April 18, 2006

• Day 1 – Arriving in Ft. Lauderdale

  
  

  Well it’s our first stop and we’ve already misplaced our cord required to transfer pictures from our cameras to the computer.  It’s too late to launch an all out search tonight but I’m sure it’ll turn up in the repack tomorrow morning.  Here’s a text version…surely pictures to back it up will be posted sooner than later.

  
  

  Here’s a quick picture of our Embassy Suites Hotel in Los Angeles along with some airport pics…it was Serra and Sophia’s first flight.

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  Our flight out of LA was better than we could have expected.  We flew Delta/Song non-stop in to Ft. Lauderdale.  We had no idea that they had individual Dish Network equipped TV’s installed in every headrest of the plane.  It was awesome!  Serra got 4 hours of uninterrupted Cartoon Network and we were left wondering how anyone ever got through a long flight without them.  Aside from Serra spilling cranberry juice all over herself and Pam it couldn’t have been better.  Sophia is an angel.

  
  

  As we exited the plane and entered the terminal Serra started calling out “Aunt Holly…Aunt Holly”.  We had to explain that while we were going to see Aunt Holly while we were here that she wasn’t going to meet us at the airport.  She also took one look at the terminal and exclaimed that we really hadn’t gone anywhere and that she thought we were going to Florida. Apparently the terminals look similar. It was pretty funny. We made our way to curbside where we caught a taxi to our hotel, the Pier 66 Hyatt.  We had scored the hotel on priceline (as we have the majority of our hotels on this trip) and we were impressed by the nice lobby and reception we got.  Overall the hotel is nice but it’s pretty dated and there are stains on the carpets in the hallway and the paint is peeling…the rooms are nice though.  No complaining here as the view is wonderful of the various local waterways and the parked cruise ships waiting to load.

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  After getting our stuff to our room we were hungry and made our way back down to the hotel restaraunt.  We are pretty naive when it comes to costs at hotel eateries but let’s just say a dinner of two hamburgers, fries, a coke, and Serra’s chicken fingers came in at around $60.  Yikes. Atleast the burgers tasted really good.

  
  

  Day 2

  
  

  Someone who’d stayed before us in this room was so kind to leave the alarm clock set to go off at 6:00 AM.  This normally wouldn’t be a big deal other than we’re still on Pacific Time and it was really 3:00 for us.  Pam wondered aloud why I was getting up so early while I was blindly pushing every button on top of the alarm clock trying to make it stop.  After that little episode we managed to sleep in till 9:00 EST before I got up to make my way back to the airport to pick up our rental car.

  
  

  I’d made reservations for a fullsize car months ago at Thrifty and Budget as the prices seemed low and I wanted the flexibility to go to Budget if I got to Thrifty and all they had was a Ford Focus for me.  Having worked in the rental car industry I know that sometimes, no matter how hard you try as a rental guy, the only car you’ve got on your lot is a 2 door, 3 cylinder, with no power steering and no a/c, Chevy Metro.  At any rate, I’ve been checking both reservations off and on the last six months to see if I could get them cheaper but the prices were a good 300-400 higher than my original reservation.  I tried again last night and found to my surprise that Thrifty’s price actually was $200 less than my quoted price that I’d reserved months ago.  I hurridly cancelled my old reservation and made a new one…yipee!  I kept my Budget reservation as my backup. 

  
  

  Anyhow, you didn’t need all that background but this is our journal and I want my kids to realize how hard I tried to save their money.  I showed up at Thrifty fully intending to offer the rental person a $100 bill to hook me up but I unfortunately got a girl who was getting trained by her manager.  They offered me either a Dodge Magnum for my reservation price or a minivan for $300 more.  I really like the looks of those Dodge Magnums so I was happy to hear that it was an ’06 with low miles so I knew I wouldn’t be going to Budget and the minivan, while likely better for our trip, didn’t hold the same appeal.  I tried to pull a fast one by trying to get them to give me a Chrysler 300 (luxury car) for the minivan rate but they weren’t budging.  Anyhow, long story short, we’re cruising in a real cool looking silver Dodge Magnum. 

  
  

  On the way back to the hotel I stopped and picked up McDonalds for the girls since we’d gotten our taste of what the hotel restaraunt prices were.  I got our whole breakfast for the price of one hamburger! It was hilarious when Serra finally saw our car and she promptly asked me “Where did you get it? Did you steal it?”  I assured her that I had and that if she saw any police to let me know.  She’s a very funny kid.

  
  

  After getting mobilized we decided to go brave the city streets and find our first destination; Sawgrass Recreation Area . It’s a pretty small little outfit but we had a blast going on the airboats and cruising through the everglades.  Our captain was a salty guy who looked liked he’d seen plenty of sun while sitting on top of those fan boats, but he gave us all the info we ever wanted on the everglades.  We did see one alligator while out in the wild but it made itself scarce fairly quickly.

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  After our fun boat ride we made our way over to the alligator exhibit where there were several ”baby” alligators.  They were anywhere from 3-5 feet long and the guide there was telling us all about them while letting us get up close and personal with them.  Serra was having a great time until we suggested that we take the guy up on the $2 donation for the chance to hold one of them and take a picture.  She refused but was ok with it as long as I was the one doing the holding and she’d pet it.  The guide put electrical tape around it’s jaws and handed him over to me.  Serra was brave enough to hold its tail and she’s been talking about it ever since.  She was excited to tell Grandpa Anderson since he’d warned her to “watch out for alligators”.

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  After that we headed towards a large shopping mall to pick up some miscellaneous items. We were surprised at how hot and muggy it is here so we picked up Pam and I some lighter shirts, and me some shorts and sandals. By the time we make it to Pennsylvania we’ll likely be doing some heavier clothes shopping but for now we just need to stay cool.

  
  

  As we were finishing shopping we got a call from my sister Holly who was just getting off of work.  We made our way over to her place where we rendevouzed with her while we waited for her husband Ian to get off of work.  Serra was enthralled with her two dogs and I took a quick power nap.  After Ian got home we visted for awhile and headed out to a nice Mexican food place and enjoyed a nice dinner and visit.  We don’t get to see Holly much since she’s been in vet school in Wisconsin and is completing a residency down here so it was great to spend some time with her.

  
  

  

  
  

  By now it was about 10:00 EST but we were full of energy and made our way back to the hotel where we partook of the nice pool facilities.  Pam bought a little inflatable boat that Sophia can sit in and go out in the water…it was fun.  I was in heaven as I was sitting there relaxing in the heated pool, surrounded by beautiful Ft. Lauderdale, and taking in the night sky and relaxing.  Not to make anyone jealous but it’s awesome.  Tommorrow we leave for Orlando…stay tuned.

  • 12:17 am
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