Spring 2012 – Day 1

We awoke early in the morning and headed to the airport to catch what will probably be our last Air Tran flight from the Bloomington airport as they are ceasing service June 2.

A full car as usual

The flight was totally full and we arrived in Ft. Lauderdale just after noon.

We quickly picked up our convertible and headed to the Hard Rock Casino. Our casino coordinator from Celebrity cruise line is now working as a host at the Hard Rock and sent us an invitation for a free room, etc. for the three nights we needed – so here we are.

We changed out of our travel clothes and immediately headed for our favorite beach – Haulover Beach. Sorry no pictures because pictures are not allowed. The weather was beautiful – 84 degrees, a light wind and no clouds and there were a lot of people on the beach.

Barb's dinner

We stayed on the beach until about 4:30 pm and then headed down Miami Beach to a Cuban restaurant that the Travel Channel had recommended called Las Olas Café. Their specialty is empanadas, which is a pastry stuffed with chicken, beef or ham and cheese and were they ever good. No one in the restaurant spoke any English so it was fun. Ed had a couple of orders and also an order of Plantains, which are fried bananas.

Then it was back to the Hard Rock to clean up and go to the Casino. This place is huge – there are over 2,500 slot machines! We had a fair session in the casino and built up some playing hours.

As we have been up a long time, we are getting to bed early – it isn’t even midnight – but night night.

Ed's empanada and fried plantains