Friday November 18 Getting There

 Friday November 18

It’s 6:30 am on Saturday - Carm is snoring beside me but I’m wide awake (although slightly cotton headed) with excitement. 

The actual travel to get here was as expected, a gruelling series of hurry up and wait… starting at our 2:30 am alarm clock and ending with a slightly rough landing (but nothing like the time I landed sideways in NZ). I was glad that the flight was only 4 hours as the seat had my neck and back in spasms - I was near tears at one point. Unfortunately the guy in front of me reclined his seat all the way so I could hardly move.

It’s always a crap shoot when I’m sitting in the middle seat that the person next to me might be unpleasant or maybe distasteful, but the older gentleman (and I do use that term specifically) was lovely and we had some nice conversations.

But forget all that - we were here. Next was the anxiety ridden wait at the luggage carousel to see if our bags arrived - with shouts of hurrah they were in our hands and even unscathed. Whew. Princess here we come.

The next adventure was getting to our hotel. The taxi driver didn’t know where it was and his gps was sending him in every direction except the correct one. Thankfully, in my hysteria of getting ready, I had downloaded the Fort Lauderdale map into Google Maps and it deftly guided us to our destination - the ‘Royal Palms’ one block off the beach and in a high end condo area.

We had decided to try a hotel off the beaten path and away from the big chains partially to save some money but also so we’d be in a more interesting area. Checked in, dragged our bags up and down some stairs, through giant jade plants and finally to our slightly dinky room with a strong smell of mildew. Ah, it was okay but nothing to write home about (but wait, isn’t that what I’m doing right now.)

But! On our way to our room we passed through the pool area that had a little bar/tapas bar with seating among the tropical plants. After we settled into our room and got set up with the wifi, we ventured out for a little walk. There were some restaurants (not big chain ones), bakeries, and a juice/smoothie bar that looked like a possible destination for a light breakfast to ready our bellies for 10 days of gorging. 

One block east and we were at the beach which seemed to stretch out for eternity - I think we could see Miami in the distance. The wind was blowing a gale and the entry into the water was a little steep so we forgo sticking our toes in the water.

Gosh, we were exhausted as we’d basically been awake for over 30 hours (cause how could we possibly sleep!), so we trundled back to the hotel to wait for Kirsten and Shawn to arrive and get a cat nap.

A few hours later we got a text that they’d landed and had their (somewhat broken) luggage. Twenty minutes later they were checking in so we dashed to the office to welcome them. Excited chatter carried us late into the evening :-) We were all hungry so after they dumped their stuff into their room we enjoyed an evening of tapas and conversation. 

So excited! I can’t wait to see their reaction when we walk up and into the giant floating city that will be our home for the next 10 days.

AWESOME

“luggage at the carousel”

“nice gentleman sitting next to me on the plane”

“the beach with it’s roiling waters”

“the most awesome of all was seeing Kirsten and Shawn”

“the shrimp”