Day 1/1: Sunday, January 5, 2020: So It Begins; Gala is Palm Beach

Flight from IAH to PBI started a little ify with not being able to check in online. I mentioned this to Maxine in a note and she graciously contacted the airline to find that something was not synchronizing. She told me just to show up and all would be well. I did and, while it took longer to get my boarding pass than it did getting through Security, all did go OK.

The flight was aboard an Embraer A-175 and only took about two hours. We were scheduled to arrive shortly after 4:00 pm local time, but we arrived at 3:45 pm. I didn't realize that the reason we arrived so early is that Trump spent the weekend in Mar-a-Lago and was scheduled to fly out of PBI at 4:00 pm. So, they shut down the airport until he departed. I waited for over an hour for my checked luggage to be brought to the Luggage Claim before the Silversea representative who met me suggested I go on to the hotel and they would bring my luggage later. Until today, I did not know where Ma-a-Lago was relative to anything else. It is directly south of the Breakers hotel we will be staying at on Palm Beach.

Stephen had arrived at the hotel a couple of hours prior to my arrival. He flew into Fort Lauderdale and they chauffeured him to Palm Beach.

During the drive from the airport to the Breakers hotel, I saw a lot of yachts and Teslas. There is some serious money here.

The hotel is very fancy and nice.

We had several hours to look around and enjoy the bar before the gala began at 7:00 pm.

We were told it was a dress affair, but we saw everything from jeans to tuxedos.

We retired relatively early. We aren't scheduled to leave for Port Everglades until noon tomorrow.