And We're Off: Miami, USA

We prepped the house for the house-sitters, meaning one last load of laundry and sleeping on the couches as we wouldn’t have time to wash sheets in the morning. Thomas and I had a 3:30 alarm in preparation for our 4:00 pickup. Liz woke up with us, but DJ slept on, thankfully. Our driver was right on time and we cruised up to LAX through some patchy fog. After navigating security and hitting the restroom, we reached our gate just as group 1 was starting to board. So we never even had to sit down.

Thomas was a bit underwhelmed by the first class accommodations. It’s been quite a while since I’ve flown first or business class, and I have to agree with him. The extra space is nice, but it’s not exactly palatial. I suppose first class on an American Airlines 737 isn’t quite the same as first class on an Emirates widebody. But we made it to Miami pretty much on time. We then proceeded to walk what felt like about three miles from our gate to the baggage claim where we expected to meet the Oceania rep who would guide us to our ride. We did meet the rep, but we had to wait about 30 minutes for the shuttle van to arrive. All told it was over two hours from wheels-down at MIA to getting into our room at the Intercontinental. And we didn’t even have any checked baggage.

Given that it’d be over five hours before Elizabeth and DJ arrived – they had been delayed about 30 minutes getting out of LAX – Thomas and I decided to walk around a bit before dark. We fetched some pizza and drinks to bring back to the room so that we could eat a bit and have something for the rest of the family upon their arrival. On the walk we spotted an extremely Miami-looking pink Corvette.

We did hear from Liz, who said she and DJ had plenty to eat on the plane and wouldn’t be hungry. So I think we’ll have some extra pizza. Now we’re just awaiting their arrival.Read more