Last week I did a lot of wingin' it. With the car situation Mike and I did loads of juggling things around. Thank goodness he had some flexibility in work.

One Wednesday, Mike went back to work in the evening while I put munckins to bed and started packing. I'd just about finished around 11pm when Zobbles woke with a croupy cough. Nebs etc and settled her back into bed. Decided that perhaps, just perhaps, it would be too much for the sickos to get up and out of the house at 6am to take me to the airport. I ordered a shuttle van to wisk me away. Worked out very well.

Flew away to Ft Lauderdale. Got in around 11am and then needed to figure out how to get to Miami. To maximize my transportation list from van & airplane to much more, I decided to forgo the almost $80 super shuttle ride for the $3 Tri-rail. Took a bus to the train station. Commuter train to Miami to the light rail to the monorail-like thing. To the hotel. Later that night when I had met up with some other mommies, we took a taxi to Mangos. NB: The picture Josh posted was not from Mangos. It was taken in the hotel lobby bar while waiting for the group.

Friday morning was super laid back. We all just hung out in the lobby restaurant until the shuttle to the port came. I was actually staying at the hotel next door to the one everyone else was at and was not sure when breakfast was going to be. I headed out to....the Starbucks I had found wandering Thursday afternoon. Their new breakfast oatmeal was eh.

Off to the boat. Huge airport like lobby for screening and then into another room to check-in. We were given cards that swipe like a credit card because cruises are cashless societies. [FYI Southwest Airlines is now too - no booze unless you have a credit card.] This 'magic' card is all part of the marketing scam they run. Carnival has down to a science how to get the most $$ out of their 'guests.' You use this card to buy everything from drinks to postcards to massages. And these things are not cheap. But you don't see the full impact of your choices until you get a statement under the door Saturday night. Oh, and the gratuities are automatically added. So a can of Diet Coke is $2.01. Oy. You can buy a fountain card for $20 and get unlimited soft drinks for the duration. But there was water, lemonade and iced tea, coffee and tea available for free. So lemonade it was for me. Mostly. :)

Sage to be continued later.