Day 1 - Embarkation Morning

In the morning, we had breakfast at the e-spot again.  

Shannon wisely ordered her eggs over easy and they were much better than the rubbery omelettes.  

When we got back to the room, a sharp-eyed Sweet Pea spotted our cruise ship, the Equinox, in port. 

We took some photos of each other on our sunny balcony. 

All our luggage is ready for the cruise!

Ft. Lauderdale - Evening

After showering and resting a bit, it was time for dinner.  We had planned on walking to a nearby restaurant but it was pouring rain again so we just went back to the e-spot.  

Mimi and Poppy weren’t quite ready yet, so the rest of us thought we’d go down for the Embassy’s happy hour (which includes complimentary drinks and light snacks) to wait for them.  As we were heading downstairs. Sweet Pea asked if she could bring down her brand new school-required iPad so she could play some games while we waited. 

We relaxed with some margaritas near the bar until Mimi and Poppy arrived and then we moved into the main restaurant area.  Mimi really enjoyed the accent of our waiter.  Twice in a row, she started talking about how dreamy he was, when he suddenly returned to our table.  It was like she was calling him back to us. 

After ordering Shannon decided to go to the front desk to reserve a shuttle spot to the ship in the morning.  As she stood up, Sweet Pea’s four-day one iPad slid off her lap, out of its case and hit the hard tile floor. 

There were a few tears.  Luckily Sweet Pea’s school requires Apple care so we can have it repaired cheaply when we return home.  C’est la vie. 

Ft Lauderdale - Pool Time!

The Sun Trolly was in operation for our ride home so we took it back to the hotel. 

We were all still a little damp and the Trolly was freezing so Mimi needed to borrow my swim cover-up/wrap (these have a name, but I can’t remember it ...?) as a blanket. 




When we got back to the hotel, we found a shady spot by the pool to relax. The pool was gorgeous, with a fake waterfall feature and palm trees around it. 



Mimi had a little trouble getting her sunblock rubbed in. 




Sweet Pea loved having Mimi as a swimming buddy!



Ross retrieved Sweet Pea’s snorkel from the room so she could practice in the pool.  




Sweet Pea was having a little trouble so Mimi tried offering instruction to help her clear water out of the breathing tube.  



Shannon got in and played for a while too.  Sweet Pea had never tried standing on someone’s shoulders in a pool before.  When Shannon suggested it, Sweet Pea said, “Okay, but don’t blame me if I end up in the emergency room!”

A few more quick rain showers  blew through while we were swimming, but we let Sweeet Pea stay in the water anyway until we heard thunder. Then it was time to pack up! 


Sweet Peas was starving after her long day of swimming so we had a little snack in the middle of the hotel room before getting cleaned up for dinner. 

Ft Lauderdale - Bubba Gump Shrimp

We walked a few blocks south from the beach to Bubba Gump shrimp for lunch. 

Sweet Pea was delighted we let her get a blue raspberry slushy in a light up glass. 



We ordered a few shrimp dishes to share.  We got a combination of Cajun and garlic peel-and-eat shrimp, but thought the garlic portion was the best.  The Cajun was messy and not very flavorful. Sweet Pea got red stains all over her swim suit. At least it will be a great memory!


The grilled shrimp skewers were especially good once we gave them a squeeze of lemon. 

Our favorite was the deep-fried coconut shrimp.  Sweet and delicious but definitely not the healthiest of our choices. 


As we were getting ready to leave, it started pouring rain.  Our server, who was amazing, told us we could sit at the table as long as we needed.   We ended up waiting it out for about 20 more minutes until the storm had passed.  

Hope to see you again next year, Bubba Gump Shrimp!

Ft. Lauderdale - Beach Day

We ate the breakfast at the Embassy.  The omelets were edible, but the fresh fruit was delicious.  

We ate early so we cooked get an early start and get to the beach before the mid-day sun got too hot. 

Ft. Lauderdale has a good public transportation option for tourists called the Sun Trolly. It is $1 per person to hop on and then back off anywhere along the route.  They have a nice app that shows the routes and where the trolleys are at any moment.    Our plan was to take the Sun Trolly to the beach, but when we loaded the app, we discovered that the SunnTrolly has changed its hours and was not going to start running until 10:30am. 

We tried to find an Uber, but there were none large enough to take all five of us at once so we just took the hotel’s shuttle. 

Upon arrival we discovered many vacant beach chairs and umbrellas.  We figured we would have to pay to use them but were astounded to discover that they were $65 for a pair of chairs and an umbrella.  No wonder they were vacant. 

Shannon sat on the beach and read a little bit so she could keep her eye on our belongings while everyone else went into the water.  




Poppy was doing water aerobics and trying to get everyone to join him. Mimi tired of the playing in the ocean quickly and cane back to join Shannon on the beach. 

The girls enjoying their beach time!



After a couple of hours we were hot and worried we were going to get sunburned so decided to pack up and get lunch.  On our way Sweet Pea stood on a tall spiral for a photo op. 

Ft. Lauderdale - Dinner and Games

For dinner we at at the hotel’s restaurant, E-Spot which was pricy but unbearably conviennent.  








We ordered wings and pizza.  Mimi and Shannon tried the cauliflower crust pizza, which was surprisingly good.  Everyone agreed that it was at least as good as the regular one, if not better.  





After dinner, we were all pretty tired, but manage to squeeze in one game of Coup, which is a fun and fast bluffing game. 




This photo cracks me up.  The perpective makes Ross look like a giant with his tiny family.  

Before bed, Ross and Shannon challenged Sweet Pea  to a game of chess.  She pulled ahead early by taking their queen and it looked like it was going to be an easy win for her, but Ross and Shannon managed to eek out a stalemate.  

Landed in Ft. Lauderdale

Our flight was incredibly bumpy.  And at one point Mimi half yelled, “If we don’t all die, this is kind of fun!”   Pretty sure the boy sitting in the row next to us disagreed with her.  He ended up using used three vomit bags.  

After we finally landed and were collecting our luggage, Poppy discovered an interesting Native   American display. 

We walked quite a ways to get to the ground transportation area where we then waited for the hotel shuttle to pick us up and take us to the Embassy Suites. 

The hotel had a nice tropical island vibe. 

When we checked in, the receptionist told Shannon that there was a plumbing issue with one of our rooms so we would have to stay on separate floors instead of next door to each other as we had originally requested.  

We headed to our respective rooms with a plan to meetagain after  we had dropped off our suitcases.   Shortly after Mimi discovered that her and Poppy’s room was right across from the eleveator which she was concerned might be too noisy.  Poppy went down to talk to the front desk and was able to get them moved to a new room. However when they arrived at this second room, they discovered that it was also right in front of the elevator bank on the opposite side of the hotel.  This time Mimi went to speak to the front desk herself and ended up with an slightly upgraded room that happened to be on Ross and Shannon’s floor.