From the travel journal (and more) - Day 2 Pompano

Susan - I am a blogger so I am expected to write in this journal (per Cara). I can not write as well as Cara or Kelly, but here goes. Today's plan was to sunbath by the pool (for me) and we did that until the storm moved in around early afternoon. Then we cleaned up and headed to Burger Freak (Cara's choice) recommended by our cousin Brandy. I liked the food (burger and fries), but didn't care for the atmosphere. I was smart and didn't eat all the meat on my burger - unlike everyone else. A Kohl's incident almost happened for someone in our party (not mentioning any names - Maddy!). Been there, done that. NOT FUN.  Cara - No one on my blog will understand that Kohl's incident remark, but trust me when I tell you it is a terrible, but sort of a snicker, incident that happened to Susan a few year's back. She has not stepped foot into Kohl's since then. Frankly, I think that is because her picture is hanging in the employee lounge as a person to stay far, far, far away from if she should ever step foot in the store.

After lunch our plan was to make Darcy and Gabby happy by shopping until we dropped. Accomplished! We arrived at Sawgrass Mill mall around 3 p.m. Cara suggested this mall because it is the largest mall in all of Florida with 600 stores! Once we found the parking space we entered the mall and I was in awe of its size. After exploring some stores I noticed that A LOT of people were pushing around large suitcases. I asked Kelly and Cara why this was. Kelly suggested that a lot of people were probably from South America here to only buy up all of our American products and ship them back to their country. After hours of standing in check out lines I would have to agree that Kelly knows her stuff.  No one spoke English.  NO ONE! Not even the cashiers! We finally met back at the Caravan II around 8:00 p.m. and I was pooped!

Kelly - The place is very nice. Cara insisted on me taking the king bed because she said I couldn't stand snorers and she and Susan were snorers. So she slept in a full size bed with Maddy and Susan slept on the other full size. Darcy and Gabby slept on the pull-out and I slept on the king. The king was nice, but I only slept on one side. I told Maddy that she could sleep with me, but she wanted to be with her mom.

The thing about the king room is there's no door to the bathroom. I see this a lot at Wyndhams. What's the scoop? A bathroom always needs a door, people! The girls were to use my bathroom, per parental instruction. For the shier girls, this means having to evacuate the bedroom. This closes off a toilet and prevents access to the Jacuzzi tub and bed. This seems like a bad plan for this room. ALWAYS put a door between the bathroom and the bedroom. 

The bed is comfortable enough, but most mornings my back is achy. I fall asleep watching TV - my FAVE thing! The coverage for Sprint is seriously lousy in Pompano Beach. Susan, Gabby, and I all have Sprint and it is difficult to text, much less post pictures on FB and Instagram. I like to Instagram my vacations and this is frustrating. Cara says we should not be on our phones anyway and why is the lack of coverage a big deal? She has coverage though and has been checking in on FB and posting pics. I am frustrated by the crappy service. We got a bit of service down by the pool and sometimes at the end of our hallway by a window.

It has been very hot and humid weather while we've been here. I am grateful that the pool next to our building has cool refreshing water. The pool is pretty small and sometimes with lots of guests a pool can turn into lukewarm communal baths, but not so this one! The water is super nice!

The trip to Sawgrass Mills was not my choice for two reasons. One, I didn't want to march up and down a a mall following teenagers shopping whims. Two, I didn't want to buy anything myself! I am not a window shopper. If there are things to buy, I will buy something. Cara's foot started giving her trouble right away. She decided to read a book in the food court. We went to the following stores: Beya (I bought 3 headbands for a $1), Burlington Coat Factory (I found a Lily Bloom backpack on sale for $20 but didn't buy), Nordstrom Rack (bought Philosophy shower gel and oil blotting papers), New Balance Factory Store, Forever 21, Aeropostale (Darcy bought a cute t'shirt), Perfumania (I bought Flowerbomb for $85!!!), Urban Planet (where the girls tried on strapless pantsuits and Darcy bought a dress), Churomania (guess what we got there? LOL), and RonJon Surf Shop (I didn't go in). I was pleased that I was able to keep going the whole time. My feet were hurting and I had to run to the bathroom once for a poop emergency, but I persevered until it was time to collapse into the driver's seat and take us back to the hotel.

The others have written some about Burger Freak. There have been implications that the food there made people sick. I would like to say that I enjoyed my burger and feel that if food made people sick, it was the food from Salt and Pepper Chef from the night before. I don't believe that food from Burger Freak would've had time to cause bowel trouble so quickly. Where food's concerned though, perception becomes reality.

Cara - Our first full day of Wyndham Palm-aire was busy. We sunbathed by our unit pool in the morning. There were only a handful of people there, the water was cool, clean and refreshing, and we had a nice, peaceful time. Then the rain and thunder rolled in so we showered and went to lunch.

Prior to our arriving here, we saw via social media that our relatives, my nephew and family from Indiana, were in the area. Knowing they had Wyndham ownership too, I suspected they were in our resort or the resort on the beach. They kept posting photos of a delicious burger joint that they highly recommended so we went there after googling the address and finding it five minutes away.

The Burger Freak was a small place in a strip mall and it had made to order burgers with a special "freaky sauce". It was scrumptious and just what I wanted, having wanted a burger the night before and getting instead the worst meal ever at another restaurant. I built my burger with pepper jack cheese, pickles, lettuce, and freaky sauce. The fries were the best that I have had in a long time and all of it made me happy.

From there we went to the Sawgrill Mill, a combination of outlets and stores that covered 2,384 square feet and is the seventh largest mall in the U.S. The information I read said it had over 600 stores, but after further examination it has over 350 stores. Since it was raining we drove there and spent five hours wandering. Darcy had wanted to go to a mall south of where we were staying, and Gabby had wanted to go to a mall north of where we were staying, so this mall was the compromise. It had been recommended to me by Lizbeth, of the conceige desk.

I folded early after standing around while the teenagers shopped. My numb foot (another story) was bothering me and so I spent three hours in the food court reading a book and people watching. Most of the shoppers were foreigners with large, rolling suitcases (larger than Kelly's purple one) to house their purchases. It looked like an airport with everyone passing by rolling suitcases as if they were scurrying to get catch a flight.

Kelly drove us back to our resort as my nephew, finally realizing from social media that we too were in the area, texted me. He and his family were in the building next to ours in the same resort so Susan and I met him down at the tiki bars for drinks when we returned.

We ended up talking until one o'clock in the morning. The girls and Kelly came along for one drink, but ended up retiring back to the room early. They are lightweights in the party department, although they were still awake when we returned.