Eating at a Salvadorian Restaurant & Running Into a Rain Storm in Miami

 

We have travelled extensively in the US, having visited both the east coast numerous times and to the west coast years ago a few times when our son was studying in the State of Connecticut.

 United States is a vast country made up of fifty states with diverse landscapes and weather patterns. So far we have had experienced the American culture only until our recent visit to the city of Miami.

One of the pleasant things we discovered on our trip to Miami - the vibrant subcultures existed in this beautiful city. 

Just within blocks of our hotels, we have experienced the Cuban culture in Little Havana for the past two days.

Today, we went for brunch at a Salvadorian restaurant.

This restaurant also sells many interesting gadgets

We ate at this restaurant the first day we landed in Miami and we liked it so much that we took E. with us for a brunch.

After we sat down on the patio and ordered our food, we were enjoying this relaxing time and having a nice conversation. Suddenly, strong winds and rain started coming down heavily, blowing our cutlery, napkins and some plates off the tables.

We had to move inside and finished our brunch there. We sat and waited for the wind and rain to die down.  We couldn't even talk to E. during the brunch.  

We experienced a tropical rainstorm in Miami

 We waited for almost thirty minutes and it was still raining cats and dogs.  We decided to call a Uber and went back to our hotel which was only about a 5-7 minute ride. But we couldn't believe our eyes as the heavy rain kept pouring down.

In a matter of after raining for about 30 minutes,  some of the roads were flooded with water coming up as high as half of the height of the wheels. Our driver had to make a few detours navigating himself carefully not to get the vehicle stuck on flooded streets.

Wow! I could just imagine the power of the tropical rainstorms here in Florida. We have heard and seen so often some parts of Florida being devastated by tropical torrential rainstorms. This time we experienced just a tiny small part of it.   We should never underestimate the power of nature!

After getting back to our hotel and rested for a little while, both my husband and our son went for a baseball game at the stadium to cheer on our beloved Blue Jays team from Toronto. I  was happy to have some downtime by myself while the father and son could have their bonding time at the Jays baseball game!

Little Havana, Miami

Today was the Juneteenth Day in the US, a new national holiday celebrating freedom and the slaves being free in America. I never heard of Juneteenth day until this time. Love travelling as we can learn some new things wherever we go!

  RT, Day 3

 Miami, Florida

Little Havana , Miami, where it reminded us of Cuba

 

Little Havana has always been on our list when we visit Miami.

Our hotel, located on SW 9th Ave,  is not too far from the famous Calle Ocho, where Little Havana is.

After the Fathers' Day's lunch, we strolled on Calle Ocho, 8th Street, but we were not impressed first as we didn't see many nice shops and restaurants.

However, things seemed to change when we reached a park dedicated to the remembrance of the Bay of Pigs Invasion in Cuba.

Miami is a majority Latino city - while 70% of its population is Hispanic, over 54% are of the city is made up of Cuban Americans.  

We could see and hear Spanish written and spoken everywhere in Miami.

Since it was Sunday, a lot of shops were closed. I found it quite surprising and unexpected as this was supposed a spot frequented by tourists.

As it rained intermittently throughout the whole afternoon,  we had to stop at a number of places to avoid getting soaked. 

We went into a cigar and coffee place decorated with old prints and furniture looking like some old cigar shops in Cuba. 

We ordered some coffee, relaxed and soaked up the Cuban atmosphere there. 

This store/ restaurant brought back a lot of memories of our visit to Cuba.

This Cuban cafe not only served Cuban coffee; visitors could also learn about Cuba cigar making from its displays at the front part of the restaurant.

 In the back part of the cafe, we admired art work, books, pictures and other items related to Cuban

culture.

This Cuban cafe provided a nice spacious place for its customers to enjoy its beverages and smoke a cigar or two in a Cuban atmosphere.

This was the section of Little Havana where we found a lot of nice restaurants serving Cuban, Columbian and Salvadorian cuisines.  A few restaurants had a live band playing Cuban music with patrons dancing inside and outside of the restaurants. Very lively atmosphere indeed!  

E.'s friend in Miami recommended us to go somewhere for dinner but it didn't have an outdoor dining space. We went back to Little Havana with a sidewalk dining space for some tapas! We didn't even try the tapas bar in Spain but we got to do it in Little Havana in Miami, how about that?

We were sitting at different tables a little far apart so we didn't talk much to E. However, we enjoyed the lovely and lively Cuban feel and music while watching people dancing on the sidewalk outside the restaurant. What a fun loving bunch!

RT

Day 2,  Little Havana, Miami

Celebrating Fathers' Day with Our Son - Very Special Indeed!

I couldn't remember the last time we celebrated Fathers' Day with one of our sons.

This year was very special as we were with our son in the US and could share a nice meal together on this special day. It was almost two decades ago when we celebrated this special day with our children.

We purposely looked for a nice restaurant with outside dining so that we could be with each other in an open environment. Fortunately, there was a nice restaurant in the area serving a fusion of Asian and western food.

We started with a drink on the patio. While enjoying our drink, we had a car driving by with the driver yelling out pleasantly wishing us a happy fathers day greeting.  Then another pedestrian from the neighbourhood walked past us also giving us a similar greeting. WOW! We haven't experienced such kind greetings in America! Twice in a day, that was different!

S. ordered the Father's day special with shrimps on crisp rice as an appetizer, followed by a 16 oz steak with a Lava cake and ice-cream for dessert.

The food was delicious and different, a memorable dinner for Fathers Day! 

Sitting at different tables, we were still able to communicate though not as easy as when we could sit together.

We were doing the best we could under the circumstances.  I need to remind ourselves that we must be thankful and count our blessings as long as we are all healthy and could be together as a family!

RT

Fathers Day in Miami  0618,2023

 

Living Out Our Faith on Fathers' Day

Living Out Our Faith on Fathers' Day

Our first day together in Miami with our son. The first thing we did in the morning was praying hard that the test would come out favorably for us.

We were supposed to go on a cruise this afternoon, But before boarding the cruise ship, we tested ourselves in the hotel. My husband was tested -ve but disappointedly, I was tested positive. We had a family discussion in the hotel patio n looked at all the options. 

1. I definitely would not go to the cruise.

2. My husband and E. could go since everything was paid for and it was not cheap.

3. We could cancel and would go on another cruise as a family together.

 We decided honesty is the best practice and we should do the right thing. Since I was tested +ve,  we called the cruise company n cancelled our trip. So disappointed!

We were surprised that it was not an requirement for passengers boarding the cruise ship to provide any -ve COVID proof. It was an honest system. This was a test of our faith. As Christians, we have to live out our faith even though it is not to our advantage.   Though I was completely symptoms free, I could have gone and no one would know. 

We wanted to do the right thing. Because all my friends who went on their cruise all tested +ve afterwards. If  we boarded the ship, I would definitely spread Covid to others passengers. My husband and our son could have gone as they were clear. But the family decided to cancel the whole cruise.

We reported to the cruise company - Virgin Voyage, the truth.

Fortunately, for us, Virgin agreed to give us credit on the next cruise!

Thank God for that!

RT

Miami, USA

Our First Post COVID trip to the U.S.

 

Words could not describe our excitement this morning!

After almost 4 years being cooped up in Canada, we are finally able to travel outside of the country!

Our first post Covid restrictions free trip is to spend time with our grown son in the US. In Fact, this will be our very first cruise trip with our first born.

This cruise trip happened within a few weeks. Initially, we planned to fly to SF spending some time hiking and camping at the Yosemite National Park. However, our son convinced us that this might not be the best idea for a relaxing holiday to which we suggested a cruise holiday instead. E. agreed and he even suggested a certain cruise line and a definite date when he would be able to join us.

After some research and back and forth discussion, here we are flying down to Miami to board our cruise ship this Sunday!

Stan started not feeling too well last Thursday when we were in Collingwood for a retreat conference. He was coughing pretty badly over the weekend. We were a bit worried that this might affect our trip. But thank God, by the time we were to board the plane, he has recovered!  We cleaned our house and got everything ready to fly.

This was our first plane trip since Feb, 2020, just before Canada shut down in March, 2022 due to COVID. We allowed ourselves plenty of time leaving our house at 3pm via a transportation company.  The airport was quite busy as there were many travellers. We boarded an Air Canada plane heading to Miami which took off at 7:55P.M. from Toronto Pearson International Airport.

We haven’t flown on any Air Canada jets for a little while. I noticed that the flight attendants were quite a bit younger. All the attendants working on our flight are under thirty years old. Of the crew of four, two were male and two were female. As far as I remember, Air Canada flight attendants were mostly women, in their middle 40’s. It was different this time. Also include in this crew, I am pretty sure there was a member of the LGBTQ.

We will be flying a lot in the next two months. It will be interesting to see if the demographics of the flight attendants of American airlines will be the same, or as tolerant and diverse as our Canadian crew members.

RT, Toronto

On board an Air Canada flight to Miami

 

 

 

A Successful Lesson when working with an autistic teen

 I felt fantastic as if I had just been crowned the world's best teacher today!

 I have been working with Lisa, a twelve years old girl diagnosed with autism, for the past few months. She comes to our house for some social activities once a week after school. Today, she came at around 4:15 p.m.

Today's session went really well and I reflected on the activities I have planned for her:

1. Feeding a hungry child before he/ she start learning  - I knew that  Lisa would be hungry right after school. Therefore, as soon as she came in, I demonstrated how to slice some cheese using a plastic knife and putting them on crackers. Then I asked her to do the same thing.

After arranging the crackers topped with cheese slices on a plate, I showed Lisa how to warm them up in an microwave oven for about 20 seconds to melt the cheese.

I was glad that Lisa loved the cheese cracker snack and devoured them in no time!

2. Know your students and teach to their strengths  - Although Lisa appears to be a quiet and passive student, I discovered in the last few lessons that that she likes singing. 

After satisfying Lisa's hunger, I wanted to teach her reading and made it fun for her. Knowing that she loves singing, I asked her what songs she would like to sing. 

These were the songs we sang along with the lyrics on the screen:

a.. We wish you a merry Christmas - As soon as we started singing, Lisa started to shake the shaker. She responded and sang along well!

b. A white Christmas

c. Sister Act's  - I will follow him

3. Outdoor activities and fresh air are important -  I truly believe that outdoor activities are helpful to students. In every one of my teaching sessions, I always involve my students in some outdoor activities. Today, I took Lisa out for a neighborhood walk and picked up some beautiful colourful autumn leaves.

4. Craft activity -  With the leaves collected from our walk, we went back to our house and started putting them in a magazine with paper towel separating the leaves. I also showed Lisa how to flatten the leaves in the magazine by placing some thick books on top of them.

5. Game time - Everybody loves playing games. Instead of teaching Lisa reading with books in the traditional way, I always make it fun for my students by using games or other strategies. For this session, I used a matching card game with some simple sentences written on the back of each picture card.

To my surprise, Lisa responded to my questions in this game. Normally non responsive to questions or rarely speaks when spoken with, Lisa responded to everyone of my questions and spoke!!!

I was so pleasantly surprised and delighted at Lisa's responses that I  video taped some of her responses.

6. Reinforce and reward positive/ desirable behaviour -  As soon as Lisa finished the reading game activity, I rewarded her with some icecream. We sat in the kitchen and reviewed the video I took earlier. Lisa laughed as she saw herself reading and responding to me .

It was 6:15pm when Lisa's dad came to pick her up at the end of our session. I was so proud of how it went and couldn't wait to show him what Lisa did in the lesson. He loved it and was absolutely delighted to see Lisa's progress. 

Since retiring from teaching, I  couldn't remember a day when I felt so good about teaching others.

I love teaching and it felt so so good to taste a little bit of success achieved by my students!

R.T.
Toronto, Ontario
Autumn of 2022