To celebrate my little sister Morgan’s college graduation and my mom Gigi’s birthday we decided to take a Ladies Only cruise. So on Sunday, January 5, I threw my bags into the back of my car and drove to Gigi’s house. Morgan spent the night there the night before and Sara met us there. It was misting rain (foreshadowing!) but cleared up just long enough for us to get our car packed with all our suitcases. I was very proud of myself, I packed everything in one suitcase and one tote bag! For 6 days!
It took almost 2 hours to get out of the city! First of all, Gigi and Momo both had wet hair when I walked in the house. Let the record show that I arrived exactly on time, by the way. Then we had to get gas, stop by Starbucks, and finally we were on our way- all 4 of us packed in my little RAV4.
It rained on us the entire way down to Port Canaveral, Florida. It did let up a bit when we hit the major traffic jam where we sat on the highway for an hour while they pulled an RV out of the muddy median. We listened to music for a while until the girls picked on my choice. Why doesn’t everyone love One Direction like me? Then we listened to a book on CD, Divergent by Veronica Roth. 
That really helped the trip go by more quickly.
Even with the traffic jam and late start we still made decent time and rolled into Port Canaveral about 7pm. We checked into our room at the Residence Inn. It’s a gorgeous hotel and I highly recommend it for cruise travelers. It’s the 2nd closest to the port. We dropped our bags off in our suite (stock photo) 
then we piled back in the car for dinner.
I’d heard good things about Grills on the water at the port. I looked up the menu and it looked really good so we set out for Grills Seafood. We walked in and the smell was so overwhelming we chose to eat outside instead. The hostess directed us to go outside, down the ramp and around the corner. We found an empty table and sat down. There was ketchup and mustard on the table already. George came over to take our orders. Sara & Momo ordered cocktails (foreshadowing!). 
Gigi got a burger (the fishy smell was bothering her), Sara got a veggie burger, Momo got fish tacos and I got shrimp skewers. 
Turns out I’m the only one who really liked their meal. Oh, and the view? You do see lots of boats parked there at the pier but the main view is of a cement factory! We asked George (our waiter) what was that factory we were looking at and he said he’d worked there 7 years and didn’t know! How is that possible?? I would have asked the first day!
After dinner we went back to the hotel and hit the hay. It was a long day for me driving all that way in the rain and I was exhausted! We were asleep before 10pm.
Next up…Embarkation!
Bless Your Heart 