florida trip - day one

Julia and I left for our week long trip to Florida Saturday morning.  We got to the Phoenix airport, in what I thought would be plenty of time, but encountered that the ENTIRE STATE OF ARIZONA was also going on vacation.  We stood in the LONGEST line I've EVER stood in at the airport to check our bags.  Luckily, the airline staff seemed to have anticipated this Spring Break migration and they kept everything orderly and moving efficiently.  We finally got up to the counter kiosks, checked our bags, and headed up to security.  No problems there.  Then we made our way down to our gate.

We had a lay over in North Carolina that was only supposed to be about 50 minutes, but which turned out to be 2 hours instead.  When we landed in NC, we got lunch (bagel sandwiches from a deli there) then waited for our flight to Florida.  We boarded our plane to finish our trip down to Orlando, but once everyone was on board, we sat at the gate for about 15 minutes while "they fixed something that's wrong with the cargo door under the plane."

I turned to Julia and said, "Can you imagine being in your backyard, minding your own business, and suddenly a suitcase falls out of the sky!  What would you do??"  We both laughed.

Then the pilot came back on the intercom and said that we all had to de-plane because there was something else wrong with the plane and they were going to have to switch us to a different one.  There was a lot of grumbling going on around us, but I was like, Hey.  I don't want to die.  So, I'm perfectly okay with being switched to another plane that ISN'T having issues.  So, we all got back off the plane and waited in the terminal.  Finally we boarded our new plane and took off.

Florida sunset from the plane window

We finally landed in Orlando!  We waited for about an hour (only slightly exaggerating...it was literally at least 45 minutes) for our bags down in baggage claim, then waited in line to get our rental car.  We were supposed to get an economy (the smallest they have) but by the time we got there (because, by this point we were three hours later than originally planned for) they were out of economy cars, so we got bumped up for free!  We were told which row of cars we could choose one and that we could take whichever one we wanted.  I stopped by a cute little red Dodge Dart and said, "Let's take this one."  

Julia looked at me and said, "Why?"  (In a very distraught voice)

I looked at her in question, not understanding what the problem was, and noticed she was looking at the tiny little Fiat that was parked next to the Dodge.  I told her, "I meant this one."  Pointing to the Dodge, and she immediately relaxed and was very relieved.  We both laughed over her "distraught over the possible Fiat."  

Then the fun part came!  Driving in Orlando.  Oh my goodness.  I have NEVER seen so much traffic at 10:30 AT NIGHT before!  I had printed off maps (because I'm old school like that and still do maps instead of GPS like the 80 year old man that I am) of how to get from the airport to a Walmart (to pick up food for Sunday and snacks for the weeks) and then how to get from the Walmart to our hotel.  For being my first time driving in that town, I think I did pretty good!  I got us where we needed to go without any issues.  When we were at Walmart we mistakenly got in line to checkout behind these two crazy couponer ladies who were buying the most random stuff and speaking only in Spanish to the cashier.  I swear it took them an hour and a half to buy their cans of refried beans and Taco Bell soft taco kits.  And I kept thinking, "You're hispanic!  Don't you make all this stuff from scratch?!  What the heck are you doing buying it?!?"

Whatever.  

We finally checked out, then drove to the hotel.  We checked in to our room, did a cursory sweep of the room to make sure it was going to be livable for the next week and settled in.  Finally eating some dinner!  I was starving at this point.  I had bought a salad at Walmart to eat, so I dug in to it, hoping it would be delicious.

It wasn't.

Also, my fork broke while I was trying to cut up some of the fake chicken I had bought to put in it so I had at least SOME protein for the day.  I looked at Julia and said, "I'm tired!  I'm hungry!  And I only have a quarter of a fork!"

She busted up laughing and had to take a picture.

I had realized, on the plane from NC to FL, that I had forgotten to pack beach towels.  It was the one thing I had forgotten.  So, after eating, we made a little trip down to the gift shop in the hotel lobby to see what they had.  We both ended up buying a towel there to bring with us when we went to the beach on Sunday.  It was my most expensive souvenir from the trip: $18!!  But...it's really cute, so I don't care about the price.  :)