Welcome to Ft Lauderdale

As we made our way to Baggage Claim after a very short night with no sleep, we were met by a young man with our names on his phone. His name was Rodrigo and it was wonderful to have him deal with our bags. We followed him to a big Cadillac Escalade, black, of course. He loaded our bags and off we went. The Ft Lauderdale airport is no longer a sleepy little place. The cruise port has changed things around here.

The sun was rising as we left the airport. I don’t see many sunrises since I’m a night owl so it was a welcome sight. We arrived at the Westin Hotel right on the beach. It was pretty quiet when we arrived at 7:30. We checked in and were lucky enough to have the room ready. The bellman wheeled our bags up to our 6th floor room. And we crashed for a couple hours. We were invited to lunch at Uncle Al and John’s. Al is my brother-in-law who didn’t divorce me when his brother did! He and his husband John live in a beautiful condo overlooking the Atlantic. John made us a delicious lunch and we had a pleasant visit. Then John drove us to a Target. I am one of those people who weigh myself every morning. I didn’t want to be on this trip without a scale so I bought one for our room! Silly, I know but if it keeps me from gaining too much weight I’ll be happy. I will leave it on the ship when I leave.

John brought us back to the hotel where we took another nap. Almost got caught up on sleep. At 4:00 or so, there was a knock at the door and a the bellman delivered 2 half bottles of Prosecco and a cheese and fruit platter from Viking. What a treat! We enjoyed it looking out the window at the windy ocean.i could get used to this life!

Al and John picked us up at 6:15 to go to an Italian restaurant. The food was delicious and the company even better. Then back to the hotel.

There will probably be another post today after we board the ship.