Cruise day 1: South Beach Florida, embarking

I never made it to bed Sunday night. 11:30 came and Jr. dutifully showed up to haul me to the airport. (She's getting good at this ha). Our flight took off minutes after one in the morning. The first flight was long, and sort of a haze as I slipped in and out of consciousness. West had a new movie on his iPod to watch, but I didn't get very far into it. We grabbed an over priced, tasteless breakfast during our lay-over in Atlanta, and then passed out cold on our second flight. Neither of us even noticed the take off. Wess, Ashley, Megan, and Aaron were at the Miami airport to pick us up... in their rented Toyota Corolla... let's do the math here. Six grown ups, with baggage, in a corolla. Hmmm... can we say cramped? And laughing our heads off. Wess drove, Megan and Ashley squoze into the front seat, and the three tall people were put in the back seat with our chins to our knees because of suitcases on the floor. West and Aaron in the car:Wess informed us that he was trying very hard to find Will Smith's "Welcome to Miami" to play for us, but wasn't able to. He kept searching the radio for it all morning.
I was instantly dripping sweat, and it wasn't going to be the last time for me to experience that for the trip. Actually, it never stopped. We ate breakfast on the sidewalk of a restaurant in South Beach, and then walked across the street to the softest sand beach. And the nicest water. It was the perfect temperature! I always claimed to be a "California girl". I wanted the sun and the beach. Tell you what, after being in Florida, I now say "Florida or bust!". The sand was soft and not coarse, the water was enjoyable, not cold. We played around on the beach and with the new camera in the water. The beach was shallow for quite a ways out.
First underwater picture, it worked!
"West and Steph's Vacation" uh.... what's Wess doing behind us???
I was on cloud nine in South Beach and I didn't want to leave. The only reason I did was with the promise of the promised Bahamas before me. With another crowded ride to Walgreen's for beach towels, pop to take on board, and a big sun screen, we returned the car and squashed into a taxi. And we thought the corolla was crunched! Wess rode in the front and spoke in Spanish to the driver about Cuban sandwiches the entire drive. At the dock we breezed through customs (as we'd already done all our necessaries online) and found ourselves on deck. If I look like I just rolled off the beach in all of these pictures, remember, it's because I DID.
We found our state rooms, managed through our muster drill, and found our dining room table. We stumbled outside to check out the decks. I was dragging. We really hadn't been able to get very much quality sleep the night before on the plane. There was a random lightning storm out to sea behind us: We collapsed in some deck chairs. The breeze was amazing. It was quiet (well, aside from the ship hum) and I was in heaven.
In the cruise ship store I found this accessories kit with a floating wrist band on it. And a rubber case to cover it (for when I drop it, and you know I'll drop it). Sold. That was about as far as we could make ourselves go. The other four were still going, but West and I dragged ourselves to bed and frankly, everything is black after that.