It all started last Thursday when Steve and I flew to Ft. Lauderdale. He was going to run the ING Miami Half-Marathon and I was going to do the 5K. He had booked one of the time share dealies for a week. I was not in favor of staying that long, so he had return flights booked for us on Tuesday.
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Meanwhile, I was not feeling this trip. I was leaning on the side of "I don't want to go." Sure, a lot of it was the whole flying in a plane thing, but there was also a lot of stuff that I needed to be doing. Or at least thought I needed to be doing. Mainly stuff that should have been done a long time ago, and probably wouldn't get done even if I stayed, but I still felt like I could hold on to it as an excuse.
While I was mulling over my thoughts of going/not going, Steve heard from friends who would be in Orlando the week after the race, and wanted to play golf on Thursday and/or Friday. So, he was pretty pumped to stay the whole week. Meanwhile, I was still trying to talk my self into going, and was pretty much planning to come home soon after the race.
So we get to Ft. Lauderdale and check into Hotel #1 - the one with the peekaboo shower. The reason we stayed there was because it was Thursday and the timeshare thingy reservation didn't start until Friday. So, it was a case of haul the suitcases to the room, figure out a schedule for the shower, and eek out every minute until checkout the next day, so there might be a chance that the new room reservations would be ready when we checked in.
Friday we check out and head just down the beach to our next destination (which was reserved for a week-long stay). This was a two-bedroom condo (there were just two of us), so we had lots of room. And a private shower. We checked in, and the room was ready. We had a great view of the ocean and could see the cruise ships come in and go out. And Hooters was just a few steps away, should anyone need some wings.
Saturday we get up early to drive to Miami so I could go experience the 5K, which turned out much better than I could have hoped. We camped out on South Beach for awhile so we could see some bloobies and some speedos, and Steve could get some sun. After lunch we checked into Hotel #3. We stayed here because it is just steps from the start/finish of the half-marathon, and that makes a HUGE difference when the race starts at omigosh-thirty in the morning. It is also nice when your legs/feet only have a few yards of walking left in them - just enough to get you back to the hotel. This hotel was the fancy schmancy hotel, and while it did have a fancy schmancy glass shower, at least there were blinds on the window - should anyone not want to put on a show for the hotel across the street.
Once the race was over and Steve felt he was going to live, we packed up our overnight bags and headed back to the beach at Ft. Lauderdale. By this time I had figured out that this vacation thing was a pretty good idea, so I decided to stick around a bit. And walk three miles to Michael's and back.
By Thursday, we had reservations for two nights at Disney World in Orlando. Hotel #4 was a value hotel, but it ended up being just fine. We had a nice room close to the bus stops, and I managed to shop in every park, even remembering to band-aid up the blisters before I left each day.
Unbelievably, before I knew it, it was Friday night and time to pack up to return home. While I had been gone, Komen had gotten the world in an uproar and created a public relations nightmare for the organization. Maribeth's bathroom had progressed to the almost finished point, until her kitchen cabinets arrived unexpectedly and work had to be halted to unload the delivery. The cats almost ran out of food, but Molly took care of them. Lindley decided that she might like swings after all. In other words, the world kept spinning and I had a week off. I managed to get back on the plane and even saw parts of Disney World as we were taking flight.
All in all, it was a great trip that I enjoyed very much. I wonder if that's what a vacation is supposed to be?
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Today's blessings: Seeing WDW from the air; safe flight home; lunch with Steve and Molly; lots of 3-day postcards; Lindley time
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