The family trip this year (Matt and Emily’s turn to pick) is poised to get underway. Not to start on a downer, but Murphy and Josie can’t join us this year; our first family trip without them. Our apologies up front for having tons of fun inspite of their absence and our wish that they were along.

Matt and Emily were up at 3:30 this morning to start their treck across country and Dan and I got our act together in time to be at the airport for our 1:30 flight. Dan had been home from a trip to the Middle East less than 24 hours, so he wins the quick turnaround prize. Enough about him. Due to weather and power outages, we all had minor delays which were not really a problem since our objective was to get to Fort Lauderdale the night before the cruise anyway.

All said and done we landed within minutes of each other. The airport looked like a popular mall at Xmas…jam packed with a day’s worth of delayed passengers. We wove our way around the throngs of people and met M&Em in baggage claim at 6:00, grabbed our bags, called for the hotel shuttle, and were checked in by 8:00. Food was the only detail left to chance. We walked across the street and had a quick, light meal, and then headed to our rooms to relax and get ready to pull anchor tomorrow.