Nine hour flight

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We took the 8am courtesy bus back to the airport this morning.

As we had already checked in through to Miami yesterday, we already had our boarding passes for today. They stopped us and asked lots of security questions as for all USA flights. This is what you need to do these days if you want to go to America.

Proceeded through to the gate and had coffee and cakes for breakfast.

When we went to board, we were taken to one side as they had no record of us having an ESTA for entry into USA. We informed them that this was correct as we did not need one as we each have USA entry Visa. The girl that asked all the questions first thing this morning took details of the Visas, but it would appear she did not do anything with the information. We were then free to board the plane. Had two good window seats near to the back of the plane.

When we have flown in the past to Miami from London, it has taken 8 hours. As we are flying from Madrid today, it will take 9 hours. That extra hour makes it a very long flight and we were both very tired by the time we got here.

We got totally lost in Miami Airport as they have moved all the car rental offices into the one place on airport. Eventually got there and picked up our sparkling white Kia car. Bottom of the range, cheap and just the job for us.

Drove straight from the airport about 80 miles to the apartment without getting lost once. We do not do GPS, just old fashioned maps and instinct. The directions we had pulled from the website before we left were spot on.

We are staying at the Avalon timeshare complex. There are about 20 apartments in the complex and we are both really impressed by it. We have a small sea facing balcony, bathroom, kitchen and then a studio with bed and lounge in it. The sea is about 50 yards away. This will do us good for our first week away.

When we arrived, it appeared that the area was under the influence of a hurricane. There were really strong winds. The trees looked like they were fighting well. The sea looked really angry with some really high waves. A hurricane is a tropical cyclone with winds exceeding 74 miles per hour.

Went to our local 'Dennys' diner restaurant for dinner before retiring at about 9pm. We have had a 20 hour day today and are fit to drop. Denny's is one of our favourite eateries here in USA.

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