Back To Reality In Miami

We stayed on Regatta until the last possible moment this morning, since our flight to Houston doesn't leave until mid-afternoon.

It's interesting to note the two flights of stairs passengers are required to traverse to get down to the baggage pick up area. No real problem for us but it would be a challenge for some passengers

Going through Immigration and Customs was a breeze, although outside we waited in a somewhat disorganized taxi queue for about a half hour before getting a cab. It's a flat $25 fare to the airport, which simplifies things for us out-of-towners.

A little wrinkle occurred when we tried to obtain our boarding passes for these Continental flights due to the fact that, when Kathy's upgrade cleared, her coach seat remained in the system. Eventually an agent sorted it out and we have our boarding passes.

Then it was through a quiet TSA line. Kathy made it through the walk-through metal detector, but then it was roped off and Brian opted out of the millimeter-wave scanner, despite the "officer's" telling him hopefully "there's no radiation."

It's funny that the TSA actively tries to reassure passengers that "this machine doesn't emit x-rays like the other machines we use on you," but that's government marketing in action.

All you need to say is "I opt out" and that's what Brian did, enduring a public search (always in public) from a young officer, who wanted to play interrogator and ask Brian where he was from. What we have to endure to travel within our country these days. Bah humbug!

We're seated in the G area of this vast airport with nary an airline lounge in sight. At least it's not busy and we've resigned to hanging out until our flight board in another three hours or so.