So I’m sitting at the airport now and it’s 6:11am. If this had been all me, I’d be waking up now and leaving at 6:30 for our 8:05 flight. Instead, alarms went off at 4am at the Mazzilli house and people were running around like the first scenes in Home Alone. Seriously, it was JUST like the movie except I don’t think we left an 8 year old in the attic. Apparently when I was sleeping, and I was the last one to wake up, people were frantically searching for my luggage, not realizing that I’m just taking a carryon sized bag. The rest of them, and there are 6 of them, have 12 pieces of luggage combined and these are quite large pieces. Either way we were on our way at 4:47….and in the airport by 5:17. As Liz G pointed out last night though, it’s good to get to the airport 3 hours before an international flight 🙂 Anyway, we went to starbucks and I still have 2 hours to kill so I’m going to watch a movie or listen to music….or like, write a novel or something.
On the plane now, watching Curb because believe it or not I have yet to go through all of the dvds. I ordered an orange juice then asked if they had champagne, which they did did, but after asking twice more they still never brought it over. Eh, whatever. We landed 30 minutes early but our luggage took forever to get out. After a bit though, all bags were there and we took 2 vans to the Marriott Courtyard on Ponce de Leon. After sorting out rooms, we settled into 507 and left to go to the Al Gusto Deli that was recommended. I had a delicious turkey sandwich but I didn’t say ‘no butter’ so there was butter on it – apparently that is standard here. But it was actually really good – who knew? Sarah called as we were leaving and they appeared to be staying in the better part of town. After stopping by our hotel briefly to get directions, we walked over the bridge to meet Sarah and a bunch of others (Molly and her parents and Kristy and her parents) at the beach. We decided on dinner plans and Sarah’s crew went back to their hotel to change. The rest of us walked along the beach. The waves were huge and the water was warm so I walked in the water and ended up getting pretty much soaked from the waist down. Jean somehow lost a flip flop so she was walking around with 1 shoe. We headed to the real Marriott on the beach and who was there but the Castignozi family from Weymouth! Wow…Mr. Castignozi gave awkward hello’s and I met the rest of his family. Jean, Liz, Katie, and Chris sat down and had some frozen drinks, followed by shots of 1800 and then happy hour 2 for 1 beers before heading inside the hotel to meet Sarah and crew. We sat for a bit and then went to Puerto Rican restaurant on the main street. The ‘kids’ – me, Sarah, Jean, Liz, Katie and Chris had 2 pitchers of Sangria and then split some chicken with beans and rice that was actually really good. After that, the kids except for Jean and I did shady stuff on the beach and then headed back to the Marriott for more drinks and then we hit the casino. I played about $4 in slots and won about $1.50 before deciding that it was quite an annoying thing to do and we all quit to go home. Oh, Jean and I also took pictures of each other and got in trouble with security for doing so – they watched me as I ‘deleted’ them, but with some fancy finger work, they didn’t really get deleted 😉 We stopped at the packie on the way to get alcohol for the cruise. I got a liter of Absolut rasp. which I think will mix well with both iced tea and lemonade, both of which are free on the cruise. After that, we headed to Sarah’s hotel to drop her off and ordered a cab to our hotel. We felt like it was SO late, but it was only 10pm – really 9pm back home! Wow, we suck. Anyways, we are just sitting in the room now – me, Jean, Liz, Katie, and Chris – chatting and such. We are excited to sleep late tomorrow and get on the cruise ship!
