February 2018 – Day 1 & 2

What a first day we had.   We were to leave Bloomington for Fort Lauderdale via Atlanta and be on the beach by 1pm.  Well that great plan didn’t work out because after we left Bloomington a huge storm hit Atlanta, and everything came to a stop there and we proceeded to circle north of Atlanta out of the storms way.  That lasted for about a ½ hour when Delta made the decision that the storm wasn’t going to stop anytime soon so our plane was diverted to Chattanooga, TN!!

When we landed in Chattanooga, the first gate agent we saw when we came off the plane said she had no idea what was going on and didn’t know the plans.  Then after about ½ hour the crew left as they had been up for their maximum flight time.  Finally, after about an hour we found out that the plane that we were on would leave for Atlanta at 9:00pm which would put us in Atlanta to late to get the last plane to Fort Lauderdale.

To make very long story short, after being booked on 4 flights that were all cancelled, we finally made it out of Chattanooga at 6:00pm.  Then we had to wait for the first available flight to Fort Lauderdale which was at 11:00pm.  That flight was delayed as the crew was late getting in from another city. 

We finally make it to Fort Lauderdale at 1:00am, retrieved our bags and went to the rental car company.

There we found out that they had run out of cars and the only cars that were left were all mini-vans and we could have our pick of any of them.

We picked out a brand new (2,000 miles) Chrysler, complete with nav, a back-up camera, leather and all of the goodies and made it to the hotel quickly, as it is only 15 minutes from the airport.

We checked in, went up to our room - it was a very nice 1-bedroom room, complete with a kitchen and we were in bed by 3:00am and asleep by 3:05am!!!

Our room at the Marriott Beach Place - Fort Lauderdale

Ed was up first and went out in the immediate area and bought Cheerios and milk as this is a vacation resort Marriott and does not have a restaurant.  We finally left the room close to noon and headed for Haulover Beach, our favorite beach in the Ft. Lauderdale/Miami area.

It was with great sadness that we learned this morning that Father Greg lost his battle with cancer and died at 2:35am today.  So sad and he fought an long battle with brain cancer, and we will very much miss him.

We first stpped at one of the top Deli’s in the area and had a great Pastrami sandwich.  Then it was off to the beach for a couple of hours of sun.  78 degrees and hardly a cloud in the sky – a perfect first day in the sun!!

Lunch

We drove back to the hotel, cleaned up and went north 6 miles to a wonderful restaurant where we shared a salmon dinner that was very, very good.

Back to the hotel and we are ready for bed.

Tomorrow will be about the same, just a different couple of restaurants.

Night from Fort Lauderdale!!