Alright, so here's what I've done from Friday morning up to today. The main thing was that I went down to Miami for the first time in almost a year as I'd experience Wrestlemania weekend (meaning other wrestling shows taking place) and I'd see my first-ever Wrestlemania, which is something I should go to given how long I've been a wrestling fan.
I woke up on Friday morning and I drove off to my hotel in Pompano Beach; The Forum, to be exact. I stayed there almost a year ago today when I was down there to watch the Marlins play in Sun Life Stadium against the Washington Nationals. As I mentioned at the time, the place is interesting is that not only is it run by a religious group (you mostly forget about that while you're there; it's not really shoved in your face) but it used to be a hospital! Hey, at least it's a quiet place. Sure, I wish that their Wi-Fi didn't require you having to go down to the front desk to ask for the password to log in, but at least they have a computer and printer on each floor so I used that and my iPod Touch was used out in the wild, with middling success; more on that later. The drive there was pretty stressful as boy did I run into some real idiots and A-holes; the less said about them the better... I don't want my blood pressure to get too high.
I checked in the hotel and bummed around there a bit before I went to a Ring of Honor pro wrestling show in nearby Ft. Lauderdale. They're an independent wrestling company but one of the bigger ones due to the highly skilled guys that they typically use. I've seen some GREAT shows from them in the past, and I'm talking about being at those events live way back when. This time, it wasn't quite as great but there were some quality matches, even if at times it felt like overkill in terms of all the crazy shit they did, dropping each other right on the head and doing other high-risk stuff. Still, I did enjoy it quite a bit.
Saturday, now this day did not turn out as planned. I did go to the Sawgrass Mills Mall, as is pretty much tradition for me when I am down there. I walked around for a few hours, had lunch there, and I ended up buying some cheap items. The lunch I had was from a joint called Chicken Now; the theme is obvious. The tenders tasted fine, the service less so. I had a drink from a nearby place called Green Leaf's. It was a healthy joint that happened to have a place attached to it called Banana's (B-A-N-A... wait, why am I quoting that awful song?) that offers smoothies. I had one with coconut crème and it was pretty darn fantastic.
Not so fantastic was the weather when I left there. It was raining and it got worse by the time I made it to Miami Beach. I had dinner at a joint I had eaten at once before, the Shake Shack; it's a franchise mainly located in New York City but they do have one in MB because it's hip, I suppose. They have some delicious burgers and fries but best of all is the item they are named after. At that particular place is a tremendous concoction known as the Vice Crispy Treat, containing cream, marshmallows, and crispy cereal; I give it my highest recommendation.
I was going to see another wrestling show, this time in MB at a hotel. Problem was, when I got to the hotel there was no visible place to park for what seemed like miles around. I couldn't park at a meter as it'd run out long before the show was over with, there was no parking garage to be seen, and given that there was also a separate wrestling convention going on at the same place... I was NOT going to hunt for an hour or more to try and find a long-term parking place and have to walk a double digit amount of blocks just to get to the hotel, and hike the same distance back to the vehicle, so I said the hell to it and stopped at the Aventura Mall until I went back to the hotel. I was not happy about that whole situation, and I still am not delighted about it.
Sunday, things were better. I checked out of the hotel and went to the new baseball known as Marlins Park, where the team formerly known as the Florida Marlins and now known as the Miami Marlins will start playing this year. They used to play in the stadium that the Dolphins still play football in, the stadium that's had like a dozen names but for now is known as Sun Life Stadium. That stadium was not well-designed for baseball, and being outdoors in the typical Miami weather... no wonder attendance there was almost always pitiful. Now, the new Marlins Park has a retractable roof and after spending a few hours in it, it's a really nice and modern joint. I mean, if Miami doesn't get good attendance in such a great place, then there's no hope for that franchise in that city.
I got a ticket from a scalper (I know I know) and it was definitely more than I wanted to pay but as he was the only scalper I saw anywhere, I bit the bullet and paid the price. It did mean I sat in the lower part of the stadium and I wasn't able to explore but that part of the stadium. What I saw, like I said it's a great stadium. It was an exhibition game against the Yankees but the first half they played the usual starters. It proved to be an exciting contest with a lot of scoring. Unfortunately it was the end of the 8th inning and the score was tied 8-8 and I had to leave at that point, as the game was already going on for 3 hours by that point and I wanted to make sure I got to Wrestlemania with time to spare. At least I had seen a good amount of baseball by that point so I did not mind leaving at that point, even if I wish I could have seen the end. The Yankees won 10-8, though, so maybe it was a good thing I left the time I did.
By the way, not everything in the stadium went smoothly. Mainly, the videoboard and how it was run; they even had something misspelled! I saw the word "procecuted" instead of "prosecuted" and did I ever shake my head when I saw that.
I made the drive to Sun Life Stadium to watch Wrestlemania 28, the first one I ever saw live. There were at least 70,000 people there (the attendance figure they announced during the show was totally something they pulled out of their ass and not actually accurate) and now at least I can say I saw one in person given that I've been a big pro wrestling fan for more than 20 years now. In hindsight maybe I should have gone to Wrestlemania 24 in Orlando as that was a better show than this one. Sure, 28 had some quality matches. But, it also had quite a bit of stupid BS attached to it, the sort of stuff that reminded me why I haven't regularly watched WWE in years, and why I am really glad I haven't watched WWE in years. At least the experience was great watching The Rock wrestle in the main event, the whole presentation and all the theatrical stuff, with the stage, the rig above the ring, the fireworks, and all that. The crowd was into the show and that made it fun too, even if some of the people I came across... well, to be honest they fit most of the negative stereotypes people have concerning wrasslin' fans. You know, the clueless stupid trailer park trash sort of stereotype. But they at least provided entertainment for me. I was also amused to see one enormous guy who looked like the spitting image of Baby Huey. No, not the old cartoon duck and not the shitty one hit wonder rapper. I mean the late 60's R&B singer who was like 400 pounds plus and had a gigantic afro and sadly passed away at the age of 26 due to drug-related issues, but had a great singing voice.
I got back on the road relatively quickly due to me being parked way in the back by the entrance. Otherwise I would have been there a long while; it shouldn't have been such a lengthy process to leave the parking lot but the main issue was Florida drivers being their usual stupid Troglodyte selves. Don't even get me started on all the horrid driving I saw down there with all the rude ignorance and driving almost triple digit speeds as if it was the Autobahn. It's like there are three separate Florida's, with the panhandle, the rest of the state and then South Florida, which almost seems like another country. Anyhow, I drove straight home and I was glad I made it back shortly after 3 AM as I thought I would get back later than that. It's just today I feel mostly recovered from that trip. I wish I would have seen more people that I knew who were down there (I did come across a friend of a friend who I met once a few years ago; it was nice to chat with him for a few minutes) but warts and all it was a nice experience.
Monday was boring but Tuesday I did go to T.G.I.Friday's with someone I know. We hadn't been there in ages. The food was fine so it was a nice choice.
I'll be back Monday the 9th. I do not have that much planned for the next 5 days but I know the rest of the blogs I do that cover this month will be quite eventful.
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