The problem with going to Florida over Christmas though is that this is high season, the time when flights and accommodation are at their highest prices, and also at their scarcest.

In the wintertime, South Florida is full of people from the East Coast of the USA and Canada, the “snowbirds” as they are known.   Some snowbirds spend a good three months in Florida to escape the bitterly cold winters up north, while others just visit for one or two weeks.  If you go to the beaches in South Florida over the Christmas period and look at the licence plates of the cars, at least 2/3rds of them if not more are from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and in the Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale area too from Quebec and Toronto.   Just listen to the conversations on the people on the beach too, and the all too familiar Hispanic voices are replaced by New York twangs and even more so by Canadian French.

Last week after much searching for a decent route at a decent price, we bit the bullet and purchased our flights.  The price was high, but not as much as we could have ended up paying.  It was actually cheaper than it cost to get Debbie over to Florida for Christmas two years ago, but we also don’t have direct flights, which I hope is not going to be a problem.   When taking a multi-leg flight, you need to allow for delays in schedule, and inbound to the USA as well for delays in immigration, where Debbie has already had issues, her last trip to Miami resulting in her being stuck in immigration for 15 hours!   But hopefully we will be ok this time, since we have a 3 hour layover in Raleigh/Durham before catching our flight down to Miami, and I also now have my USA Passport, which ought to help.

Last night we also bit the bullet and booked a place to stay.  It’s not a luxurious hotel or resort, it’s a typical family owned motel on Hollywood Beach, and although it cost a lot it will hopefully work out best for us.   The few reviews that we managed to find for the motel sounded more good than bad.  There is no pool or hot tub, it’s above several restaurants so it could be noisy at night, but it is right on the boardwalk and we will be able to eat and walk along the beach at night, instead of being stuck in a hotel away from the beach in the evenings.

There really were not many choices for hotels unfortunately, since prices are sky high, and most places are already fully booked.  Left are the hotels close to the airport in Fort Lauderdale, those on the interstate, and some high and low end places that are either too expensive or in a bad neighborhood.  Of the three places on the beach, one was $250 a night, way out of our price range, a second was $100 a night but in the middle of being renovated and with some horrible reviews.  The place we picked was about the only choice.

My biggest fear is that because we don’t land in Miami until 9:30pm on Christmas Eve, is that everything will be closed, and it will be 11pm at the earliest before we get to where we are staying.  Since few places open in Florida on Christmas Day, we could end up without any essentials like bread, milk, juice etc for a day.  However staying right on the beach, there ought to be some shops and restaurants open at least.  It’s going to be a different Christmas with no turkey and trimmings I am sure, but hopefully a good one.   Getting up on Christmas Day is going to be tough, since by the time we get to bed it will already be 5am UK time or later!  Probably a good day to just spend relaxing on the beach or the terrace.

Now we need to find a good deal on a rental car, which I hope is easier to sort out.  There appear to be plenty of choices at least from all the car rental companies, but even that is expensive.  I must remember to use my AAA (equivalent of AA/RAC in the UK) discount to save some money, but since we will be taking the girls out we need to have transport.  

I doubt that we will be spending many days on the beach, but at least we will be right there in the evenings, plenty of opportunities for walking, either on the boardwalk (promenade) or along the waters edge.

So wish us luck!  Hopefully the flights, immigration process, accommodation and weather all work in our favour.  Will post updates and photos later, also a video or two maybe…

Although it was 73 degrees, sitting on the sideline of a soccer field with a chilly wind blowing and only a thin sleeveless shirt on, I was getting quickly F-R-O-Z-E-N!   Fortunately I remembered that I had a rolled up throw blanket in the trunk of the car, untouched since I left Indiana three years ago (you don’t usually need them in Florida), and so I wrapped that around me to keep the wind off, but by the time I did I was already too cold to save properly, struggling to keep my hands and arms inside the small blanket by clutching it tight the whole time.

The soccer team was comprised of 4 and 5 year olds, but the other team looked more like 5 and 6 year olds, and definitely had more experience.  I don’t think that more than 3 of my daughter’s team had played before this season, and I think this was only their third game.

Well they started off ok, but the other team kept pushing them, and them broke loose down the field, kicking the ball towards the goal.  Our goalie, who was so small he hardly made a difference, came out and picked the ball up, then proceeded to run the twenty or so feet back to the goal with it in his hands and over the line.  That was the first goal!

Another soon followed, with the goalie standing motionless on the goal line, or maybe even behind it, not coming out towards the attacker, and dodging the ball as it went towards him.  Goal number two…

My daughter actually came out onto the field for the last 2 minutes of the first half, and of course by that time she had lost her concentration, besides which she still doesn’t really understand what she is supposed to do.   And then no sooner had she come onto the field, than it was half time.

So the teams switch ends, the other team kick off, head towards our goal, but one of our platers gets the ball, and proceeds to head towards OUR goal with it.  “WRONG WAY” everyone yelled, but the ball went off the sideline most of the way to our goal.  Some of our players were getting well stuck in and tackling, but two of them, although they were right next to the ball and in a perfect position to do something, just stood there, and the other team got the ball of course.  They kicked it towards the goal, the keeper caught it, then dropped it and over the line it went… Goal number three…

Well you get the picture by now, it was a comedy of errors the whole way through, would have made some good clips for America’s Funniest Home Videos if I had the camcorder there.

My daughter only played for the last 5 minutes of the second half too, and since she didn’t get a chance to touch the ball, I reckon she had to be the star player, since she did nothing wrong…  The final score was 0:5, and the game was just horrible, but at least she enjoyed herself.

The team finished off with hot-dogs that one of the Mom’s prepared there, and one of those was my dinner too, since I went there straight from work, and by the time I got back home it was too late to eat before bed time.

Well I drove the thirty miles back home, had trouble parking at the condos.  I have to use a guest parking place when there are people in the next condo to us, but otherwise I use their space.  Tonight seeing as how I didn’t get home until 9:30pm and all the snowbirds are down from New York and Canada, I had to park right around the front of the building, almost the only guest space left, under a tree, so no doubt I will be washing the car at the weekend to get the sticky resin off.

I live on the seventh floor, and although at the weekend I usually walk up the stairs, tonight I felt tired and just wanted to take the elevator.  Well two men have been modernizing the elevators since the end of July, and although one is fixed (supposedly) the second is still being worked on.  It surprises me how long it takes to do this, it’s now six months since they started!  Well anyhow, into the elevator I get, press 7, the doors close, and the elvator makes a bouncing motion as if it’s climbing, yet the floor light is still on 1.   I press the Open Door button, the doors open, and I am still there!  Close the doors, press 7 again, bounc bounce shake bounce, same thing.  Open the doors, and give up and take the stairs instead.

I just find it amazing that having worked on a single elevator for four months, it’s still not working.  Apparently it wasn’t this morning, and it wasn’t yesterday evening either.  Now since the average age of the people in the building must be at least 60, it’s pretty critical if there are no elevators working.  Several of them use wheel chairs or walking frames, so without an elevator they are trapped.   Seems that some technology zips way ahead every year, yet some of the older technology that you would think would be tried and tested just doesn’t work.

Well now it’s gone 11pm, my bed time, so I will end here before I zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz