We were roused early this morning for US Customs in Miami…..no luggage, no forms, no questions. Just eyeball to eyeball with a biometric camera which US Customs matches with data stored on a chip inside our passports. Quick, easy, and all electronic. Does anyone else remember the long long lines of the past? Or the surly overworked staff? I remember trying to choose the line where the customs agent looked nicest.

The only challenge to the friendly efficiency was that EVERY passenger on the ship had to complete the process before any of us could go back to the ship. It takes a while for two agents to photograph 680 faces, so most of us shuttled into Miami’s Bayside Waterfront Park, a made-for tourist outdoor shopping/restaurant mall and lined with kiosks selling various Miami tours.

We opted for the first aggressive vendor, as the temperature and humidity were rising quickly. Very quickly we found ourselves with a couple hundred others on a bay cruise offering a tiny bit of history and water views of celebrity homes on Fisher Island.

We now know where JLo used to live with Alexander Rodriguez and where Jackie Chan now lives. Pretty sure I didn’t care.

Those couple hundred others on the tour were America’s multi-ethnic cross section, complete with loads of little KIDS. We had just spent almost three weeks in a majority white elder population…and the kids and the diversity were a jarring reminder of how in the bubble we had been.

Many decades ago, I led high schoolers on field trips to Chicago’s Field Museum. My high schoolers were no problem, but we were surrounded and obstructed by hundreds of loud Brownies and Cub Scouts. I typically left the museum with images of stamping out Scouts. Those memories returned.

Thus ended our visit to Miami and our welcome home to the US. Hot, diverse, kids running amok, tailored for tourists, with efficient and maybe understaffed bureaucracy.

The best part is that our phones worked while we were in harbor. Talking to our daughter in air conditioned comfort with a view of Miami just beyond felt like the best of all worlds. It is good to be almost home.