Vacation Part 1

After deciding to take the job at Santa Rosa Veterinary Hospital, Matthew and I realized that for the first and (hopefully) the last time I had some time off without having to deduct it from my vacation/sick days and his work had been pushing employees to 'take vacation time' (since they have been slow). So we started talking about taking a little spur-of-the-moment vacation before I started my new job (in 10 days at that point). We first thought that maybe we could visit family in Colorado (that didn't work out). Our next thought was family in Oregon (that didn't work out either). We then were throwing around Las Vegas or something like that. It was during that search that I found an AMAZING deal of a 4 night cruise to the BAHAMAS! So I booked it on Thursday and we were set to fly to Florida (on Sunday night which ended up costing more then the cruise) and be on the ship Monday morning!!! It was kind of a mad rush of adrenalin as I tried to set up Mallory-watching shift (which was pretty much covered by my mom, dad and Joyce.... THANK YOU). And of a whirlwind next few days as we packed, printed out boarding passes, found all our travel documents, packed up Mallory’s stuff and Sonny’s stuff.
We dropped Mallory (and sonny) off at my parent’s house Sunday evening; I knew it was going to be hard to leave her... I just didn't expect it to be THAT hard. I felt like I couldn't breathe! Like a piece of me was getting ripped off. Like I wanted to cry and vomit. It was nuts. Maybe it gets easier (since that was really the first time I've been away from her for any significant period of time. Who knows?
Anyway, I was finally able to tear myself away and off Matthew and I went on our vacation. The flight to Miami was HORRIBLE. I couldn’t sleep, which meant I was wiggling to much so Matthew couldn't sleep. The other guy I was sitting next to was lounging into 'my' space. I just kept reminding myself that in 6/5/4/3/2/1 hour(s) I was going to be off the plane… And onto my ship!
We Arrived in Miami at about 9 am and couldn’t board the sip until noon, so we thought that we’d kill so time by getting a cab and going to a café for some coffee and breakfast. So we throw all our stuff in a cab and ask about a café or diner that is close (ish)…. As the cabby is driving us around we notice that despite the fact we are in downtown Miami at 9:30 there is NO cafes/restaurants/venders… Pretty sure that people in Miami don’t eat. The place the cabby dropped us off at didn’t even have one (even though he was sure that there was one… wrong).
Anyway at noon we got on the ship and our real vacation began.