Next stop...Florida!

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If you’re planning a trip out of LAX any time soon, I highly recommend booking your flight for a Tuesday morning. Living in a post 9-11 world, it is almost impossible to be greeted at the airport by less than 50 people waiting in line ahead of you to check in, check bags, make your way through the security checkpoint, even to go to the restroom! Heck, lately you have to consider yourself lucky just to find out that your flight hasn’t been delayed, canceled, or the whole airline gone bankrupt while you were waiting. But this morning, not only were we pleased to find out that our flight was indeed still scheduled (and on time!), we also walked into Terminal 1 (Southwest Airlines) at 7am this morning to discover an almost empty lobby. We walked right up to the counter to self-check our bags, then breezed through the security checkpoint in less than two minutes, allowing us plenty of time to sit, have a healthy McDonald’s breakfast (what carbs?) and wait for our flight to board. I’m sure the fact that it’s not summer yet had something to do with our luck, but you won’t here me arguing. I should also mention that not only was our flight scheduled on time, it actually left on time, AND arrived in Orlando 15 minutes early. For all my traveling, I think that this was a first.

Unfortunately we didn't get to completely escape the first day witout a problem. Budget, where we booked our rental car, didn't have any compact cars available (even though we reserved one, oh, over a month ago) and stuck us with a gas guzzling, environmentally unfriendly, ugly Hyundai SUV. It's a small SUV, the attendant assured me, but an SUV nonetheless. I'm sure this will lead to our being extorted at the gas pump for the next two weeks, but at least the car itself was cheap ($102 for two weeks), so it evens out in the end I guess.

We drove from Orlando to Cocoa Beach, where we are staying at the Luna Sea Motel ($63, which includes a free full breakfast tomorrow at a nearby diner). By the time we had settled into our room it was already 8:30pm and we were starving, so we headed back down the main road to La Fiesta, a mexican restaurant we had passed on the drive in. The chips and salsa were good, the food okay (I had spinach enchiladas). And now I am exhausted and ready to get a good night's rest for Kennedy Space Center tomorrow!

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Photos

Luna Sea Motel
Cocoa Beach, Florida

Luna Sea Motel
Cocoa Beach, Florida (that's our room, 114, with the door open)

Our Gas Guzzler
Courtesy of Budget Rental

La Fiesta Mexican Restaurant
Cape Canaveral, Florida

La Fiesta Mexican Restaurant
Cape Canaveral, Florida

Dinner!
Spinach enchiladas

Comments

[RC/GC]

Off to a great start
Jen, Looks like your adventure is off to a great start. Lookking forward to following along each day. RC/GC

[Michael]

Ooooooooh, Dinner looks tasty. I'm wanting mexican now. Thats a HUGE vehicle. It doesn't look right being so clean either, you need to run through some puddles to get some mud splatters going. Looking forward to following your adventures again :D

[Jen C]

Hee hee...I'm sure it will be nice and dirty by the time we return it! =D