I still can't believe it's finally here! And here I am, not as promised but as hoped, doing a Live From thread for my CLF family.
I'm at the Sheraton Suites Orlando Airport using their free internet, it looks like I may be able to hook up my camera and post a few photos from here as well, so time permitting I may do that. Why don't I have a lap top with me? Well funny you should ask...
Our morning started out at 2:30am PST, just 1 1/2 hours before we went to bed. We had better intentions but last minute chores & packing turned into entertaining friends who wanted to see us off and none of that cooperated with our excitement to be leaving, which kept us from going to sleep.
Keep in mind that the night before, we chose also to drop our son off with "Grandma Arda", since we had such an early day coming up. Arda is a good friend of our who considers herself our other mother and Lil' Red's grandmother. She takes him every weekend, and has had him overnight a few times. He hardly notices when we leave and will have a wonderful time with her. He also has playdates scheduled during the day with his closest friends, twin boys his age that wake up every morning asking if he's coming over to play. No kidding!
So as the alarm blared the Disney Theme for no reason we could figure out in our tired states, DH jumped out of bed like he was on a spring. He was ready to go, immediately whistling away and flipping on lights demanding my resentful self get out of bed. He had to do this, or I never would have.
I had given myself half and hour to shower, fix my hair and dress into my already laid out clothes. A placing of the cell phone chargers in our bags with a water cooled flat iron for my hair and Earl was out into the rain, placing our bags in the QX4 for the 1 hour drive to the Pasco, WA airport.
The drive was uneventful and we filled the time with discussing of the new highway being built and what our son will be doing while we are away but mostly what we will be doing on our cruise.
We arrived at the airport at 4am, 2 hours before our flight. Unfortunately, the ticket counters at this small airport were dark and a TSA agent told me that "things on the weekends are a little slow around here" and to come back in half an hour.
Earl and I left to find some breakfast and by the time we got back, the lady was flipping on the lights and getting ready to serve the few passengers now waiting to check in. We were first in line and I felt bad that we had to start out her day with complications...
I had booked my flight using airline miles, but did not have enough yet to accomodate Earl, so we purchased his ticket. We were lucky to find a ticket for him almost identical to mine WITHOUT costing $1600. The only difference was one leg of our trip on the way to Orlando. I had a direct flight from Pasco to Denver and Denver to MCO arriving at 3:30p. Earl however, got stuck with a 7 hour layover in Denver, then a flight to Dulles before ending up in Orlando at midnight.
Unforunately, our kind ticket agent was unable to print boarding passes for my flight. It turns out the flight was way overbooked and they weren't able to confirm a seat for me. I would have to check in at the counter. Earl was given passes but not much hope of switching to my flight, since even I it seemed, could not get seats.
The flight to Denver was uneventful and went quickly. I took my Larazapam upon boarding and was able to relax enough to snooze off & on for about an hour. When we landed in Denver we headed from gate B86 to B27 where my next flight was scheduled. We had only enough time to get to the counter, the flight was starting to board and we could see already there were problems. The agents were trying to get people to give up their seats for a different flight the next day even though it was only 9am. It seemed Earl and I would be traveling apart for the rest of the day.
At the last moment, an agent called for me and stated that she had a ticket for me and I needed to board the plane. I asked about giving up MY seat and traveling with Earl, but she said I would probably end up stuck on standby and then stranded in Dulles since that flight was full. If I wanted to get to Orlando today, I needed to leave NOW.
I kissed Earl good-bye, handed him some upgrade coupons for 1st class and boarded my plane.
My laptop remained with Earl, to entertain him for his now 7 hour layover.
The flight to Orlando was fine, there was a movie, Swing Vote, which turned out be quite fun. It was a good choice of movie as there were a lot of kids on the plane, all bound for Disney Land.
We had some pretty rough air for a bit but by this time I had drank 2 tall bloody marys and was not minding so much. It still did not help however, when the stewardess came aloud the speaker interrupting our movie to ask us to keep our seatbelts fastened and in the event of an emergency, "Leave Everything Behind."
What was that?! Not was any of us wanted to hear. I would have rathered for the "smooth skies should be coming up ahead."
We got into Orlando on time, I took the shuttle to the main terminal and down to baggage claim for my bags, which were both there waiting for me on the rolling carousel, enjoying their ride. The 3 of us walked to the hotel kiosk and called for a shuttle, then took an escalator down to ground level and walked for what seemed half a mile to the B4 station. I returned a couple of phone calls and then my bus arrived.
As I mentioned before, we chose to stay at the Orlando Sheraton Suites Airport. There is a varitable plethora of hotels here at this complex, across from the airport. They all encircle a large pond complete with fountain in the middle. (Sorry I forgot to take a photo) and a few restaurants here here as well. I think that I saw a Chilis, Friday's, Toni Romas and definitely noticed the Hooters (there were a lot of signs).
The hotel here is nice, we got it at a great price, just $84 for the night and with lots of ammenaties included. There is a restaurant, bar, gym, conference rooms, computers with free internet access, also printing, scanning and processing services and legal services like notary. There is a large pool that is both indoor and outdoor. (I took a picture of this just to show you)
After dropping my bags at the room and laying back to relax for a minute, I left to explore and take a few photographs. Then I sat down at the bar for a Corona and some lunch. I'm on a pretty strict low fat, low cholesterol diet at the moment and have been religiously sticking to this, but have permission to break from the diet for this week while I am on vacation. (I will still try to get my daily workout in, though) So knowing this, I cheated a bit and had a turkey club with fries. It was G.O.O.D.
I took some artful photographs of my beverage that turned out pretty good, but this is a family sight and I won't want to put on the appearance that we encourage such things.
It is only now, as I finish my lunch, that Earl calls to tell me he is finally leaving Denver for Washington DC. I wish him a good flight and chat for a bit with the guy in the next barstool. He and his wife are going on their first cruise tomorrow. They are headed to the Bahamas on the Elation. I gave him a few pointers and told him what a wonderful time they were going to have. I sure hope they do!
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It still did not help however, when the stewardess came aloud the speaker interrupting our movie to ask us to keep our seatbelts fastened and in the event of an emergency, "Leave Everything Behind." 
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