Day 1 - 2 out of 3 aint bad

Cheryl and I have been married a loooong time.  40 years to be exact.  I'd say it seems like only yesterday but by the wrinkles on my face and gray hair on my head it does feel like 40 years ago.  On top of that, Cheryl and I both turned 60 this year so in terms of round numbers, this is the 60/60/40 year.  To celebrate, we decided to go on a cruise.  We've been on many cruises (think its 7 but remember, I'm 60 and starting to forget) but we have never been to the Virgin Islands in the Eastern Caribbean so that's where we are going.  In addition, we have never been to Miami so we will go a couple days early to see the Everglades and hopefully see an alligator or something exciting like Gentle Ben. 

We left on a Friday morning at 3:15 am (actually anything before 4 am is still night in my book) to catch a 6 am flight.  An intelligence report from a frequent flyer said Friday mornings are busy so we need to get there 2 hours early.  As it turned out, we were at our gate by 4:45 am.  So much for the intelligence report.  Normally, we have drinks at the airport on the first day of vacation but even a Bloody Mary doesn't sound good at 4:45 am.  Time to download a Netflix series to watch on the flight.

I decided to watch the "Quarterbacks" docuseries which was pretty good.  Got through 7 episodes so the time went by very quickly.  The flight was non eventful up until we had to pick up our luggage and were missing one.  Though Delta was unable to trace it, they were "confident" they could deliver it to our hotel by tomorrow.  Since our toiletries were in that bag they provide us with these fun toiletry bags.  I've never used a wooden toothbrush before.  

Next we were off to get our rental car.  Since it was our 40th anniversary, we spared no expense and rented a Chevy Malibu (white with cloth seats even) from Payless Car Rental.  As we opened the door we quickly noticed the glove compartment was literally laying on the floor.  Of course that's not going to work so after 30 minutes of trying to locate another car they found one with a functioning glove box.  Problem was, this white Malibu had been smoked in.  Ugh.  By this time we wanted out of the airport so we took the car and a bottle of Febreze.     

By the time we got to the hotel with 2 of our 3 bags we just wanted to get something to eat and start fresh in the morning.  We got a hotel near the airport because the Miami Airport is centrally located in the city so it seemed like a good location.  Well, it's not the best part of Miami.  We looked on yelp for a good Mexican restaurant and when we arrived at the "Top Rated" choice, it was a food cart (Birria King)!  Bad part of town, ordering at a food cart at 10 pm at night.  Perfect.  The food was actually delicious.    

Well there were a few bumps in the road but at least we made it to Miami.  Hopefully our 3rd piece of luggage does too!