Monday: Pre-Game Festivities

At long last...the convention update!
I arrived in Ft. Lauderdale around lunchtime on a Monday.
My friend Diane was ready to get the party started
and surprised me with some BLING!

We stayed at the Hilton Marina (about 2 miles from the convention hotel)
where we stayed for FREE!

This is the only time the bathroom was clean.
The rest of the time, it was overrun.

This was our balcony on the 11th floor--
it wrapped around the corner overlooking the Marina!

This is how happy it made us!

That yacht was there the whole time--it was named the Mr. Terrible.

Watching the bridge was pretty cool--
except when we were on it and had to wait.

It was the hottest week of my life.
The humidity was absolutely unreal, and that is coming
from a person who just experienced heat indices near 120.

We hit up Sawgrass Mills, one of the biggest malls, ever.

We could barely stand it...the convention activities were starting the next day!