Fort Lauderdale - June 15

We're home!  We arrived at the Fort Lauderdale port around 8:00 with little fan fare or drama.  The dean made sure that everyone was awake on the ship at 7:00 am by playing "Coming to America" by Neil Diamond over the loud speaker...the entire song too!  Yikes.

There wasn't much to do this morning since all of our packing was done and the library was taken care of so I unearthed a book and spent the morning reading.  An excellent way to start the day.  At around 10:00, the announcements started to come that we were allowed to leave the ship.  After some hasty hugs and goodbyes, we were striding off the ship and into the most organized and calm warehouse where our luggage was stored.  The complete opposite of the experience I had in Fall 2007 which was total chaos.  It was quite blissful.  A quick pass through customs and I was soon flagging down a taxi to take me to my hotel.  I had made a hotel reservation before the voyage to spend the night here just in case something went wrong with the disembarkation since I didn't want to have to stress about making deadlines.

It turns out, my taxi ride was the most stressful thing about the day though.  The driver spoke precious little English, talked or texted on his phone the entire time (until I asked him not to), and didn't appear to have the slightest clue where my hotel was located.  Sweet (said with much sarcasm)!  Fortunately, all ended well and he deposited me at the correct hotel where I quickly went to my room to find a glorious king size bed and free high speed internet access.  Life doesn't get much better than this!

Around noon, I ventured out of my room to find some lunch and ran into Erin Mayhood and her family in the hallway.  She is the librarian for the Summer 2012 voyage (http://mayhoods.wordpress.com).   What are the odds?  I helped her and her husband with their many duffel bags into the lobby while we exchanged news and information.  It was wonderful to see them and get to experience their excitement at the prospect of their adventure.  They eventually got their bags loaded into the S@S bus with the other summer voyagers and I wished them a bon voyage while experiencing a great deal of envy.

The rest of the day was spent napping and reading.  Not a bad way to spend the day but I am definitely ready to be back in Virginia.  My flight leaves at 7:45 (ick) and I'll be home by noon.  Can't wait!