A day of travel…

Day 1: Our good friend Tony once again gives us a ride to the airport. We get to the airport around 8:00 PM for a 10:00 PM Red Eye flight. I hope we can get some sleep. The flight is uneventful but we get no sleep. Elee has the aisle seat and I have the window. The flight is full and the “Monkey in the Middle” between us is a 6’9” basketball player type. We felt sorry for him. We paid for extra legroom and this poor guy’s knees pushed on the seat in front of us. We change planes in Atlanta and our new “Monkey in the Middle” is a smaller guy. But the flight is barely over and hour and again we get no sleep.

We arrive tired at 9:00 AM in Fort Lauderdale. We hail a cab and get to our hotel around 10:00 AM. After putting our luggage in the hotel, we take a walk around the neighborhood of North Fort Lauderdale. We are only 2 blocks to the beach. We have at least 4 plus hours to kill before we can check in to the hotel. We find a breakfast sandwich food truck that isn’t serving lunch yet so we have a glass of wine. Because why not? We go back to the hotel and they let us check in early. We take a much needed 3 hour nap. We are now in Day 2. We walk to the beach 2 blocks away. I see a ship on the horizon and I get a shot, framing it between 2 trees. Turns out it is our ship!

We find a liquor store and buy wine to take on to the ship. Next door is a fun looking Irish Pub where we have drinks and dinner. We meet Chris and Charlotte and join them at their table. Fun night even when a drunk patron dumps my water glass on me. Then the waitress dumps water on me. We also meet Stefan, a runner from Quebec getting ready to compete in a Marathon occurring tomorrow. We are forewarned that traffic will be difficult even though we are only a few miles from the ship we plan to board. We have Shepherd’s Pie and Mahi Mahi. The fish is severely overcooked. Shepard’s Pie is great. At the end of the night, Chris and Charlotte leave. When we try to pay the bill, our bar tab is missing. It was either the spilled water or Chris and Charlotte paid it. Thanks C & C!!!