Let’s Catch Up…

November 22, 2025 Fort Lauderdale, Fl

When we arrived home, mid October, the weather was still lovely and my morning walks were enjoyable …then the days turned colder…

We realized that this is the first Autumn in ten years that we were in NY after October 15…not a good thing.

The only saving grace…time on the soccer field with family. It’s such a joy cheering on Isabel and her teammates. Thats her…number 10.

I snapped this pic because James was trying to win an argument with Kristin and Claire…please note the expressions on each participants face.

Ten points if you correctly guess who won the discussion.

…anyway…the end of October found us invited to Jason and Jon’s Halloween party. We are so lucky to live in this community with such wonderful neighbors. We haven’t been to a Halloween party in at least 15 years …long gone is Tim’s Darth Vader costume…so we improvised ….

Tim’s a “Ring Camera Porch Bandit” …and I’m the get away driver.

Timmy and Jason.

Yummy food and beautiful bartenders…G and G ♥️

Lisa and Wayne…

We didn’t make it to any of Claire’s meets😢…I stole these pics from her Insta page🩷

We were happy to move from the soccer field to the basketball court…so much warmer…

Isabel making a free throw in one of the greatest come backs in the history of comebacks😉…her team of CYO 7th graders was down 28-14 at the beginning of the 4th quarter. Long story short…Isabel’s team won 31-29…yes! The opponents only scored 1 point the entire quarter. So. Much. Fun.

This second game we were more evenly matched and still won by 5 points.

I’m including a video of Isabel’s free throw routine…I hope you love it as much as I do😍

So we were home for about 5 weeks … I walked most days…except when the temperature fell below 40 degrees…

We spent our days planning for our upcoming vacation/cruise and preparing for Christmas. I cannot tell you what a joy it was shopping for Christmas in late October early November…full shelves…no one in the stores…

I came back from a walk to find Timmy setting up the tree.

Here’s Timmy helping to organize the stockings

Finally…finally! We escaped New York…(we truly have aged out of NY winters) …to sunny Fort Lauderdale…on our way to a Caribbean cruise on Crystal Serenity. One week here, then 24 days on board.

Here’s the requisite…”bags packed” pic…One might think we were leaving for three months😂

We left our home on Thursday afternoon for the JFK Hilton Garden Inn…we chose the Hilton because it has an in-house restaurant. Our previous before-flight hotel at JFK was an airport Fairfield Inn…last January we discovered their restaurant was no longer operating. Anyway…the Hilton (and restaurant ) were fine …I had a burger…Tim, chicken and waffles.

The one wrinkle? The morning shuttle to the airport takes you to the Air Train…not your terminal…you wrestle your 25 suitcases to the train, find the elevator, board the train…after jamming two suitcase wheels between the doors, leave the train…only catching one wheel this time, and then (finally!) make your way to check-in.

I admit I was frazzled by the time we reached the Delta One check-in…

Not Timmy…cool as a cuke..anyway… this young man, Tyrone, checked us in, walked us to security and wished us a safe trip!
Only after we were through the dedicated security, did I realize just how lucky we were to have encountered Tyrone…it’s a long story…anyway… we had coffee and pastries in the lounge…

…and were watching bags coming off a plane when this happened…

…This is the second bad that fell off the conveyor…however…the workers did not notice this one…

…here they are driving away…

We watched as this worker…who was in the baggage hold …walk down from the hold and RIGHT past the bag…at this point, Timmy alerted the folks at the front desk in the lounge… they all came to the window to observe the bag under the plane…

…after 12 minutes, a worker fetches the bag…

…only to leave it …

…meanwhile some poor passenger is waiting for her bag at luggage claim…

…the bag was still there 15 minutes later when we left to board our plane…we stopped and told a different person about the abandoned bag…she was not interested …

…anyway…the new tv screens welcome you by name…but didn’t allow me access…whatever…I proceeded as “guest”…

…the wine was fine…

We arrived pretty much on time…our driver, Arnie, was waiting at baggage claim and …let me tell you…that first blast of warmth, when we exited the airport felt like heaven…heaven!