A Message from the Newlyweds

Hey Ya'll !!

What an adventure!!!

But we are here, safe in Miami! We were able to board the plane that led to Atlanta on the 6:00 a.m. flight on Thursday morning. What a long flight! We did not make it on the First Class (bummer!) but hey, at least we made it. I did not get any sleep on this flight. I really hoped that I would because I got less than 1 hr of sleep the night before because we needed to pack like crazy. Reese got about 2 hrs. (lucky dog!) Reese was able to get approx 25 minutes of sleep on the plane- 'It wasn't too comfortable,' he says. The movie that was playing on the plane was 'The Golden Compass.' That movie was really good. I liked it.
After we landed in Atlanta, we then dashed like blind mice around the airport, not knowing where we were supposed to go for our next tickets, etc. We spotted a kiosk and got lucky. This really nice lady helped us out and gave us our tickets. We had to catch a shuttle to get to our next gate. Get that! We had to catch a SHUTTLE to get to our next gate. Atlanta, apparently, is the busiest airport in America. And it really is. I believe it. People EVERYWHERE!
We tried to catch the 12:12 flight. There was only one seat left. We didn't want to split. We decided to stay. The next flight wasn't for an hour and a half and so we grabbed some Burger King. We both got the double whopper with bacon. It cost twice as much as in SLC but it was twice as small. We then tried to catch the 1:50, 3:05, and the 4:05 flight. As time went on, we went further and further down on the standby list. Our hopes were draining as time went. And our bellies were growling at us.
FINALLY! We made the 4:05 flight. The standby list was huge. We were listed on as number 20 and 21. A huge family didn't show for the flight and so all of the standby people were able to board. That meant us! We jumped for joy, sang 'Halelujah! and 'Praise the Lord!' I'm glad we were able to get on this flight. Reese and I were past the point of tired and we were both getting really hyper. I don't know what we would've done next.
This flight was only an hour and a half long, thank goodness! Reese watched ESPN while I watched E! on the screens that were on the seats in font of us. Reese sat at a window seat. It was so fun to watch us travel through the clouds. The first flight that we took, Reese's eyes lit up like a little boy's when going on a roller coaster for the first time. It was so cute. Both landings were rough. I got scared a little.
Now, the new task was to find our baggage that went straight to Miami. That means that it arrived before we did, especially with our delays. We went to the baggage claim. We stood and looked for about 25 minutes not seeing it. Then, we found a guy and asked him if this was where our baggage would be. He went to the back room and came out asking if we were going on a Carnival Cruise. We said, 'Yes.' Then he came out of the back with our suitcases. He pulled them together because of the bright orange tags that I had put on there for the cruise. I'm glad I did that now.
We then went to the pick up, where all the shuttles pick up passengers. We waited there for about 25-30 minutes. Then I grabbed our hotel conformation paper and called the hotel. I guess that we are supposed to call the hotel to be picked up. They don't run like other shuttles, every hour, on the hour, etc. I'm glad we finally became impatient and called, otherwise we would've been there for a while. We took a tour of downtown city of Miami, with all the palm trees and such. What a beautiful city! As we drove, we got farther and farther away from the city. We arrived 15 minutes later to our Travel Inn hotel. Reese and I think that we are in the slums of Miami by the looks of everything.
Can you say 'Wow!' Not a good kind of wow though. This place is so run down. But hey, its $85 bucks a night. Can't complain. We had to talk to the desk lady because we were checking in a night early. We ran into some complications with that. I reserved it under Rebecca Nielsen. On my debit and drivers license it is Rebecca Larrabee. What was I thinking!? I was thinking about Reese Jay, I know, I know. But yeah, I had to call the hotels.com travel agency about another night, have them fax over a page of confirmation, then charge for another night. Etc. It was long and complicated.
They finally gave us our key to our room. We drug our tired bodies to the third floor. Our room isn't the nicest, but it could be worse. After getting out of our 'nice khaki's', we jumped in jeans and went downstairs to a Greek restaurant called 'University Restaurant' and ate some dinner. We were starved!!! It was manna to our empty bellies. We then went back to the room and fell right asleep. We were so tired.
We slept in today till 1 o'clock. It felt so good. By the way, these beds are teeny! They are a tiny bit bigger than a twin but smaller than a full and Reese isn't exactly a sound sleeper. He he he. But yeah, sleeping in felt great. We decided to go for a walk. Our bellies were screaming at us again. We looked on MapQuest for a McDonald's or Wendy's but they were forever away. Across the street, behind some buildings was a Subway. We grabbed that for lunch.
Of course we got lost walking! DUH! We walked around in circles for sometime. In and out of different Hospitals. Reese, I love Reese, he found the Subway. After eating, we decided to become recluse's and hide in our hotel room till tomorrow. We brought cards and such to entertain us. We also looked up a Domino's Pizza number and we'll be calling them tonight for our wonderful gourmet dinner! Yum!
Asking the front desk, the shuttle leaves for the port of Miami ever hour on the hour. We will be grabbing some breakfast at Subway then head out for the Port tomorrow afternoon. We'll keep ya posted on our adventure. Ya'll take care. We love ya and miss you all. Well, almost miss ya. ;)

Reese and Beccie Nielsen