Day 1, Miami

This morning, I slipped from slumber in our hotel room. Time to eat breakfast and go to the port. I thought of how my husband would have already been up and almost ready to go. He would have had a cup of orange juice waiting for me by the time I finished my shower. Traveling is hard without him. There are so many fond memories. On the other hand, at least I don't have to deal with his temper in traffic or when I don't know specific details about every twist, turn and town on the map. Still, I do miss my personal prodigal horribly when I travel. I wished he were here to bring me some orange juice.

Before I took the elevator downstairs, I jostled Anne. Anxious about checking out of the hotel and getting on our way to the port, I threatened her to wake up, “C'mon and get up, girlie. I am going down for breakfast now and if you are not out of bed by the time I get back, I will be very unhappy.” (Is that not a vicious threat?)

In the breakfast area, I got my orange juice and selected something to eat. I then chose a small, two-person table by the window. Before long, I saw my brother, Eric, saunter into the room. I waved to him and he came to sit with me and chat about our morning plan. His wife, Amy, was still getting dressed and Eric came down to see if anybody else in our party was awake.

“Just me,” I told him, but I had opened my mouth too soon. Within minutes, Mom entered the room. She got her breakfast and sat at another two-person table near ours. (By this time, all the four-person tables were taken.) Mom was followed by Cat, Steve and Dad. Eventually, Anne also joined us. It was a surprise breakfast party! Our vacation has definitely begun.

Miami Beach

After checking out of our hotel, Eric drove Amy, Anne and me down to Miami beach. We threw our shoes down by an empty beach chair (They were all empty) to walk on the beach and wade in the ocean. Brr! The water was chilly. It was nowhere near as warm as the Caribbean Sea. We did not stay in it long. Rather, we went back to the beach chair to air-dry our feet and put on our shoes.

Camera and man in bathing suit

Here is something fun. While we were drying our feet, I noticed a big movie camera and a man in a bathing suit a few yards away from us. I pointed them out to Amy, who exclaimed and quickly grabbed her camera before the actor finished his scene and walked away. Just as he was walking away, a strange man approached us from behind.

“You have to pay for the chairs,” he called over. In a sea of empty beach chairs on a public beach, our feet not yet dry enough to put on our shoes, we elected to leave rather than pay the fee. If we had been sunbathing, it would likely have been different. But we were not sunbathing. We just wanted dry feet before putting on our shoes. Walking barefoot across the sand dried our feet by the time we reached the street, anyway.

While our parents and other siblings drove around Miami to see the sights, we proceeded directly to our cruise terminal, stopping only at a Walgreens before dropping our rental car off at Hertz. Transferring went pretty smoothly until at the port when I discovered I had misplaced Anne's passport card. This is when I was glad my personal prodigal was not there. (I have a tendency to forget things when I am under a lot of stress. See how stressed I was? Yelling would definitely not have decreased my level of stress.) Frantically, we ran back to the curbside luggage pick-up to search for it in our luggage. It was not there. Several very distressed minutes later I found it my wallet, where I had placed it the previous night for safe-keeping. (Whew!)

Finally on board, we were prohibited from entering our staterooms before 4:00. Thus, our first stop was the buffet in the Windjammer cafe. (All Royal Caribbean ships have a “Windjammer cafe.”) As we sat in one of the round booths, Eric poked fun at our parents and other siblings by texting them that we were waiting for them.

As we lounged in the sun beside the pool after lunch and finding our staterooms, my parents finally caught up to us. It was almost time to set sail. Within a few minutes, live music started playing and someone grabbed a microphone. People started dancing, including some of the ship's dance crew. Did I dance? No, I did not. I would have liked to dance, but my equilibrium is really bad even when I am not standing on the top deck of a swaying ship. Therefore, I abstained from dancing with about a gazillion cruisers and just enjoyed watching.
 

Salsa Lessons

Dinner was very slow. Our waiter seemed in no rush, which resulted in our eating a tepid meal. It was so slow, in fact, that Cat and Anne rushed out before they were finished eating dessert. Cat had seen Salsa dancing lessons on the itinerary and the two wanted to learn to Salsa. Okay now. Do not be surprised, but I actually know just a tiny bit of Salsa. Last year, a co-worker at the tax office invited me to join her Salsa dance class so that she would have another female dance partner for her male students.

'70's Dancing

Village People

 Cat and Anne rushed out to do Salsa lessons. I followed to watch and take pictures. As soon as Salsa lessons were over, the two ran off again. This time to participate in 70's line dancing...or was it 80's line dancing lessons? I can't remember. When was The Village People a popular group? Dancers showed up dressed as The Village People. That was fun. Amazingly, The Village People seems to have grown slightly younger over the past thirty years.

It was about midnight when I finally turned in and I was exhausted. Lucky for me, the natural rocking of a cruise ship relaxes me at night. Sweet sleep readily embraced me.