in the Summer time: adventures in florida

Well the Sunday after our awesome camp out was the day we headed off for our cruise. Em & I woke up bright & early & headed down to Kaysville to pick up Nicole around 10ish. We went to Em's house & ate a cookie/ looked through ads until it was time to leave to the airport. We were SOOOO excited! Me & Nicole have never been on a cruise so we were way stoked & Em had only been on one before plus we were gonna meet up with Sarah & I was hoping she hadn't been kidnapped. Anywho we boarded our flight & we were on our way. Luckily on the first flight we all sat right by each other it was a tiny plane & that flight took us to the great windy city of Chicago. I would have loved to have looked around but we had to hurry & catch our next flight to Orlando. So we boarded the next plane & em & I were able to sit by each other for that flight. We even got to watch a movie which I have never done on an airplane. The flights were long & we were very tired by the time we arrived in Orlando at 10pm. We headed straight for the rental car we had reserved which was a lovely Toyota Camry we later named Delilah. She was a beauty & so nice to drive. So here we go with Nicole's GPS on her phone to get to the hotel Sarah was at when we had a wee bit of bad luck. Nicole's phone died just as we arrived in an odd town that I still say was a figment of all our imaginations. It was the most beautiful town I've ever seen. All the buildings were new, beautiful & huge. The houses looked like they had come straight from Southern Plantations but recently built. The center had beautiful trees with lights & the there was not a soul in sight nor a business open. We finally spotted a lady in a strange costume resembling a pioneer or dorothy from the Wizard of Oz who kindly gave us directions & we FINALLY made it out of that town. It was the craziest, most beautiful place I'd ever seen & someday i will go back and find it. Well we finally made it to the hotel & boy were we glad to see Sarah alive & well. We were exhausted so we exchanged quick hello's & hugs & then we passed out to sleep. We woke up bright & early so we could drive to Miami. We ate at the free breakfast at the hotel & it was tasty. I loved the toast they had & it was a delicious start to our morning. Welp we piled into the Camry & took off. I started driving with Em & Nicole helping me navigate until we found our way onto the road that would take us all the way there. SIDENOTE: Florida has the MOST annoying road systems. You have to pay tolls all the stinking time & some of them are expensive but mostly it's annoying having to stop so often to pay .75 cents. We took a pit stop at a Walmart in some part of a town and picked up some necessities where we saw a very pregnant lady, quoting Nicole " Homegirl is with child" bahahaha she cracks me up. Well I kept driving while the little ones slept & finally we made it into Miami after a gazillion tolls. We hurried to the airport, dropped off our car, and boarded a shuttle to the Port of Miami. When we pulled in it was awesome. There were a bunch of ships around and they are HUGE. We went in & got in line & Em was about to kill me because I'd been so stressed the whole time worrying about things going wrong like the rental car, or not getting on the ship etc. But we made it!! We went on & headed to our room then we headed out to explore! Our room was adorable with 2 beds, a bunk bed & a couch bed. It fit us just right. The ship was so big there was so much to see! Rooms everywhere & stairs & we went and had our first lunch on the deck. A tasty buffet! it was awesome to eat on the deck with Miami in the backgroun & it was a beautiful day! Finally after our suitcases arrived, we changed, headed to the deck to lay out. We stayed up there until the ship took off & it was so fun to watch as we pulled out of the Port.