Day 1: Arriving to Florida

Day 1: Good morning from the high seas. The last few days have been a whirlwind, and I mean the wind part literally! We landed in Ft Lauderdale Saturday evening. Allison's boyfriend Robert had already been here a few days for work and was able to fetch us from the airport in a rental car. In all of my travels I've never seen such poor pedestrian behavior. The airport, thankfully, was not too busy, but people would WALK INTO TRAFFIC ON THEIR PHONES and wave wildly to find their ride. I thought picking travelers from LAX was crazy, now I know how civilized it is. Mom, Allison and I patiently waited on the curb for the car to come to us, then loaded up and shouted "DRIVE." Robert laughed knowingly and said "Welcome to Florida!"

Our journey took us due south to Miami Beach. Robert chose dinner, Flanigans- one of his favorites places when he lived in West Palm Beach. It is a chain bar and grill, best described as Chili's with St Patrick's day theme year round. The drinks were on happy hour, and the portions big enough to share. I was only too happy to add a Cesar salad for $2.49. While the others drank $3 beers, I had copious amounts of iced tea which conveniently came in a to-go plastered with Mr. Flanigan's face. After a much needed meal we headed to our hotel, where we were greeted with warm cookies (standard at the Double Tree) and a wine and cheese plate in the room.