Day 1 of our Dec 2009 Vacation

Woke up at 9 a.m. at home, had dosas for breakfast, while I unplugged several chargers and packed them. I counted 9 batteries that we charged before leaving. I dumped some movies on my laptop for good measure. We contemplated having breakfast at ihop but ended up eating dosas and coconut chutney at home. Turned out to be a fantastic decision. Within the extra 30 mins that we stayed, the USPS delivery person showed up with my Canon 18-55 mm lens that I had ordered a while ago!! I had really given up hopes on getting this lens in time for my trip. That would have meant that I would not have any wide angle lens for the trip. I swear that just picked up my mood!!

We made a quick stop at walmart, picked up some essentials and went to the airport. We bumped in to someone from Columbus, that we knew (Joseph and Sangati) who happened to be flying with us for the first leg of the flight. We had a nice talk with them, till we had to part ways. Southwest airlines has a weird seating policy where you get to pick any seat of your choice based on the order in which you checked your luggage in. Since we checked-in only 2 hours earlier to the departure, we were pretty low on the boarding order. Consequently, our seats were not together. Oh well, just a 1 hour journey to Chicago. The next flight was better, we sat together but we slept most of that leg anyway! The air hostess was very nice to us. She offered us a drink after we woke up, since she missed us while we were sleeping. Next stop, Orlando!

Orlando was nice and warm when we arrived. It took us a good 45 mins to get out of the airport in our rental car. We went to our hotel, dropped of our luggage and drove to TGIF one of the few restaurants, that was open on Christmas eve, at 10 pm in the night. The waitress was once again nice to us, pointed out veggie dishes and made suggestions. Turned out to be a great dinner, even though I was not hungry :) That was way too much work for the first day of our vacation. Hoping for better days to follow.