Finally Getting Home!

 Friday, September 30. 2022

So, I've been up a while when Marilyn greets the day.  She's early, too, but we've got the whole day to play with.  After a bit we decide that coffee is a good idea and find that it is Starbuck's and we'll need a lot more sugar and cream than they've provided!  And there are only three cups' worth anyway!  Marilyn tries to call the front desk and finds that the handset needs to be charged.  Not a good time to tick her off!  She gets dressed and goes down to deal with them. After all, she's a rewards-club member and we're paying a lot of money for a room with no working phone and not enough coffee!!

Fancy lobby from the elevator

And from our breakfast table

Long story short - when she comes back up we have a fifty-dollar refund and a full refresh of the coffee supplies is on its way! We have another cup of coffee, because it would be churlish not to, and then go down to breakfast (which isn't included?!) where we finally figure out that we can split an omelet and have enough to eat!  Well, if we split a bagel with cream cheese afterwards.

Less food waste and it's cheaper!!

W don't have to check out until one, so we go back upstairs to continue playing with our photos and trying to remember what all the critters are! Eventually, though, we have to decamp and find that there is a work station in the lobby where we can continue playing and charge our equipment!

This is so cool!!  You flash your boarding pass and this shows up on the
big overhead screen - but only you can see it!! It tells you everything you need to know!

Our plan is to go check in with Delta around four o'clock for our flight that leaves at 6:50.  When I checked in line this morning they wanted to charge me $30 for my bag! So I need to talk to someone.  Our lady asks to see my Delta AmEx card, which I think is weird.  I know it gets me one free bag, but it should have been free anyway!  On well, it's all straightened out and we go through security one last time and head for our gate.  I get a text message from a Frontier tech who is at my house!  He was supposed to come tomorrow and I can't do much for him from Detroit!  He says someone else will come tomorrow at the regularly scheduled time, as he is going on vacation! I'm just thrilled that they remembered the appointment, what with the hurricane occupying everyone's attention! It will be great to have real wifi!  My angel neighbors had been letting me use theirs before the trip;  but I feel weird freeloading off of them! They do so much for me as it is!

Look at this cool train!!  It goes from one end of the A gates to the other and back again!

Marilyn has found us a restaurant near our gate, Catcora's Taproom, and we have the world's most expensive burger and chicken sandwich.  On the plus side, we actually got the QR menu to work! It's okay - we're going home!! 

The flight boards on time and I hit the seat lottery - no one is in the middle seat! It's a short flight, comparatively, and during my fifteen minute nap I miss the drinks and snack!  Oh well, I'm watching "Body of Lies" and shortly after it ends we land!!

At the other end of the shuttle Betsy and Barbara are waiting for us and now it feels like home!  They chauffeur us to their house where my car has been safe from the storm.  We transfer the luggage and I take Marilyn home and then drive those final eight miles.  Home!!  But first I have to move some stuff out of the way so I have room in the garage for my car! I drag everything into the house and don't do a thing but thank my lucky stars that I have power and water and Megan's wifi! Rosa is so happy to see me that she talks to me all night long and I get about three hours' sleep!

The wonderful Frontier guy comes in the morning and gives me a new router and all is right with the world.  Now all I have to do is retrieve all the mail, visit Publix, and finish updating this blog!  It's been the most amazing adventure ever!!  Roarrrrr!

Note - There are some photos and some assorted thoughts and remembrances that will get added in a day or two! But if you skip them, it won't be much of a loss!! 

One Last Adventure and then the Big One - Trying to get Home!!

 September 28 and 29, 2022

Since we fly out tonight at midnight, we've asked for a complimentary extension of our check-out time. Marian is so gracious and says we can stay until noon or one and she'll send George for our bags, then. We have plenty of time to get ready in the morning and George knocks just as we're thinking of calling for him!  Get get everything in the trunk (It's a miracle!) and go to The Mynt for one last free meal.  It's lunch time, so there are different offerings.  I get the Korean Bao with crispy chicken and it is just the right amount of food.  I think that's a first!! The acrobats who were performing a couple of days ago as we drove past, are now working right in front of the restaurant.  We've been applauding their efforts, so they come in to pass the hat and they get some of our last few bills!

Reminds me of going to Ben's wedding!

View from our favorite restaurant

Wonderful!

That's us, the little red car.

Then it's back to the hotel so we can retrieve our car.  There's a bell outside that let's us in, but, of course the gate closes behind us, so I go up to the reception desk and ask that he open the gate again, but not til I have time to get back to the car! He does, but it closes before we can get out.  Happily, he's been watching and opens it again so we can leave.  It's a delicate operation because people have parked on the street leaving a tiny opening and Marilyn has to do some fancy backing and filling to get us out!

And we're off to Table Mountain.  We had considered Signal Hill;  but Marian says it's just the place where they used to fire the cannon. BB gets us to the entrance road to the funicular, after we figure out that she calls it the aerial cablecar! It's a long, winding road and people park along the mountain's edge. There's no telling if there is a closer spot and we pass a couple, hoping for the best.  And there is the ever-present "parking assistant" hoping for a tip.  Our spot is a bit of an uphill hike but we make it and decide to use the ticket machine to buy our tickets for the cable car. There is a long line of people without tickets waiting for the next car.  We can't figure out why they didn't use the machine, since there is no one in the line for people with tickets!!

Geology cheat sheet!

We wait just a few minutes and we're directed to the line to actually board.  The car holds 65 people! They design is pretty unique.  Everyone stands and the outer wall rotates!  Part of it is glass and part of it is open with three horizontal bars to keep people from falling out.  That way everyone gets to take pictures through the openings as they come around!

It's a pretty quick trip to the top and, once there, you can visit the shop or begin exploring the various view points.  You could spend a lot of time up here!  We manage to spend a couple of hours and we didn't even visit the cafe!  You can see the entire end of the cape and get some lovely views of the shore line and the Twelve Apostles.

We learned to say this with the clicks!

There's one in every crowd!

By the time we head back down it is nearly time for dinner and we drive along Victoria street, the main beach drag, looking for a parking space.  Finally we go back to our hotel and ask Marian if we can park just long enough to eat and she is as accommodating as ever!  It helps that they aren't full and don't need all their spaces!  She recommends a restaurant but we are getting pretty tired and just stop in the first one who's menu looks appealing.

I order the hake, grilled, and chips (fries) and the stout from the only brewery in the wine-making valley we visited yesterday, Franschhoek. And Marilyn orders the strawberry cheese cake and makes me (giggle) eat half of it!

Now we're off to the airport to turn in the car by eight o'clock, although our flight is four hours later. Thanks to BB and good signage, we find the rental-car return and that's pretty painless.  Then there's the hike to the departures terminal where Marilyn would like to get her suitcase wrapped because it's pretty stuffed and she's nervous about it holding together.  They only take cash and by the time I tell her I've got a tiny cash stash she's decided it will be all right. Then, since we'e got a lot of time, we find a place to sit and call Road Scholars.  They said they would help with our travel, since they booked our return flights. Actually, though, Mike wasn't helpful at all and we figure that we'll get to Detroit and wing it from there.  Who knows?  Maybe Ian won't have been so bad and our airport might reopen sooner than everyone is saying?? 

Cool airport!

We check in and get our first two boarding passes and have a leisurely time through security, although Marilyn does have one of her gifts confiscated.  It's a lovely cheese knife and she hates to lose it. On to the gate to wait patiently to line up. As seems to be the usual case, eventually people just start lining up without any announcements or anything. The flight to Amsterdam is eleven hours and we've booked front row seats for the extra leg room. Sometimes it's just worth the extra money for the possibility of sleeping! The tray tables are hidden in the armrests and the screens pull up from the space between the sears and swivel into place. It takes both my seat mates and me to figure that one out! And, of course, all bags have to be stowed in an overhead compartment, since there isn't a seat in front of you.

For some reason I'm given the vegetarian meal?  No choices were offered.  The cake was okay.

Pancakes with no syrup or jelly.  At least there was a bit of butter.

There are two meals and continuous movies offered, but I think I actually catch a little nap!  Hurray!  I dip into titles before finding something to watch all the way through. I guess I'm getting too picky in my old age!  But I thoroughly enjoy the new Downton Abbey movie with all those lose ends tied up and I watched "Belfast" again because there aren't subtitles and I missed a lot when I watched it on a previous flight. And one day, when I'm awake and don't have plane noises in the background, I want to watch "The Duke" which looks marvelous! My helpful seat mates make sure that I get my things out of the overhead as quickly as possible since we only have a bit over an hour to make our connection to Detroit. The food was less than gourmet and the only drink was a glass of water with the first meal and a glass of orange juice with the breakfast.  Nothing was offered in between! Odd for a flight that long.  Maybe they thought everyone was sleeping??

The Amsterdam airport is the largest in Europe and the signage is a bit less than perfect.  We have to go through security and line is endless;  but an airport official lets us cut the line so it doesn't take quite so long.  Then there's the hike to our gate. We had considered trying to get on the non-stop to Atlanta, but our bags would have gone to Detroit and that wasn't good!!  Plus they might have charged us instead of just re-booking our last flight. We had thought it would be easy since we landed at E7 and had to go to E20.  Not so much! I speed walk and arrive as the plane is already boarding. It's okay, though.  They are taking a really long time to get people on this plane and, for a change, the airport wifi works so I can check in and learn that we might not be in as much trouble as we thought!  Ian has chosen a target further south than Tampa Bay and we're just getting wind and rain but no power outages!! WHEW!!!

The area surrounding Amsterdam

The ice cream was great!

Not a generous pour;  but not a great wine, so it balances out!

Asian chicken spring roll

But points for chocolate, moments before landing!

On board!  So close! And the irony is that we sit on the tarmac for an hour before we can take off. There is a crying baby who doesn't stop for a breath for most of the flight and the screens don't work for the first hour. After that, though, it is a marathon movie festival. Again, it takes a while to make a selection, but I watch "Death on the Nile", an old favorite, and "Harold and Maude" which I somehow missed seeing when it was all the rage!  What a delight! 

It doesn't matter how long it takes to deplane here.  We don't have a connecting flight. The GOES kiosk is even easier than the last time.  You don't even get a receipt!  They just take your picture and say Welcome to the United States!! Passport control is easy, too, though this is first time in a long time that I've been asked what I bought and how much I spent! Then we reclaimed our bags from the carousel, with a little help from a young man with long arms, and it's off to the Delta counter.

We see an office for border control and hope that we can at least get our GOES card interviews out of the way. And we could have, except the other office, where the interviews are held, is in the other terminal and it just closed anyway!

The lady finds us two seats on tomorrow's flight at 6:50 pm and that works because TIA might not open in the morning as scheduled.  This way we don't have to worry about that.  There is Westin here at the airport and, although it is pricey, we just don't have the strength or endurance to do anything else. There are two huge beds and a big bathroom and wifi and it's worth every penny.  We'll sleep until we wake up, whenever that is and hang out until our plane whisks us home, where Betsy and Barbara will be waiting!

We'll have time to play with our pictures and I plan to go back and add as many as I can to the days when we had nearly no wifi!  So people can go back and look for the entries that way WITH PHOTOS as the end of the title I think I only have the 14th through the 19th that need photos.  The rest, before and after should be good.  It's four in the morning here, but I'm already awake and will probably just shower and stay up.  It will be weeks before I'm back on Tampa time, if the past is any indication of the future! So Good Morning All!!