A post-vacation, spontaneous afternoon in Fort Lauderdale

After an amazing week at sea cruising around the Caribbean with Princess, I had an eight-hour layover in Fort Lauderdale. Now, vacation is great, but when it's done, have you ever noticed that you just can't wait to get home? Due to the timing and circumstances that I booked my flights under, I not only couldn't get an early flight out, but I had to spend the night in Atlanta (not so bad all in all). Needless to say my yearning to get back to my own home and my own bed was burning a hole through my very relaxed being.

Lucky for me, my brother and his fiance were in the same boat (so to speak) and also had a very long layover. While pondering what we could make of our time there, Frankie had the excellent idea to get a car and enjoy our remaining time in the tropics close to the beach. 500 Hertz points and $7 later, we were rocking around Fort Lauderdale Beach with the bronze-bodied, eccentric car driving south Floridians.

We popped into a restaurant (Oasis Cafe) right up on the side of the ocean and sat at a cool, swinging picnic table. We drowned the afternoon away with 11 Coronas, a couple of sandwiches (one of which had to be returned due to a cooking "malfunction"), lots of french fries, and a game of Phase Ten (which I won, applause applause :). The whole time we were entertained by fancy cars and scantily-clothed passersby; not a terrible way to unwind from vacation!

Fortunately, by the time we got back to the airport and went through the flight formalities, everything else was hunky dorey. I'm grateful that I got so much time with my family during our week and that our last day together was a memorable one.

Cheers, M@

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