John travels for business.  A lot. 

When John travels, he typically stays in four- or five-star hotels and resorts.  This led to a series of jokes about how hard it was to leap from "one-star living" at home to "five-star living" at the resort, so he had to prepare for the transition in advance.  His expectation was that he could just throw his towels on the floor and "the maid" (me) would come and pick them up; or, when he came home from work, his dinner would be on the table.  Crazy stuff like that.

"I could pull a muscle otherwise!" he exclaimed. 

"Oh, give me a break!" I said.  "I could go from one-star to five-star like that!" I snapped my fingers.

"Oh, no no no," John said, "it's very hard!  I'll show you when we go to Florida!"

Our trip began on Wednesday, October 22.  Having dropped Mary off with the Guckenburgs and Bootsie (our four-month old kitten) off with Bill and Erika the night before, John and I were able to get up at the latest possible time before we had to get to the airport for our 6:00 a.m. flight.  It was still an ungodly hour, though, even for us - 3:45 a.m.  We quickly showered and dressed then threw our suitcases into the car.  By 4:15, we were ready to go.

Getting to the airport was uneventful enough.  We parked in the covered long-term parking lot and took the shuttle to the airport.  That put us there by 4:45.  There was no line at the check-in counter, nor was there a line at security; we made it to our gate by 5:15 - a whole 45 minutes before our flight.  That was just enough time for me to get a Starbucks Skinny Latte and relax with my iPhone before we boarded our flight.

Our flight departed on time that morning.  To get to Marco Island, Florida, we had a four-hour flight to Charlotte, North Carolina, where we caught our connecting flight to Ft. Meyers, Florida...after a four-hour layover at the Charlotte Airport.  It was only supposed to be a three and a half hour layover, but we landed thirty minutes early.

So what does one do during a four-hour layover at the Charlotte Airport?  Drink, of course!  That's what John would do if he had an extended layover while flying to Montego Bay.  "See?" he said.  "This is part of the five-star living that I keep telling you about!  You have to prepare your liver for stuff like this!"

We had lunch at a Mexican food place in the main food court area of the Charlotte Airport, while John sent e-mails from his Blackberry (technically, he was still working).  Later, we wandered through the airport and did some shopping; we didn't buy anything, but we did enjoying browsing.  After that, we ate gelato at one of John's favorite spots; he stopped there often during layovers in Charlotte.  Again, it was all part of that five-star living about which he kept warning me.

That killed the first ninety minutes of our layover.  So what to do for the next two hours?

The solution was easy; we sat at the Carolina Sports Bar, next door to our gate, and drank wine.  To pass the time, we also played games on John's iPhone, checked our e-mail, updated our Facebook status...all that good stuff.  It was quite relaxing.

Finally, our flight to Ft. Meyers departed from Charlotte.  It was a very short and uneventful flight - only two hours long and without the in-flight movie (we got to see Get Smart on the way to Charlotte).  We had to entertain ourselves by watching movies on our iPhones.

We arrived in Ft. Meyers at 6:30 in the evening.  After retrieving our three suitcases from baggage claim, we looked for the people holding up the "ACS" sign, as they would be our transportation to the resort on Marco Island.  Once all of the arriving ACS employees were accounted for, we were ushered outside to an awaiting shuttle bus.  While one person loaded our bags, another welcomed us to Florida and helped us on board.

The drive to Marco Island took about forty-five minutes.  Unfortunately, since it was already dark outside, we weren't able to see much along the way, so we played with Google maps on our iPhones to follow our route along the way.

At long last, we arrived at the Marriott Marco Island Resort!  This was one of the finest resorts on the island, and it had a long list of amenities, including golf packages, a spa, sailboat rentals, and even catamaran tours.  As part of John's prize package, he was able to choose one of those amenities to enjoy; we were planning to do the catamaran tour on Friday morning, although we were also looking at getting a couples massage at the spa on our own dollar.  "Ah," I said, "I could get used to this five-star living."

After we got checked in, we took our bags up to our fourth-floor room then quickly went down to the courtyard to see if John could still get checked in for the President's Club event.  (We had arrived a little bit late.)  Unfortunately, the registration table had just closed, so we would have to wait until morning to get John's event package.  However, they invited us to enjoy the free food and drink at the ACS Welcome Banquet, which was still going on in the courtyard.

Once we had eaten our fill of the free food, we left the banquet and took a short walk through the resort and out onto the beautiful, white-sand private beach.  Having never been to a beach in Florida before, I was surprised to see that the beach was flat, and thus, it was very easy to walk on it.  It wasn't like walking on the beach in Rocky Point, where you really got a work-out getting from the water to the RV Park.  "Welcome to Florida," John said.  "It's flat here."

We then returned to our room to relax; we were exhausted from traveling all day, so it was time to retire for the evening.  When we entered our room, we saw that there was a voicemail on our room phone; the voicemail was a reminder from the resort staff to close the drapes in our room every night before 9:00 p.m. to help protect the turtles during their breeding season. 

Once the drapes were closed, we changed into our pajamas and settled in for the night.  Fun and adventure awaited us in the morning, but for now, it was time for sleep...

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