To Hell and Back: Escape from Snowmageddon (Or, The World’s Longest Valor Review, part 5)featured

Packing update: I have no idea where any of my contacts are. Yikes. Also, I think I need a hair crimper. Do they still sell hair crimpers? Do they still make hair crimpers?

Anyways.

Two entries in one day! Progress! Yay!

So our last full day in SoFlo, we woke up around 9:30…early for pre-vacation vacation means…but Stephanie and I? We had plans. The original plan was to head over to Las Olas for some shopping and brunch so we left Mom and grandma to rest and get their stuff ready to get onboard the ship the next day…and then we found Fort Lauderdale beach…and we found $1.75 parking right across the street from the beach…and the whole morning kind of detoured from there.

It’s been well-established in this blog that Stephanie l-o-v-e-s the beach. Loves it. I’m sure she might live at the beach if she could. She’d certainly spend all of our port time at a beach if she could on any given cruise. So $1.75 parking (parking we were super lucky to find because that lot filled up quickly) and a beautiful, sunny, 85-degree day? Yeah. We parked the car and went off to the beach. Las Olas? Maybe next time.

And the beach was lovely and beautiful and crowded. So nice that I even stuck my feet in the water. I wish we had our swim suits and some towels to just lay out. Maybe (probably) next time. As it was, we walked along the beach for awhile before deciding to head back to the hotel to grab Mom and grandma and get some lunch.

As is always the case with us, we needed more luggage before we got on the ship, so we decided to head back to Sawgrass Mills. TJ Maxx had some nice Diane Von Furstenberg rolling bowler bag style luggage for us and then we hit up the Saks Fifth Avenue outlet for some new clothes to fill them with (this shopping while on vacation…I swear, it’s a sickness with us). And then we ended up at the Grand Lux Cafe at Sawgrass Mills for lunch. Too much of a good thing? Maybe. But Mom *loved* it so much the day before and in our family, there’s never such thing as too much of a good thing.

Mom, grandma and Stephanie all had those bbq pork sliders Stephanie had the day before and I opted for the lemon chicken piccata. Oh.My.God. Best chicken piccata I’ve ever had. Ever. Anywhere. And this lunch portion? Easily could have fed me for two days if we were home. And then for dessert, we all split the made-to-order chocolate chip pecan cookies. Heavenly.

Lunch Portion Lemon Chicken Piccata

Homemade Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies

After lunch, we hit up a few more shops (including a stop at Bed, Bath and Beyond to get some towel clips because I’d left mine at home) before heading back to the hotel to rest and pack things up a bit.

I took a nap for awhile because I seem to have to always be the last person packed. I woke up to Mom telling me we were all heading out again. We hit up Old Navy for some last-minute basics, Target (again) and then had a quick dinner at Chili’s. After dinner, we went back to the hotel to finish packing up and then pack up the car with the stuff we wouldn’t need for the night so we’d have less to pack up in the morning. At some point, Stephanie and I hit up the drive through at McDonald’s for some late night diet Cokes and iced teas. We took our showers, watched a few hours of TV and everyone went to bed. Me? No sleep until 2:00 am. We’d be onboard the Carnival Valor the next day. I’d get my good sleep when the ship started rocking.