Today is Super Bowl Sunday, the New Orleans Saints just won, and we checked out of Daytona Beach and are now in Fort Lauderdale, on our way to Key West. We were concerned that the Super Bowl might give us some traffic problems and/or hotel accommodation problems, but, aside from an accident in the lane going the OTHER way (a semi trailer truck on its side) that had traffic backed up for miles, things went pretty smoothly. I read “The Dome” aloud to the driver, and we arrived about 3:45 p.m.
I specifically asked for a mini-frig, as we have a lot of left-over food from our stays in time shares. The desk girl was asked, again, and I had asked hotels.com on the phone. No mini frig has materialized, and it is now 1:45 a.m. The Internet hook-up is better than the Grand Seas, but it is a standard hotel room and that is bad, since we are on almost diametrically opposed sleep cycles (as witnessed by the fact that one of us is sawing “zzzzzz’s” right now, and has been for hours. I can’t sleep early, and, although I will try to turn in momentarily after posting this article and some pictures, it’s just not as convenient as having a separate bedroom with a door.
I discovered that…despite the really cheesy towels (and only 3 of them for the both of us…THREE for 2 people? Are you kidding me? I need one for my hair and, given the size of these towels, 3 is going to be enough for one person. I called and, unlike the mini-frig, we did get 3 more towels.) the Internet connection is great. (As we walked to our room on the 2nd floor, the door to a room was open and some guy was working at the desk attired only in his skivvies. Surely a “whoops!” moment).
One of us went out to a bar and watched the first half of the Super Bowl while the other one of us took a nap. (Guess which one?) Then, the husband returned with a very nice shrimp dinner. Before the game started, I discovered that the hotel movie service had A LOT of movies I had missed. We watched “A Serious Man” before the SuperBowl and “An Education” after it, so I’m a happy camper there. (Both were great.)
The weather is really not warm. I am wearing a sweatshirt I bought at Universal Studios that says, “Thing One” and has a hood AND a fleece-lined zip up jacket, and I’m cold…And I’m IN the room. Tomorrow I wear the winter coat I brought as we head for Key West. Nevertheless, it isn’t snowing here, which is something.
Yesterday, in Daytona Beach, I had a manicure in a mall. I was getting ready to leave when tornado warnings forced me to stay inside till 4;45 p.m., so I had a pedicure, too. (The sacrifices I make!) Orlando got hit worse than the Daytona Beach area, and the tornados were more like circular wind things.
Perhaps I’ll write reviews of the two films mentioned above, but, before 
that, some pictures from Daytona Beach.
Margret Oritz
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