Fort Lauderdale

Cal told us over Thanksgiving break that he was planning to vacation in Fort Lauderdale the week between Christmas and New Year.  We thought that was a great idea as we knew that the three months after New Year's weekend would be extremely busy for him with six day work weeks and close to ten hour work days.  We hoped for warm weather for him, but realized that he would have fun with his friends no matter the temperature.  The Airbnb that they booked was a great price.  The only downside to the trip was the plane ticket price.  Cal talked about flying Spirit, but I showed him how to use his travel funds with Southwest and he decided that that was the best option.  Not only were they a more reliable airline, they also allowed two bags of luggage to fly free.

Over Christmas break, Cal's decision to fly Southwest became an even better one as more and more airlines had to cancel due to covid concerns and pilot shortages.  Both David and Jayce had to switch to the Southwest flight at the last minute due to the cancellations.  Cal also saved money as his flight became cheaper the closer it got to December 26th.  Once I showed him how to book and rebook the same flight, he ended up earning $124 in flight credits for future use.  As fun as it was to save money, we were just extremely pleased that his flight left on schedule and that they all made it to Fort Lauderdale on Sunday in time for lunch on the beach.

We heard from Cal several times throughout the week.  His house was within walking distance to the beach and they loved the warm weather with temperatures in the mid to upper 80s all week.  Cal was happy that he did not get a sunburn on the first day and found a really fun tiki bar to hang out with when he wasn't soaking up the Florida sunshine.  My favorite text from him was when he let me know that they had just saw a giant iguana in the CVS parking lot on their way to the beach.  That had to be shocking.  Most of all, I was happy that they had a lot of fun and hoped that Cal would get his wish one day to move to the sunshine state.  It definitely would be a lot warmer than the winter weather that he returned to this afternoon.