Sephora was a shock to the system, there were some parts of town where it was more acceptable to go shirtless. Like Muscle Beach.

Whilst South Beach was very much for the blue rinse set right until the grand days of Miami Vice, today it is party central. SoBe (as the cool kids call it) is these days a heritage listed area, with all of the Art Deco buildings of the 1920s beautifully preserved. Even Senor Frog's comes with a classier building than it deserves.

Turns out SoBe is home to the third most photographed home in the USA. For those playing along at home, first place goes to the White House and second to Graceland. Third goes to this house.

This was the home of Gianni Versace. The only man to defy the heritage listings. There was a lovely art deco hotel to the left of this house, but Gianni wanted a pool. Mysteriously after he made a very large donation to the preservation society the house where he wanted his pool to go seemed to have it's heritage listing removed and could be demolished. How lucky was that? It was on the front steps of this house in 1997 where Gianno was murdered by a stalker who had reportedly been following his morning routine of getting an espresso and Italian newspaper at a local cafe for weeks. Today it is the most expensive hotel in SoBe (upwards of US$3,000 a night) and a pricey restaurant.

One of the highlights of my trip to SoBe was a culinary walking tour. The Cuban and Colombian influences in Miami make it an amazingly tasty destination. We were treated to churros as a starter.

This was followed by a tasty array of empanadas from a variety of South American countries along with some lessons in how to identify one from Argentina from one from Colombia. For me the Colombian variety was a winner. We even got to try it with a drink that I can only describe as the Colombian equivalent of the shandy - creaming soda and beer.

We stopped off at Gloria Estefan's restaurant on SoBe, where the food is all traditional Cuban fare. This dish may not look the prettiest, but it may be one of the tastiest things I have ever eaten.

Inside the restaurant there was even a chandelier that was made from actual instruments played by Latin music stars. Every one of these items has been played on stage - including by the likes of Ricky Martin, Shakira and Gloria herself (cheese grater I get, but who plays a pineapple?).

 We continued walking and made it to one of the most famous streets in SoBe.

This street played a major role in Mami Vice. The buildings are pink because the producers begged everyone to let them paint them - and nobody ever bothered to change it back to it's original all white facade. This street also happens to be home to Miami's best gelato. The gelato is displayed in the store in a rotating ice cream spaceship. That makes it tastier I'm sure.

I headed into town one night (against my brother's wishes) to watch the Heat play the Lakers. The game included much fanfare to celebrate Veterans Day.

Before long it was time to leave the half dressed beautiful people and rappers (not that I knew any of the rappers they kept putting on the big screen at the Heat/Laker game) and head back west. Turns out in America one can get airport eggs benny. I'm not convinced on having it with crispy chicken or steak... (I opted for the Veggie).

Before too long I was back in California with the Mouse. This time to run the runDisney Avengers Super Heroes weekend. First up on Friday morning was the Super Hero 5k. I wore a cape. Does it getting any cooler than running through Disneyland wearing a cape? This was taken in the new Radiator Springs area in Cars Land. I made it to corral A! Which meant no crowds for the run.

Next up on Saturday was the Captain America 10K. Never in my life have I seen so many people dressed as Captain America. You kinda had to join in. The one thing everyone that runs a runDisney race wants is the "castle photo". I got mine on the Saturday morning.

I decided to celebrate the end of this race with some more eggs benny. Just because. This is eggs benny Disneyland style. I still don't understand the grapes...

Sunday was a big day. I was up (for the third day in a row) at 4am and freezing my butt off at the start line area. The day before had sadly been the Paris terrorist attacks, so we were all instructed to arrive super early as the level of security was increased. It was cold, and with a half marathon ahead of me (and then some) I opted to turf the costume and run in something comfy instead. The race took us through the streets of Anaheim - including around the diamond at Angels stadium. Was a little uncomfortable at being one of 15,000 people traipsing through the home of a large number of homeless Californians at one point. This was taken of me just meters from the finish line. That look on my face can be translated as "what the f&!$ was I thinking, I still have another race to run today!".

The medal haul from the Avengers weekend was awesome. I got an added medal for completing the Infinity Gauntlet Challenge - which was running the 10K and the Half back to back.

Yeah, you read that right, I still had ANOTHER race that day. Once over the finish line, and clutching all the food goodies Disney give you, it was back to the hotel for a shower and to grab my stuff and head to the airport for my flight to Vegas. I'm told the unofficial name for this was "Avenge the Strip". You run the Avengers half marathon that morning in California, then you catch the lunchtime flight to Vegas and that afternoon you run one of the Rock n Roll Las Vegas races down the Strip.

Almost everyone on the flight was wearing a race shirt from the Avengers weekend and those that were not were very confused about our invasion. We were boarded, and ready to go when the pilot announced that bad weather had hit Veags and we were not allowed to take off. So, we spent an hour sitting on the tarmac, listening to the comic styling of the rather amusing cabin crew and trying not to look too nervous at missing the starters horn. Eventually we were cleared for take off and made it to Vegas around 3pm (over an hour late). The roads had all been closed by the time we landed, so it was another race against time to get to the hotel to drop bags, get changed and get to the start. I ended up having to RUN to the start line (whats another mile and a bit at this point?) but got there with minutes to spare and was still pinning my bib on when the race started. I hadn't had a chance to find the lovely Melissa who was somewhere in the crowd - but thankfully fate united us at the first drink station.

We were all so busy on the plane worrying about getting to Vegas, none of us thought through what the bad weather meant for the race itself. The first half was okay, but when we turned back down the Strip to run into the wind was when the real challenge began. Add to that it had started to rain and I think the only thing that stopped me from walking my second race of the day was the desire to get to the finish line and a hot shower as quickly as I could. Having Melissa there to chat to and take my mind off the horrid weather was also a relief.

Post race we limped our way to dinner to celebrate still being alive and hit up Buddy Valestro's Italian restaurant. Back in Orlando Buddy had told me to order his grandmother's lasagna. This was possibly the largest single serving of lasagna I have ever clapped eyes on. Even with Melissa's help I didn't even get close to finishing this.

Come morning I was starving, though surprisingly mobile for someone who ran in excess of 32kms the day before. What better way to start the day than to have the tasting platter of eggs benny at the hotel. There was pork belly eggs benny, and even an eggs benny served on a crab cake!

I made a valiant attempt to go shopping, but it was pretty clear I was not yet limber enough to try on clothes at the mall, so the credit car got a day off. I worked out that in the space of 9 days I ran 57kms (not counting the extra mile run to the start line in Vegas). It was of course supposed to be higher, but for the issues we had the weekend before in Orlando with the race being cut short. I even got to take home 7 new medals for my trouble.

There was just one more morning left at this point. Also known as one more chance to have some eggs benny. This time I opted for room service style so that I could enjoy the view from my room a little longer.

By nightfall I had started the three flight marathon from Las Vegas back to Port Moresby. All flights to Vegas should be after dark - how else do you get to enjoy this amazing view.

Playing Tourist

Usually when I have a weekend in Cairns it is focused around stocking up at the shops, running errands and eating. But given this is a tourist town it seems wrong to not every now and again join in the fun and pretend to be on holidays (even if it is just for the day).

So how did my attempt at playing tourist play out? Well it started with sadness. We all know that when it comes to eggs benedict I am a connoisseur. I am still recovering from an incident a few weeks back at home when I was served hollandaise sauce that was simply clumps of butter (yup, Duffy Cafe missed the mark that week) so I had high hopes stepping into a familiar Cairns cafe on Saturday morning. Sadly, though, we are on tough economic times where the volume of sauce needs to be scaled back. This was the saddest eggs benny I think I have had in a long time. If I wanted poached eggs on salmon I would have just ordered that....

As it turned out, Saturday was also the start of the Cairns Festival. So, on Saturday night I toddled off the esplanade to watch the parade. 

Now the parade was...interesting. It started with groups of school kids in uniform riding bikes, which left me pondering what kind of parade exactly this was. Eventually the floats started to arrive. There was a theme of multiculturalism. Which, as you can imagine, led to awesome displays by groups like the PNG Wantok association, and the Indonesian association of Cairns. There were some interesting interpretations of the theme though. Like the school that just whacked up a hills hoist and put flags on it...

 Or the radio station that went full Australian...

The list of groups in the parade were eclectic to say the least. There were the home schooled children who dressed up as insects (clearly art and craft is a significant part of the curriculum).

There were wheelchair athletes pulling their float (impressive).

There was also a marching band dressed as minions playing Pharrell's "Happy" on repeat, roller debry demonstrations, cos play clubs, dog adoption groups, swimmers wearing sting ray shaped hats and beauty queens. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Miss Ellis Beach Surf Club, blowing bubbles to her loyal subjects.

The night was capped off with a fireworks show over the water, which I freely admit is the only reason I stuck it out.

On Sunday I went all out playing tourist, catching the Kuranda Scenic Railway up to the rainforest. It was a leisurely ride up the mountain, learning all about the construction of the railway in the late 1800s, and the many uses they found for it through the war. Turns out most of the suburbs between Cairns and Kuranda are named after the nicknames the workers had for the foremen on those sites (and not all are flattering).

The ride took us past Barron Falls, where the train stopped for 10 minutes and we all got to get out and stretch our legs.

When I got to the village I decided to hit up the wildlife sites. First stop - the Butterfly Sanctuary.

This place is amazing. Tons and tons of pretty butterfly's in a small habitat that are in no way afraid of you. In fact the only thing to worry about is making sure you don't hurt one that decides you look like a nice place to land.

Next stop was Birdworld. 

Here you basically walk into a giant aviary with a bag of food and hand feed the birds. There are a group of Macaws which are the only birds you are not supposed to feed. The parrots however know that humans mean food and they will come and sit on your shoulder demanding to be fed. they are so "friendly" to the humans that they ever make you remove your earrings, because apparently they will try to take them if you are not fast enough with the food!

Next door to Birdworld are the Koala Gardens.  These guys probably have the biggest group of koalas on display that I have ever seen in a zoo. There were about 10 the day I was there. All, in typical koala style, very sleepy.

For a few extra bucks you can 'cuddle a koala' and get your picture taken. Given the last time I held a koala I was a very small child (and only know that it happened from the pictures in that lovely pink velour tracksuit) I jumped at the chance. Koala's are heavy, and clingy. It will cling to you like a tree branch, and those claws are SHARP. I still have scratches on my shoulder a week later.

After a thorougher hand washing (Koala's are great carrier of chlamydia) I went to check out the other animals hanging out in the Koala Gardens. There were kangaroos that you could hand feed, and there were wombats!

There was also a reptile room. This wasn't like a normal zoo reptile room where there is a lovely glass box between you and the snakes and spiders. These guys were free range.

I was out of there pretty quickly.

There was a small market outside the Koala Gardens where they had all manner of traditional North Queensland souvenirs. Who could go home without buying a new fridge magnet?

Or perhaps you were looking for something to place on your mantle or bar?

Maybe what you really needed was a new bottle opener. One with balls...

I had read in the pamphlet they gave us that there was a great pie shop in Kuranda, which I managed to track down. The theme of marketing poor skippy to the tourists continued there as well...

After lunch I did a spot of shopping. The models in the hat store were a little different.

I also pondered if the owners of this Aboriginal art store understood the irony of the building that they were tennated in - or if that was a f*** you to the first settlers.

It was time to head back down to Cairns. And this time the mode of transport was the SkyRail. This is basically a canopy ride over the top of the rainforest.

This was the view back over the Barron River.

And the view of Cairns as we approached.

Back in town that evening I decided to head to the library after dark, where there was an illuminated presentation happening. It was a story of summer rain, and the way the ecosystem reacts.

With that, it was up very early the next morning to make the trip home. And a week later, I am still pondering the presence of these dinosaurs in the main street...