Ships & Dip III - Saturday

You Never Know What's Gonna Happen on the Cruise-Uh!

Pre-Cruise - Saturday, January 26

I woke up "promptly" at 3 am, with no hope of falling back to sleep. So, I got up, showered, and kept myself busy until it was REALLY time to get up. We left Rochester at 8:30 am, and flew to Charlotte, NC for our connecting flight. What a nice airport! I'd gladly fly through there again. I think US Airways has pretty much taken it over, and uses it as their main hub. We had a couple hours to kill there, so we ate lunch (Carolina Pit BBQ - YUM!), and read for while (Terry Pratchett's "Wee Free Men," if you care. LOL). They had white rocking chairs in the atrium that we relaxed in until it was time to head down to our gate.

When we got to Miami, Steve and Clarissa were waiting for us at baggage claim, and we headed to South Beach to find our hotel, the Lorraine Hotel. It was a nice place, clean, and much better than the Sea Beach Plaza last year. The only problem was the late-night drunks, and busses taking off from the traffic light at the corner. We pretty much woke up every hour, on the hour, by some noise, and finally gave up at 4 am when a bunch of REALLY loud drunks next door started acting up -- I think they were wrestling in the hall, but one of them sounded BIG, so we didn't investigate. Oh, yeah, and the woman staying upstairs arrived, wearing heels... on a tile floor... At 4 am. We sat in the dark, talking for a while, then finally got up at 5:30 to start getting ready to return the rental car and head to the port.

Taking off for warmer climes! Get me outta here!

John relaxing in the Charlotte airport

Hilarious illustrations from US Airways emergency info cards.

When exiting the plane, you must do so in this position.

The three gates next to us when we landed in Miami

Our hotel, not as skeevy as Sea Beach Plaza.