Florida: Prologue

Here I am finally ready and able to sit down and write about my Florida vacation.  I am going to try to do the best I can to remember what we all did.  I do write a vacation journal when I am on vacation so I can remember what we did from day to day but this time I didn't.  I kept thinking that I need to start the journal and by Day 4, I couldn't even remember all that we did.  So based on the pictures we took, I am going to reconstruct the vacation.  

We arrived at the HHH Airport in the 6 am hour on Saturday, November 15th.  Thanks Dad for picking us up at home at 5:45 am. The flight was fine but left a little late due to the de-icing of the plane.  This made me a little nervous since we had connecting flight in Atlanta that only had a 31 minute layover.  We'd be cutting it close.  We got off the plane and the AirTran employee told us what gate we needed to go to for the connecting flight, which was a monorail ride away in another area of the airport.  Did you know that Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is the busiest airport in the world?  I always thought it was Chicago O'Hare but not the case.  Anyway, we get to the gate that the person told us to go to and it's not the right gate.  So we are somewhat panicky because we are running out of time before our flight leaves.  We find an AirTran employee and we find out what gate we are really supposed to be at and we do a power walk to the gate only to be greeted by people who are waiting to fly standby and an employee who says, "Are you Dana and Michael? You have 2 minutes to board."  Whew.  Just made it.  Cutting it close but hopefully nothing else goes wrong.  Ok, something else went wrong.  We land in Tampa, go to baggage claim and watch the baggage carousel go round and round and round and round waiting for my purple (for the Vikings of course) suitcase.  We find our way to the AirTran office and speak to the "friendly" employee who tells me that my suitcase most likely did not make the connecting flight and that there are many more flights from Atlanta today and that it should be here in 2 hours.  She asked if I wanted to come and pick it up when it comes in or if they should deliver it to the hotel.   I opt for delivering it to the hotel since I have already been inconvenienced and they can bring it to me.  She told me someone would be calling me shortly after the 2:30 pm flight comes in.   Now would be a good time to tell you that I am trying my best to not be mad and just hope the bag comes in on the next flight.  For once, I think I handled the situation better than Michael did.  He is usually trying to calm me down when situations such as this arise.  But still, there I was in the middle of an airport with no luggage.  I woke up very early that day and didn't take a shower and I have no make up on.  I have dirty hair with a hat on.  I am a mess and now I have to introduce myself to Tampa like this.  Aauugghh.  {Mini Moral: Take a shower before a flight no matter how early it is.}  In the meantime, we pick up our rental car, a 2009 Dodge Caliber.  At first I am in love with the car and how it drives.  I would get sick of it by the end of the trip and want my own 2003 yellow car.  We hook up the GPS (an awesome gift from Michael last Christmas) and we are on our way to find a place to eat. Here's our car.  This picture is taken later in the trip on a beach that you could drive on.  Isn't it cute how all the birds are in the shade of the car?

After driving around awhile, we find a place called Lee Roy Selmon's.  It was about 2:30 pm but we had only eaten plane snacks all day.  I ordered the Soul-Good Pulled Pork with smashed potatoes and homestyle baked beans.  When I am on vacation, I try to eat and try some different things I wouldn't normally order when in MN.  It was very different.  The pulled pork, potatoes and beans are regular foods but the way they tasted and were cooked were slightly different.  They say they put soul into the food and you could tell...whatever that means.  We checked into our hotel shortly after the check in time of 3 pm.  I still hadn't received a call yet from AirTran as of yet.  We hang out for a little while and then decide to call the airline. Of course no one answers so we leave a message.  They call me back at 4:25 pm to tell me that they found my luggage and it will be delivered in 2 hours.  I don't want to wait any longer but that's ok, at least it's here in Florida and not lost in luggage space.  After waiting and waiting, the bag is finally delivered at 8:45 pm.  Remember, I am dirty and sitting there waiting to take a shower because I have nothing.  Finally, at 8:45:01 pm, I jump in the shower so I can get ready and see Tampa.  It's dark and we aren't sure what to do so of course we eat.  When we go on vacation, eating is a HUGE part of what we do.  We always want to try new places and do our best to avoid any chains or restaurants we have in MN.  We ended up a place called Grillsmith.  They had some of the best food we have ever had.  I had an Amberjack Fish sandwich.  I had never even heard of a fish called amberjack until that day.  So yummy.  I should say before I even thought about food, I thought about a drink.  I relaxed with a pomegranate martini.  Again, so yummy.  Here's is my proof of yumminess and Michael's proof of yumminess with a Mojito.  No, Michael is no less of a man because he likes Mojitos. 

We started and ended our night here as the whole luggage fiasco changed the course of our day. We went to bed only to wake up to see a Vikings game.  Until then...