Day 1 - Are we there yet?

Our all-day travel day began with a call from the cab driver taking us to the airport asking us to come outside. Of course, he wasn't at the right location. After his delayed arrival (and low tip), we were unceremoniously dumped off on the curb. We thought we'd take advantage of the curbside check-in. When the porter couldn't find our name on any flights, we figured we'd save $2 a bag by going inside. How wrong we were.

Turns out our flight had been changed back in April, and our friends at Travelocity didn't bother to let us know. For a $200 flight to Florida, I guess we can hardly complain. On the bright side, the change worked for us, as we hadn't missed our flight. Rather than a 3-hour layover in Dallas, however, we maintained the same connection with only minutes to navigate between the gates. Of course we were then notified that our bags would be $25 each... and that was after Stan removed the 10 pound hardcover copy of The Art of Ralph McQuarrie that pushed his over the weight restriction. Ah, how I miss Southwest, where my bags fly free. A note to travelers, if you attempt to carry your bags on and they check them for you, they do that free of charge.

Since we had plenty of time to spare, we though we'd grab breakfast at one of the few places to eat in the new terminal at SJC. Call it an omen, but the guy who took our order (his name was Orlando - I couldn't make this up) was a little loopy and it took a couple of times through the line to get everything we tried to order on the first attempt. At least we had free wireless AND electricity in the new seats in the airport.

The flights themselves weren't too bad - short enough that the food selections (not free, mind you) were limited. Vonna and I each had a chicken pesto sandwich on the first leg, and by the second leg when Stan was ready to give in to the corporate greed, they didn't have sandwiches, so we made the most of a cheese and crackers tray. As in one piece of cheese and four crackers. Such a deal!

Vonna continued to read her Jacques ("THERE'S A BIG SNAKE IN THE PLANE, JACQUES!") Pepin book, John watched a neat old Caesar Romero/Connie Stevens film (Two on a Guillotine) and started the next Lisbeth Salander book and Stan did his best to sleep (and surely have dreams of a prosperous trip!).

We arrived in Orlando just after 10pm local time, got our mini van, and ventured out (on the toll roads, of course) in search of our condo, two toll booths and $1.75 later we pulled off at the designated exit. After beginning to believe we had been suckered into a vacation rental scam (the address did not come up via GPS and the written directions provided were, well, difficult to follow in the dark), it was iPad to the rescue. We were in our cool air-conditioned condo in no time, and were able to find a selection of 24-hour eateries in the area.

Vonna picked a restaurant in The Peabody, home of ducks in the lobby (I guess they're off after midnight) and we had a nice dinner with the restaurant all to ourselves.

Back in the condo, we confirmed the functionality of the 50" plasma, PS3, and cable box. Why they would have such a setup and not use HDMI cables is a mystery. Wireless was down, but John got that up and running so we should be well connected for the duration of our stay.

Casual day scheduled for Wednesday - most importantly a trip to the store so our traveling chef can stock the kitchen.

Who knows, we might just survive this dreaded Orlando heat and humidity. Provided it doesn't get worse than it was at 2am...