May 24 - Day 1 of our Adventure

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Let the adventure begin!

But first we must thank the Brink family for giving our cat (Nala) a home to enjoy while we are on vacation. This was her first visit to our daughter's house and she was a little nervous at first - guess 2 dogs will do that to a cat. But she has been there for 3 days now and seems to be settling in better each day. Anyway - THANK YOU.

We started this morning at 4:30 when our son-in-law, Mike Miller, met us in our apartment's parking lot and we were off to the airport for a 7:00 AM flight. Here we also need to say THANK YOU to Mike for getting up so very early to help get us on our way. Everything went pretty smoothly all morning. We checked our bags at the airport and were able to get a "comfort seat" on Southwest so we had 3 seats together for just the 2 of us - much more comfortable. An airport assistant pushed Janet through the airport in a wheelchair and we went to the front of a really long line at the TSA screeners. After the usual shoes/belt/laptop procedure we got ushered to the gate. The flight was on-time and we were actually the first 2 passengers to board the plane (using the wheelchair service does have an advantage). After a smooth flight we landed in Ft Lauderdale and another wheelchair met us at the side of the plane. We were whisked through to luggage claim and great news - all of our luggage arrived too! Then we were taken out to the hotel shuttle pickup point. The van came and picked us up and we were able to check into the Fairfield Hotel. We actually switched from one room to another nicer room, but now we have settled in for the next two nights.

David walked to a nearby Wendy's for our lunch and we ordered Italian dinners for supper from a delivery restaurant. The food was good although we are expecting even better from the ship meals starting Friday. But we are here just fine and resting up from the early morning and flight, before we really start the cruise. We will provide more info about the itinerary after we get on the ship.

Thanks for tuning into this blog - kind of an experimental episode to refresh our skills before the future entries. Good night from Ft Lauderdale.

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