We finally made it to Lauderdale!

Early morning flight to Fort Lauderdale with a layover in Charlotte.  Plane leaves from Bush airport on time (of course this was after I had to throw my "bitch mode" around a little and get them to give us seats together without charging us extra for them.  Seriously......they're the ones that cancelled our flight and threw us on this one).

But of course.......with a trip that has already been fraught with turmoil......of course, it was going to have another bump or two.  Our layover in Charlotte which was supposed to only be an hour turned into 2.5 hours.  Not only that.......they changed the gate on us three times and we just kept moving all over the airport.

But hallelujah........we made it to Fort Lauderdale!

Our first stop after locating our hotel........was to eat.  We hadn't really had any food since we left Houston and we were definitely a little hungry (and a little cranky).

Found a place right down the street from the Hotel called Hollywood Ale House. 

Excellent choice.  Paul and Osso Buco and I had shrimp, scallop and crab mac & cheese.  We had never had Osso Buco before....it was a roasted pork shank and all of our food was incredibly delicious!

After a little nap we knew what our plans for the night were going to be.  The main reason that we had picked coming to this area....Jai Alai!  We had made plans that we would get to see it at least 3 times during this trip....but stupid US Airways made it possible for us to only get to see it once (boo!)

 

Paul was one happy camper!

 



Can't say I wasn't a happy camper because I knew that after the Jai Alai, we were going to get to get some exercise over in the casino part of the building.  Ha ha!

 

Actually, my whole family really enjoys the Jai Alai.  Paul introduced it to our family back in 1997.  The last time we had been to the Dania Jai Alai was back 10 years ago when Paul, Aaron, and I had come here for a visit and then flew up to Orlando to see his mom.  Wow.....this place had changed!

 

Here are some pics of the place if you've never seen the game.  We had really awesome front row seats.  The last time we had been here they had about 50 rows of seats.....since their update and remodel......they only have 3 rows of seats, but you get a real "up close and real" feel.

 

 

 The Jai Alai finished up around 11 and we stayed and gave our money to some slot machines for the next couple of hours.  Our dinner this evening was convenience store pretzels and beer.  We had such a late lunch, we didn't want to eat anything big before bedtime.  It was late.......we were tired.......and we were excited to get up and enjoy the rest of our remaining days in Florida!