One thing it is impossible to prepare for when taking a trip is travel delay.  Our routine for a week in Aruba is to arrive at 4:30 in the afternoon, collect our luggage, and catch a cab.  Since the law in Aruba is only 5 to a vehicle plus the driver this entails 2 cabs.  The next mode of attack is for the adult girls to be dropped at the grocery in route to the time share leaving the boys and grand girls to check in, get unloaded and check out the pool.

In the perfect world this allows for only one day wasted with travel, unpacking and grocery shopping.

In the not so perfect world there is a 2 hour travel delay in the layover in Miami making the arrival time 6:30 PM.  Sigh!

However, there is a bright spot.  My son, being a member of the American Express Centurion Club has access to the Centurion Lounge.  Talk about taking travel to a different level!  Our layover in Miami was scheduled from 8:30 AM until noon.  The ‘Ole Buckeye and I followed his family to the “Lounge”, the VIP Lounge.

Miami

Chef Michelle Bernstein, James Beard Award winner, Best Chef South 2008, is a Miami native of Jewish and Latin descent. Bernstein cooks food inspired by her food memories and travels. With her husband and partner, David Martinez, the chef owns/operates MBC Michelle Bernstein Catering Company, a full-service catering company as well as her café concept, Crumb on Parchment, located in Miami’s Design District.

As we checked in…would we like to schedule a massage?  What!  I was too shy, but the son and daughter in law took full advantage.  We found a comfortable space that accommodated all of us and off they went.

Some of us were more comfortable than others…

Once settled, we headed to the breakfast buffet.  Lovely.  Coffee, juice, egg casseroles, “the best oatmeal ever”, and a sticky sweet swirly decadent warm French toasty morsel that I dared not try.  Oh, and then there is the FULL bar.  I had a Bellini, the others Bloody Marys.  The ‘Ole Buckeye abstained.    All of this in full view of the runways and with lots of plug ins for our electronics.  Not a bad way to spend a layover.

As we prepared to leave to board our flight, Bing…travel alert.  Flight delayed from 12:10 until 2:15.  That’s when the real hardship began.  A movie for the girls (Thank God for iPads and iPhones).

Noon, now we can have lunch. Let’s see, a kale salad, mini roasted potatoes, a chicken casserole and a delicious butternut squash soup, and maybe more to drink.  Manhattans, Cabernet, Pinot Noir.  Thank God the next leg of the flight had no further delays or we might not have made it to the gate.  The ‘Ole Buckeye was already a little tipsy!

The flight to Aruba was relatively uneventful and most of us had an alcohol induced nap.  In fact my daughter in law does not remember taking off and awakened only at touchdown.

Back to the original intent of this post.  The initial plans.  After getting the luggage and the liquor at the duty free shop in the baggage area…one per adult (with a slight twist) we were ready for vacation…but not grocery shopping.

We arrived at our time share armed with booze and no mixes, all of our bags and basic food supplies.

Next Dilemma.  Do I take us out to eat, or do I attempt my first meal with what I have?  I think I can pull it off if I can get butter and eggs.  Off to the mini market we go.  No problem…we have eggs and butter.  Luckily at the last minute I stuck some chicken tenders into the freezer bag of the checked bag and I already had the pancetta base of the carbonara prepared in tupperware.  While the girls enjoyed the pool, and my son and daughter in law unpacked, I made chicken piccata and carbonara.  There was no salad as planned and it was skimpy on the amount of chicken for the six of us, but we made due.  There was no drinking because there was no mix.  That was not a bad thing.  We still had vivid memories of the amount of alcohol already consumed over the course of the day.  It is hard to admit but at this point no one needed a drink.  Dinner ended with peanut butter candy and yummy bars out of our Christmas tins.  (another holiday tradition).

And so our vacation adventure began…not so much as planned because of the travel delay, but with the help of American Express, it was certainly painless!