Let The Memories Continue! – Day 21
Today would be our first full day in Miami. We attended the provided breakfast at Comfort, the hotel that we were staying at. However, my parents did not enjoy it as the selection was limited and the quality was not as good as the ones provided at Drury (although I found them satisfactory enough.).
After we left, we decided to head to Lock N Load Miami, where I would get my first experience with firing real ammunition. (I have fired a SAR-21 and a GPMG before, but those were using blanks.). I was very excited, till the time we reached. It turns out that they only opened at 12PM, even though the website said that they were opening at 11AM. As we ran out of ideas, we decided to head for lunch instead.
We headed to Fogo De Chao, a Brazillian Styled Chain, to have our lunch after exhausting most of our options. We decided that it would be a good comparison to Ohana, the Disney restaurant that we had dined at not long ago. Along the way, we pointed at houses and various places of residence that we could not help but ogle upon. Some of these houses were simply gorgeous, with some even on an island, linked only by a bridge to the mainland. When we finally arrived at Fogo De Chao, we were still early, but the manager allowed us to sit inside, instead of standing outside in the cold weather. This had been the coldest days since the beginning of our trip, and we lamented on the start of our vacation, seeing about how it was about to inevitably end. Soon enough, we were guided to our tables and shown the Salad Bar and the way the food system works, which was really unique.
Basically, we had a circle card, that was green on one side and red on the other. If you flipped it green, the servers would come to you with various cuts of meat, whereas if you turned it red, they would not serve you. It was a really elegant solution for such a complicated matter, as each server would be serving a different cut of meat. There was also a Salad Bar, which was also excellent, with various salads, rice dishes and other miscellaneous items. Soon enough, the servers were out with skewers filled with meat. Our favorites would include the Sirloin, the Ribeye and the lamb. I also particularly liked the Chicken Heart, which had a unique taste to it.
We left lunch satisfied, and finally had a chance to visit Lock N Load Miami. This was a live firing shooting range, with various packages dedicated to first time shooters and people who wanted to shoot high-power assualt rifles. As I had been acquainted in various military simulations such as Arma 2 and 3, I already knew most of the guns on offer and what I wanted to fire. I picked the Mission Impossible package, which included the H&K UMP, the Glock 18, the SCAR-L, and the F2000. I also could not resist adding an AK-47 to the table, just to spice things up a little. Afterwards, I was introduced to my instructor, who was ex-military and was eager to show me the guns on offer, and even told me that I picked the few best guns on offer. Before he let me fire each gun, he gave me a quick preview on each, and showed me how to properly load each gun (Unfortunately I could not do the HK-Slap on anything. Would have loved to do that!).
After this, we decided to head to Sawgrass Mills, where we decided to do our shopping. Sawgrass Mills is the largest Shopping Mall in all of North America, and hosts a large diversity of branded and electronic goods, ranging anywhere from GAP to Best Buy. The mall was well split up into 5 different avenues, with the main 4 being Air-Conditioned. It was a huge mall, but we found it much easier to navigate then the premium outlets that we had visited in our stay in Orlando. We walked through the various avenues.
Ashley wanted to visit the Barbie Dreamhouse experience, which was located in “The Oasis”. The Dreamhouse experience would last an hour, so my Dad and I decided to head to Samsonite to get our next duffel bag to store the items that we would want to purchase. This proved valuable, as throughout the day we bought various items to bring back to Singapore that we simply couldn’t hand carry onto the plane.
(SF: Barbie The Dreamhouse Experience is a 10,000 square foot pink paradise. It is a life-size replica’s of the iconic Barbie’s Dreamhouse toy. Upon checking Ashley in, she was given a pink bracelet that will personalise her tour and interactive experiences. She chose Barbie as her avartar as she would become ‘Barbie’ in this attraction. We meandered through the experience inspired by Barbie’s playhouse, which includes a living room, bedroom, closet, bathroom, kitchen, balcony and entertainment room. We were ‘transported’ to each floor of the house via a virtual elevator where surprises and interactive activities awaits in each room. Under the strong influence of pink, the furniture and decor pay homage to the girly hue, with a bright-pink baby grand piano among the furniture. The Dreamhouse also houses the best of Barbie – 350 dolls and collector memorabilia, Barbie’s friends, family and of course her love interest Ken. The tour ended by taking a private jet to visit Barbie’s workplace. Ashley had a fun time running around Barbie’s house, posing for pictures, making cupcakes, trying on Barbie’s outfit albeit virtually in her closet and lying down on Barbie’s enormous pink bed. As I purchased a VIP experience for her, she was ushered to a life-sized Barbie’s vanity where she got her make-up done. After which, she was brought backstage to change into her choice of outfit. As she was already dressed as Barbie, she decided to only add wings. Once she was ready, the fashion show began. Ashley had the opportunity to strut down the Fashion Runway and took home a photograph. She thoroughly enjoyed this experience.)
After this, we had a quick stop over at the food court, where Ashley ordered some Asian Noodles as she was hungry. We then headed back for a quick dinner at McDonalds before heading back to the hotel for the next day.
(SF: We did more shopping after a quick stop at the food court, visiting our favourite stores. We also found many interesting Reese products in Target which we could not resist.)
