Travel with Dale & Margaret

When we last left you we had flown to DFW from our home city as we started our journey.

We went to the Admirals Club, a place where we have spent a lot of time and then walked to our flight to Ft. Lauderdale, which was 30 minutes late due to cold weather in other parts of the world.  Before we were seated I met about six people who were on the same Regent cruise.  Half of First Class was going to South America with us!  Some were going all the way around the horn!

The flight attendant told us that it is raining and bitterly cold in Ft. Lauderdale with the weather at the coldest since 1918.  From the frying pan into the fire sort of.  Who’d guess that?  At home it was going to be 50 degrees today and tomorrow.  Hopefully, we’ll have a miraculous weather change before we embark tomorrow.

Well, we ended up arriving into Ft. Lauderdale at about 5 pm which was about two hours late due to the weather in Dallas and Southern Florida.  We were supposed to attend the Circle South America party being thrown by Regent for the 220 or so people who are going to be on the complete 65 day trip and it was starting shortly.

We met some more cruise friends on the shuttle to the hotel, Martha and Johnnie from Palm Springs. After a fairly long ride from the airport in the rain we went to the large conference room where the gala pre-cruise event was to be. There were a couple hundred people dressed pretty formally. We had already missed the talk from the Regent President and they were in the process of being served dinner. Since we were under-dressed (although at check-in they said it had been changed from formal to informal) we decided to go to Michael Mina’s Bourbon Steak restaurant instead (on-property at the hotel).

We stayed at the Turnberry for 5 days this past May and ate at Bourbon Steak almost every night, sitting next to James Caan at the bar a couple nights (we call him Jimmy now!). We got to know the Manager John Riccardo and the Sommelier Matthew Turner quite well. They welcomed us back last night and we had a GREAT dinner with GREAT wines. They were:
Chateau De Sancerre – 2006 Du Connetable Sancerre

We ordered this to go with the seafood platter (oysters, crab legs, claws, shrimp). I was expecting a very dry Sancerre (French Sauvignon Blanc) but instead this was very rich, almost buttery wine that was fantastic. Matthew scored on this one!
Jean Jouis Chave – 2004 Hermitage

We had a Hermitage at home a couple weeks ago. These are expensive and fairly rare wines with a very unique taste. Matt is having a tasting next week and he had some of this wine open so he gave us each a glass to pair with our salad. Another winner! (A bottle is $900 on the wine list).  We then tried a Catena Zaapata – 2005 Nicasia Vineyard Malbec.  This great wine is from Chile. Very smooth and rich. It went very well with our filet.

At Mina’s they have great fries, three different flavors and three different sauces that are provided as complimentary appetizers. They are a meal all to themselves.  In the end, although I was disappointed that we missed the big gala dinner and even forgot to take a picture of it, Margaret made the right call on going to Mina’s. It was a truly First Class experience.

We then went back to our room which was pretty much the same room we had the last time we stayed here.  It is strange to see FL with such cold weather and we are hoping it warms up a bit tomorrow for the big departure day.

Dale

Yesterday we had a busy day getting ready for the trip.  I dropped off our  miniature poodle at his home away from home last night. While he was happy to see his dog buddies.  I was VERY sad to say goodbye to him.  But then, I knew we were going to be away for 65 days and he didn’t.  He’s a good boy and we are going to miss him terribly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the airport with stuff to last 65 days.

We also met with the woman who looks after our house and our kitty cat and went over all the things she will be handling including the battery maintenance devices for our cars, the bird feeding routine, lights, etc., etc., etc.  I brought down the kitty condo from upstairs and the kitty was very happy as he laid on his back with his legs straight up in the air.  No DOG around for 65 days.  YES!!!  We turned down the heat, unplugged the electrical stuff (we feel very green), put our cable on subsistence mode, finished packing and got to bed just before midnight.

Up at 4:30 am we got the car service to the airport, barely fitting our 9 bags (including carry-ons) in the trunk — and filling up the empty front seat and the space in-between Margaret and I in the back seat…  $100 in excess American Airlines baggage fees later our flight was boarding as we walked up and at 7:15 AM we were whisked away to 18 degree temperatures in Dallas.

Here we are with our HUGE South American map to put on our wall and track our progress.

Margaret worked on her RFP response and I read camera manuals and worked on the website.  We arrived in Dallas safely although a bit late. The weather wasn’t looking good in Miami and it looks like our flight might be delayed.

The next post will pick up where this left off on Pre-Embarkation Night.  I bet you can’t wait!