To the port we go

Just wanted to give a little update, the new camera does not play nicely with my iPad, so until I get that solved, it will be text only. :(

We got up after our exciting Duck Victory and found out we will be playing Ohio State in the National Championship! Guess that is what happens when you are on the east coast and it's a late start game, you discover who won after you get up. We did some quick laundry, repacked and left Hobe Sound. The drive was uneventful, except for all the crazy Florida drivers! We all arrived safely at the Hertz return at the FLL airport, and then climbed into the car with Pam and Michael for our drive over to the port.

This was our lucky break - because the ship left on a Monday, we could use the Oasis/Allure terminal (since they leave on Sat/Sun) and it is set up much better than most of the other ones.

We had a few issues checking in, mostly because they were beginning to shut down some of the desks and since we were in Aqua Class, they had to wander around and find our ship cards. It's not a big deal, it took about 25 minutes total, but it was a lot of waiting for things to happen, which can be annoying.

After getting on board, we went to our cabins (1597 and 1508) on deck 11. We dropped off our bags in the rooms and were immediately shocked at the cleaning smell that was in our room....this was not going to be good. More on that later. Since by this point its about 245pm, and muster is at 330pm, we needed to get some food, and headed for Bistro on 5. The food itself was quite good, but I have always found the service to be a bit slow unfortunately, and this was no exception. I think we had 10 minutes to eat prior to walking to our muster station, which for us was in photo gallery.

This was quite the experience, usually they take attendance, everyone stands around for a bit, you watch a video then leave. This was the LONGEST drill I've been in for a while, and most of the time was just waiting for things to happen - the videos are actually dumb because you can't see them anyway with so many people standing around, and they had to take attendance again at the end, which took a while. Not the best experience I've ever had. Now the funny part was, I think every resident of Boca Raton (originally from the NE) was there in our section, and Chris and I brought the age down considerably. Never have I heard so much complaining - just think of Jerry's parents on Seinfeld, and you were there with us.

Back to the cabin and lucky for us, there was our luggage. Started to unpack, then heard from Pam and Michael their keys still don't work for their room, so back to guest services for them. Finally, after the 4th try, they had ones that would work.

Dinner was in Tuscan Grill, the italian style steakhouse onboard. I don't know if it was because it was the first night, or if it was overcrowded, but this was not my best experience. The food was good, but not excellent, and it seemed that my steak had been off the grill for quite a bit prior to being served to us. Not sure if we will be back there this cruise, but we have lots of options.

We did FINALLY get a seat at the Martini Bar, but it was pretty crowded the whole night. They do have some diet tonic available if you ask, although we did bring our own because it's much better.

Oh, and the smell? Apparently the carpets in our room had been cleaned and it hadn't aired out well. We left both the cabin door and the balcony door open for about 90 minutes while we unpacked to air it out, and our cabin attendant also had her assistant do something while we were at dinner. The thing that really solved the problem was a magic ionizer that Pam had, but it's much better now, so that's a relief!

Some pictures when I can get them on the ipad.....!

 

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Go DUCKS! Rose Bowl!!!

So today we waited for the Duck Game at 5pm, and we went and got a pedicure today webefore we left for the duck game.
For lunch, we stopped at a place called Hogsnappers, which has only been open about 2 weeks and the food was pretty good,  We did not even get hasseled that much being we were Duck fans in South Florida....

The game itself was pretty uneventful, other than being the Oregin Fans in a sea of FSU fans......they were loud at the begnning, but by the 2nd quarter ,didn't hear much......

Now we are watching the Alabama / Ohio State game, but we don't care really so we shall see what the outcome is.

 Yup.  That's totally true.

Across the state of Florida, and why I hate turnpikes.

So today we left our friends Kim and Dave in Tampa, and headed to Zephyr Hills to meet my aunt and uncle at their winter location - they had just arrived the day before, and it was nice to see them. We had a nice visit and then headed off for Hobe Sound.
After driving across the state through a few orange groves and some crazy weather, we made it to Hobe Sound.

We then drove a few hours, in the worst rain I've seen in a long time.  WTF? Quite a drive

Central Florida has a lot of orange groves, and I'm pretty sure we drove through all of them, very similar to Apple Groves in Eastern Washington.   I think the most surprising was when we were driving and it SMELLED like orange juice, as we passed the OJ plant.  Unbelieveable.

We made it to Hobe Sound and our friends, and decided to try out the Oregon cheese we had brought for our evening. Can we say awesome?  Plus, the awesome Oregon cheese board.

So we had a nice evening after we arrived with some steak dinner and some veggies and homemade bread!  Have to love the dinner!

Then off to bed and waiting for the Rose Bowl tomorrow.

A slight detour and some dinner

We were headed back to the Trachtenberg Inn and since we were going right by the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, we decided to stop and check it out.    Really not much different than Las Vegas, crowded, smokey and some excellent restaurants.  We stopped and had an adult beverage at the lobby bar to do some people watching, and came across this amazing Christmas tree

Yes, those are guitars on the tree.  And yes they are real.

Pretty clever really!

We then really headed back for the Inn, and had to feed the fierce beast when we got there.  Sophie is a cutie golden retriever who lives there.  She's ferocious at squirrels.

Then it was time for some dinner - a local italian place which was EXCELLENT.  So, if you are ever in Tampa, check out Zerillos!  yum yum!

Then back home for some college football and blog catchup!  Tomorrow we are off to the Atlantic Coast for the next phase of our adventure.

Lazy Days, the RV mecca.

As many of you know, Chris and I purchased a motorhome earlier this year.  It looks like this.

We had many fun adventures last summer, and are looking forward to next summer.

Anyway, the largest RV dealership in the US (maybe the world!) is just outside of Tampa, and since it was raining, we decided to take a drive over and check it out, since we'd been seeing it on TV.   This place is UNBELIEVABLE.  I think they must have about a gazillion RVs for sale.

Right out in front, they had a Georgetown very similar to ours, so we checked it out, among a few others.  We then went to the RV accessory store and came across the best sign ever.

We didn't buy anything, but it was fun to look at all the stuff.   We then decided to head back towards the house and figure out some dinner.

Evil Bunny, Clearwater Beach, Frenchy's and some rain

Woke up this morning to the sound of rain hitting the window - was I really in Florida, or had I been imagining the plane ride yesterday?  No cats, and we are sleeping in the evil bunny room, so I think we are in Tampa....The Trachtenberg Inn has many amenities, not the least of which is the "Evil Bunny Room."
Evil Bunny room is the nickname for the guest room at Kim and Dave's house, as it was a child's nursery prior to them buying the house.  Here's what we are talking about.

The evil bunny

The shifty squirrel

The pack of others

See, scary, aren't they?  Plotting to kill us all I am sure.  It's a good think I don't scare easily!

After finishing yesterday's blog and then getting a shower, we headed off for Clearwater Beach.

Lucky for us, the rain appears to have stopped for now.  We then headed for the beach and Frenchy's Rockaway.

Crowded as usual, we got a table out on the patio and had ourselves some good lunch (jerk chicken!  Yum!) and managed to finish up just as the rain came back and we vacated the patio to head to our next fun activity!

Rental Cars and the Yummy House

Flight landed, claimed the "early" luggage in the office and waited about 7 minutes for the other piece of luggage to arrive, and then headed for the rental counter.....

Hertz is where our car was from this time - it was (notice the "was") a lovely red Chevy Cruze with Arkansas plates.   I will attest, I have NEVER seen a car quite this beaten up before that smelled like old smokey mess inside.  I was taking my photos of the outside, and we asked the counter to get someone to come over and mark up the form and sign it.  I was a bit concerned since we will be returning the car to Fort Lauderdale and I don't want to hassle with pre-existing damage, so we got them to switch us to another lovely red Chevy Cruze with Florida plates.  I'm shocked there were 2 in the same row actually.....Anyway we drove off and headed for our friend Kim and Dave's house.

We safely arrived at their house, hung around for a few hours and then headed for a Chinese restaurant called (you guessed it) the Yummy House

Food was excellent and the company was great as well!  Then back to the house for a few laughs and beverages and off to bed!  Long day!