The Last Dragons (and Hours in Miami).

Peopleeee... last entry before we go home. How fast have these 3.5 weeks passed? Weren't we just in New York? Haven't we only been engaged for 5 days? And it was just yesterday that we went roller coasting. Aiaiai... Thank you for accompanying us on our journey, we appreciate it very much!

Today was our last day with a bit of action and it turned out to be more than expected. Stay tuned!

The day started with sunshine and we finally wanted to go to the infamous Miami Beach. And it's really beautiful. It has completely white powdery sand and the sea was calm and crystal clear. There wasn't much going on and we were able to really enjoy the 2 hours. No sunburns, just chilling on the sand and jumping into the water from time to time.

Not spectacular, but we somehow found it cool: a fire truck. It should be mentioned that fire department and police cars were constantly seen on the entire east coast of the USA, really a lot. Sometimes there were police cars with flashing lights on the side of the road without anyone in them. Or there's a police car with flashing lights in front of Pizza Hut so the colleague can quickly get a pizza. But the appearance of the cars is always a little highlight.

And so we set off for the Everglades. It wouldn't be our trip to Miami if it didn't start raining so hard that the streets were flooded again. It was really shocking how much water came down. Benny drove so calmly that we arrived at the alligator farm with a slight delay but still on time. And here comes a bit of zoo (by the way, Marie thinks zoos are stupid) with alligators and crocodiles and a few other wild animals.

We were lucky again because the dark clouds dispersed and we were able to enjoy everything comfortably. The alligator show was scheduled for 3 p.m. Honestly, don't try this at home. Just by watching, we could already see someone's hand being bitten off. In fact, one of the staff members was walking around without an arm. We're not surprised. But we simply think that they love the animals so much that they take this risk every day. You could also hold a baby alligator afterwards. We didn't do that, our insurance doesn't cover it and we're just engaged 😅

The way the alligator looks, it's not good to mess with him. But okay, the next part on site was the airboat ride. And it was really soooo cool! We felt like Horatio Caine from CSI Miami, who always rides his airboat through the Everglades in the opening credits. But there's an unrealistic scene: these things are so loud, you can't stand it for a minute without ear protection. We're talking about 190 dB here. But Horatio Caine doesn't wear one! Unrealistic! When we were in the middle of it, it was just beautiful to see this nature. It was so worth it and the airboat was a completely different driving experience. Recommended!

Occasionally, the driver would turn the boat extra to make a spin. Especially the first row got very wet. We specifically chose the middle and if you lifted your feet in time, you wouldn't get flooded. But it was really fast and our hair was blowing in the wind. Amazing experience! To conclude, we looked at baby alligators and the feeding of the big animals with dead rats. Yes - once you've seen it, that's enough. There was also a house with pythons... Marie was out as fast as she was in. So there are no photos of that, sorry! But Benny was in love with the parrots, so here's an extra portion:

Just as we started driving, it started to rain. Finally, rain again! But at least always at the right time 😅 We had a 1.5-hour drive ahead of us to the very last event. Although, everything we're doing here is somehow an event, even if it's just parking on the highway, but more on that later.

We booked a boat tour that shows the Miami skyline and also passes by the villas of the big stars. And you wouldn't believe the houses there. One star lives next to the other: Rihanna, Jennifer Aniston, Shakira, Julio Iglesias, Jackie Chan, Jennifer Lopez, P. Diddy, Shaq O'Neill, Justin Bieber, Will Smith, Madonna, the guy who invented Viagra and probably more that we can't remember. Benny organized great seats for us and we could enjoy the beautiful view the whole time!

And now we were really hungry and we still had to cross something off our list: Taco Bell. So we sat in a very unpleasant neighborhood after refueling, at Taco Bell and had some really delicious tacos there! We were positively surprised and of all the fast food crap we've eaten, this was the most refreshing. We then drove back to Miami Beach over our bridge as usual and wanted to see the skyline at night again. For that, Benny had to stop on the shoulder of this highway. There were signs everywhere: Stopping on the shoulder outside of emergencies is prohibited! So Marie pretended to be about to vomit, logically with her phone in her hand, looking at the skyline. But the photo was taken and we hurried to get away from there.

Last stop for Miami Beach: the Ocean Drive. Well, we did that too, but it didn't blow us away. It was more like a bit of chic with a few big shots getting into their black Chevrolet Suburbans 😅.

Maybe we wanted to be like one of them and are just jealous, but at the end of the day, we were back in our hotel room and we had each other. And that is the most important thing! ❤️

Now Tuesday is over too and today we just lay on the beach and packed our suitcases. Despite a lot of sunscreen, Marie got sunburned, but hopefully red will turn into tan overnight. Now we're going to eat a pizza. And then sleep for the last time.

Guys, that's it. There will be a final post where we'll revisit the whole trip and give our conclusion, but now we'll only explore Miami Airport and then we'll be back home on Thursday at 2:00 p.m. German time.

Sending kisses!

B ❤️ M