With all of the excitement of leaving the ship yesterday, then adding the hike we took to lunch and back, it was no surprise that we would sleep well tonight. And we did. Knowing that we had an early pick-up time, the alarm was set for 3:30am. Both of us were awake before it went off.
No matter how we tried streamlining the carry-ons, it was a miracle our stuff fit. Our driver showed up early right after 5am, and being that it was a Saturday, there was hardly any traffic getting to the Ft. Lauderdale airport.
We had no luggage to check, so we went right to the United kiosk and printed out our boarding passes. Isn't it funny how many jobs have been eliminated by machines these days? One thing we know for sure is that there is always an agent wandering around this area in case you need help.
Another good thing was there was hardly a line for the security check. At this airport, we did not have to take out the computer or Kindle, or the little Ziplock of liquids. But when we proceeded to go through with our shoes on, the agent reminded us to do so. Nope, we informed him we did not have to do that because we were over 75. He had a brief look of shock, then said we were correct. Then we thought later, it was nice that we spotted the shocked look, but maybe he does that all day. We'll still take it as a compliment.
We had done all that and located the gate by 6am….record time. We were missing our coffee, so there was a Mexican restaurant nearby, with full service. And they had opened at 4:30am. Perfect, we were seated at a table and ordered two regular breakfasts with hot coffee. It was expensive, but we knew there would be no food on the plane except for a tiny package of pretzels or stroopwaffel and a drink. Just in case we starve before getting home, we picked up a couple of bags of nuts for a snack.
Boarding began at 7:30am, and we were off on time. This was a full flight, which being a non-stop, is always full. There was a passenger in front of us that had a small dog in a carrier. All we could see was his or her cute head sticking out. You know what? The dog never made a sound for the entire flight. Perhaps his owner gave him doggie meds to keep him calm. Whatever she did, none of us surrounding her were bothered with barking or anything else dogs do.
It was a long flight but cut short due to following winds. The pilot said we saved about 45 minutes with the tail winds. Hopefully our pick-up driver knew we were early, since we did not have a way to communicate with him. There still are courtesy phones at SFO, and we did use them to call the company. Somehow our wires got crossed and the driver was waiting at departures and not arrivals. Eventually, he found us where we were told to wait – outside door 12 at the end of the United doors.
The Saturday afternoon traffic was picking up in the city, as we well know, so it took some tricky turns and short cuts to get to the Bay Bridge. We could see one of the big Princess ships in the new cruise terminal taking on guests for a run to Alaska, we assume. Once on the bridge, the traffic lightened up and we were home by 1:30pm.
All was well although we will have our outdoor work cut out for us for the next couple of months. Checking out our birds, we saw one very young fawn jump out of the weeds. The doe always has one or two, and hides them on our place. Then she takes off leaving the little ones in the "big playpen".
If all goes to plan, we will be sailing in the fall with three back-to-back Alaka cruises, followed by the Tales of the South Pacific. So we will be back.
And Happy Mother's Day to all, and thanks again for tagging along. It's been a pleasure.
Bill & Mary Ann
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