The Joys of Travelling!

After getting up at 4am and driving to BWI, going through the mile long line through security (Pre-Check not available), removing my shoes, liquids, stepping through the ‘make you naked’ scanner, being told my left boob needed extra security via a pat-down, having my sunscreen confiscated, my Oral-B toothbrush scrutinized, and the entire content of my carry-on pawed by a TSA goon, and finally arriving at gate A-6 only to find out that my 9:35 flight is now delayed until 11AM due to bad weather in FLL.  UGH! The rest of the week in FLL shows pretty little suns in the forecast—all except today. Sigh.  

Kolton is amusing himself with his phone and/or people watching as I write this post.

We did have a decent breakfast at Phillip’s prior to coming to this gate. It was huge. We could have easily shared it. There were at least 4 scrambled eggs on each plate. Plus, red-skin potatoes, bacon and Texas toast. I topped this off with a double-shot Bloody Mary and Kolton had a Mimosa. We are chill.

I am really looking forward to this trip. I have been working a lot of extra hours at work. I have a project in deployment and honestly, it’s a hot mess. In the words of a former boss of mine, “testing is for pussies” and that is pretty much how this has gone. Though the issues are not caused by the employees but to an off-shore contracting group. UGH for the second time in one post.

I signed off of my work computer last night about 5:45 and went to get my pedicure. Pure bliss! The leg and foot massage alone are worth the cost. I now have beautiful turquoise colored toenails!

And we wait……………………………and wait……………..and wait

The early start to the day, the Mimosa and the long wait caught up to Kolton.

Finally made our way to Ft. Lauderdale after a weather-related delay. We finally arrived to horrible thunderstorms and so much rain, there was street flooding. So much for our beach day. Oh well. We grabbed a cab to our hotel and the room wasn’t ready. So we decided to take advantage of a break in the rain and walk down the street to get a late lunch. While we ate, the rain started up again and we waited until it let up a bit and walked the couple of blocks back to our hotel.

I’d reserved just a standard room – which looked decent enough—differing only from the other rooms due to our view (parking lot). However, we were put in the 4 story building across the parking lot from the hotel and accessed via a covered bridge. The clerk asked if we were able to handle just a few steps with our luggage. A few? Oh yes, just a couple of steps and then take the Elevator to the second floor and cross the sky bridge. Sounds easy, right? Hahahahaha We get off the elevator and come to a full flight of stairs heading down. The luggage plunks down the steps and we open the door and head across the bridge where we come to more steps….This time a set of 6 and another set 4. Really?

Oh and we were told ‘the rooms were recently remodeled. Once again I have to laugh. There was nothing majorly wrong with the room but it was far from newly renovated. The beds felt about 3-4 years past needing to be replaced. Shoddy paint & tiling added to the charm. I normally don’t stay at hotels in the Hilton plan but thought I would try this hotel as it was in the area I wanted to stay.

We went to Lulu’s Bait Shack for dinner and a few drinks. It’s at a place called The Beach Place. It’s mostly restaurants like Lulu’s, Fat Tuesdays, Hooters etc. The restaurants are directly across A1A and the beach. We snagged a table near the open air windows and settled in for some food and drink. The food at LuLu’s is not gourmet, but it’s good bar food and the drinks are very good. We noticed a band setting up and decided to wait and listen to them. In the meantime, we did a lot of people watching from our 3^rd-floor perch. There is a Naval/AirForce base nearby so there was a constant stream of soldiers coming and going. They were shuttled in on huge buses.                                                             

Gotta love a man in uniform....mmmm mmmm. 

And Kolton liked the fact that you can smoke in the restaurant because it's open air!

And that my friends, it a dirty monkey cocktail!

About 9pm, after hearing ‘check 1-2’, at least 300 times, the band started. 3 guys and a chick on the base. The girl just killed us. She wore her long black hair in pigtails and took great pleasure in whipping them around when she was ‘jammin’—which was all the time. The singer was a 40+ guy wearing a bandana on his head to cover his bald spot. The guitar guy was a Bon Jovi (in his early days) wanna-be. The drummer was pretty non-descript. So they started their set and they were decent. The tables all around us were filled and as the band played oldies—Journey, Aldo Nova, Foreigner—etc all songs from the 80s I was looking around at all the ‘old people’ seriously JAMMING and head banging to the music. And then it hit me, these old people were MY AGE. OMG I was stunned. I think inside I still think of myself as like 37. I was really freaked out by this and kept saying to my Nephew, OMG these people are my age and they are old. (Of course, the 4 drinks I already drank had nothing to do with this reality, I’m sure.) 

And so ended our first day..... imperfect weather, but still, a good time had by all.