Thursday, December 16, 2010

a - From Sunny Ft Lauderdale :)

Last night, still in Soddy, we were running around finishing up all
sorts of things between the shop and the house. We took the doglets to
Steven's house where they will be staying while we are away, finished up
the packing, sorted out a few more sick computers, wrapped the final
Christmas presents, left notes everywhere and just generally tried to
tie up a gazillion loose ends. Frank went out to the shop at one point
and slipped down the concrete steps that were totally frozen over....
That could so easily have been the end of this trip and we were, once
again, very fortunate that he was not hurt.

I had some things I needed to do last night online and was a tad worried
when I could not get online. My Macbook was already asleep in the safe
and I wondered whether this little computer would actually work. It
does, but there were a few bad moments there. I know that I would also
be a good thing for me to get away from the computer for a while, but
this is the way I do things, write my memories and experiences down at
the end of the day after the lights are off and Frank is gently snoring.
:) Besides, I need somewhere to dump the few photos I take...

We were lucky that we did not latch the gate last night as everything
was frozen solid this morning - we would have had trouble getting out of
the yard, let alone down the road... but we did, and with icicles
dripping off many places of the car we carefully headed down the road to
the airport. What a lovely time of the day that is, especially in this
weather.. almost no cars at all, and those that are out are all driving
slowly and carefully. The bridges were salted and the roads just fine.
The airport was still asleep apart from one short line of people on a
different airline. After about an hour of waiting, a guy who had
obviously forgotten to check his hair in the mirror and who did not look
fully awake, opened up the Delta line and we started the process.

We were late in taking off, wings got all iced up and we had to get
de-iced again, three people were taken off the airplane and their
luggage had to be taken off too... we never did find out why. But after
about an hour delay off we went into the night sky. I firmly believe
that I will not suffer from any menopausal hot flushes........ i get
enough of them each time we take off in an airplane! My palms go all
sweaty and even though I am not hungry at all, my stomach grumbles and
groans. My brain tells me its all ok and even the worst scenario
is....well, out of my control - but that message does not go any further
than the neurons that created them. When it was time to get off the
plane we were very surprised to see that we had to climb down a very
narrow steep set of stairs, straight on to the tarmac and then walked a
way and up some more steep metal steps into the airport. Hmmm -had not
seen that for a while.

The airplane from Atlanta to Ft Lauderdale was a jitterbug! It sort of
wiggled around as if it had a soft spot in the middle like one of those
airport buses that have a concertina middle..... That plane jiggled
around on the ground like a kid who needs to go to the bathroom - one
foot to the other, non stop. Everyone was sort of looking at everyone
else with an unasked question in their eyes. No one got off though and
the flight was smooth and good once we got off the ground. It was
greatly improved when they announced that Delta was giving free wifi
connections on all flights till 2 Jan.... I just could not resist! Out
came the laptop and yes, I sent a couple of emails from 38000 ft up in
the sky :)

The clouds looked like something from Disneyland - all fairytale like
and a very pretty clean cotton-wooley white with a lovely pink and
orange glow and the sun woke up. Pretty. After landing we jitterbugged
for a good way to the gate, grabbed our luggage (the only turquoise
color in there), found a taxi and headed to the hotel. It is beautiful
and warm here - and before long we found ourselves sitting outside at a
dockside restaurant, beers in hand, smiles firmly planted on our faces,
squinting against.........yes, the sunshine!! Everything felt so good
right then and so its been for today. After a delicious lunch, a couple
of beers, a beach walk we headed back to the hotel to catch up on some
of the missed sleep from last night.

And so the first day of our time away has come to an end. Tomorrow we
will be exploring Ft Lauderdale by Water Taxi - $15 per person for a
full day of coming and going with stops all over Ft Lauderdale... sounds
lovely and the weather is going to be just great too - 78 degrees!!

Here is a link to a few live camera's of the Panama Canal.... we go
through there on the 24th December - starting at the first lock around
6am and out the other side at around 6pm...
.http://www.panamacanallivecam.com/gatun-lock-cam/. Maybe you would see
us going through there too. We are on the Celebrity Constellation
cruise ship.

I will try to put up some photos, but think that the connection on the
ship will just not allow it - so will probably only get that right once
its all over.

Ok- enough rambling out of a 'nothing much' day :)

love and light
Annie

--
http://cruisebaggs.blogspot.com

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