Our time on Miami Beach is over and it is time for our first day on the ship.
We left the hotel at 9:30am and made the drive down to the airport to turn in the rental car and take their shuttle to the ship. Everything went very smoothly and we were on board the ship at 11:00am.
We dropped everything off in the cabin as they were still getting it ready and went up on deck to eat.
Then we went back to the cabin, changed into our swimming suits and sat out on the deck for a couple of hours. It was 79degrees and simply beautiful out.
Ships leaving the harbor ahead of us
After that, our cabin was ready and our bags had been delivered so we unpacked and got ready to go to the welcome aboard cocktail party given by the management of the casino,
The neat thing was that a lot of the casino staff from the Manager and Host on down we had met on previous cruses so it was nice talking to them and nice that they knew us.
We went to the opening show, which wasn’t great.
Then we walked about and finally headed for dinner in the restaurant. We are in the Aqua Class of staterooms so there is a separate restaurant called Blu that is just for the 132 guests in these cabins. It is very elegant and the service and food was outstanding.
A private island as we depart
We are eating with Vera and Jeff from Long Island who we met on the last cruise.
After dinner we went to the casino and played blackjack until we realized that it was after 2 and the time moves ahead one hour tonight.
New Years Eve was neat in that they closed the casino for a brief time while everyone celebrated.
Time for bed – night
Happy New Year – 2012 is going to be a great year.
We slept quite late, what a wonderful way to start our last full day on Miami Beach.
The entrance to Haulover Beach
Our first stop for the day was the beautiful Haulover Beach – one of our favorite beaches.
The weather was a perfect 78 degrees, no clouds and a light breeze. We stayed on the beach until 2:30pm and then headed back to the hotel to clean up and change for the evening.
We headed down to the Miami waterfront to Bayside Village, which is an entertainment, food and shopping area right on the waterfront. After staying there for a couple of hours we headed out to the far west side of Miami where there was supposed to be a weekly Cuban food festival. After driving for about ½ hour, we found out that they were not holding it this weekend, probably because of the holiday.
So we headed back towards the hotel, first stopping at a wonderful Cuban place for dinner. Basically we were the only English speaking people in the place. One person spoke some English and she was able to give us an idea of the food selection.
We made it back to the hotel by 10 and packed for the trip to the ship tomorrow.
Night for now – tomorrow the Celebrity Eclipse and 7 days sailing.
We slept late today as we are both still feeling the effects of a cold. Then it was off with the top down in the car to do some shopping. We did not go to the beach because it was a little cloudy and we thought it would be better for us.
The day was basically shopping, lunch and some more shopping, driving around looking at sights and we had fun.
Then it was back to the room to clean up and get ready for dinner.
On our way to dinner, we spent a couple of hours driving down the streets of the really, really wealthy who have homes on Miami Beach – amazing homes.
Part of the main courses at dinner
Tonight we met our friends from our last cruise, Jeff and Vera who will also be on this cruise. We met them at their hotel on the beach for drinks and then piled everyone into our car to go to the restaurant.
At the restaurant, wee also met their friends and business partner from New York Hal and Lynore who now live in Boca Raton. We went to a famous restaurant on south beach, Joe’s Stone Crabs. This is not the chain Joes Crab shack; this is a Miami institution having been open for 91 years. It serves 2,000 diners on a busy night and tonight was one of those nights. It is huge and seats 500 people.
They do not take reservations and when we got there at 8pm, the wait was two hours; however, Hal knew someone and we were able to get right in. We had stone crabs, crab cakes, artichoke hearts, key lime pie and a few other items that we all shared. When we left at 10:30pm, there was still a big line to be seated.
After dropping Joe and Vera off at their hotel, we headed up the beach to our hotel and crashed for the evening.
We were up bright and early for our 6:30am flight to Atlanta and then to Ft. Lauderdale airport. The neat thing was that Jason and Sharon and the kids were also on the flight to Atlanta. Then they had to change planes and flew to Orlando to go on a Disney cruise.
When we arrived at Atlanta and walked off the plane, MaryTherese and her husband Cedric were there to meet us. MaryTherese is an AirTran stewardess who we met several years ago and have become friends with. She and her husband live just outside the Atlanta airport so they came to say hi and also brought us muffins!! What special people. Just after Thanksgiving we shared an evening with them when they were in Bloomington for an overnight stop.
It all fit!!
After an hour of conversation with them, we got on the plane to Ft. Lauderdale and were then by Noon. It was a short walk to the rental section and we picked up our rental car. The agent said we would never fit our luggage into the car, but we did it. Of course we had to have the top down to make everything fit!!
The weather was 72 degrees and sunny, what a great way to finish the Christmas holiday.
Our room was ready at the Marriott Residence Inn so we were checked in and were changed and back outside by 1:30pm.
A Lnyx at C. Madeleine's
We first went to a deli that was ranked one of the best in Miami and spit a sandwich – it was a hole in the wall but really good.
Our first major stop for the day was at a vintage clothing place called
C. Madelene’s. The New York Times called this store “One of the fashion wonders of the world” and it was amazing. The entire store is filled with vintage clothing and none of it inexpensive. We spend about an hour there just laughing and with Barb trying on a dress that thank goodness was too small.
Then it was to South Beach and a walk in the Lincoln Avenue section of town. This is an 8 block section of South Beach that is full of great shops and the streets are blocked off for only people – a fun place.
Finally we went to eat at a place we had read about called Pubbelly where we shared a small dinner.
Lincoln Ave on South Beach
Then it was about 45 minutes north to our hotel and we called it an early evening. Lots more to do and see tomorrow and it was fun first day.
What a month it is between Thanksgiving and Christmas at our house. We will up-date this as the month goes on and also add pictures and videos.
Jacob trying out the batting cage
With this blog, we will try to show you some of the things that happen in our life at this time of the year.
We were blessed to have Thanksgiving at our house once again and everyone except Jeff and his family made it home. The weather was perfect and we all had a great time.
Jason, with Bill's help finished putting up the batting cage for the kids in the barn and everyone took turns hitting. It is going to be a great place for the kids to have somewhere to go to hit.
Before dinner, we celebrated Bre's birthday.
After a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, we formed a line and Jason went into the attic and we passed out the Christmas boxes full of decorations from the attic to the living room and the porch. That is a lot of help so Barb and I don’t have to carry them down ourselves.
Bre's Birthday
Relaxing at Thanksgiving
After thanksgiving, Ed put out all of the electrical lines for the outside lights and Barb worked on the inside. After the lines were all laid out, Barb and Ed worked to put up the lights. In 1 ½ weeks, everything was done and ready for the Christmas season. The lights are on and the inside is a Christmas wonderland.
Barb unwrapping a new cake plate
MaryTherese and Cedric
At this time, we also had the enjoyment of spending the evening with an AirTran stewardess MaryTherese and her husband that we had met on several AirTran flights over the past couple of year. It was one of those times when you hit it off with someone you meet and say – when you are in town call and she did. We took them out to Beningos for dinner and then spent the rest of the evening with them at Jumers. It was a fun night.
The stockings are hung
The tree with all our memories
On Saturday, December 2, Barb baked cookies for sending out to relatives and for the parties. After church on Sunday, Barb and Ed decorated all 25 dozen and packed them up for mailing.
Christmas Cookies
It is now December 9 and time for our weekend of parties. We have our church Cursillo party on Friday night and our Bloomington Gold party on Saturday night. Barb has done a wonderful job in preparing for the party, as always.
Well we made it through the Christmas Parties. We had 16 at each of the parties, including Mrs. Burroughs at the Bloomington Gold party who is 102!!! She is the mother of Bloomington Gold’s CEO, David Burroughs and is a delight. The stories that she can tell are simply wonderful.
Now we get to relax for the next couple of weeks leading up to Christmas and we will enjoy our Christmas time together.
Mrs. Burroughs who is 102 and Barb
From the back of the barn
The bears on the stairs standing watch!!
The drive and west side of the house
From the back of the house
And then there came Christmas!!
How wonderful it was that eveyone was home for Christmas. Following are some of the pictures from Christmas Day.
Jeff and Kris
Yes - we did have fun
Jacob, Breanna, Bill & Jackie, Jason & Sharon
