As it was our last night we decided to get a take away rather than cooking ourselves or going out. It was nearly 9pm when the boys went to the local fish and chip shop. They were gone for ages because the food was cooked freshly for us. I stayed at home to finish the packing (things kept popping out of thin air!) and to give the place a superficial clean.
Here's a photo of fish and chips American style:
I set the alarm for 7am this morning. Even though I'd been getting up before this during the holiday, it was a real struggle this morning. We had to be out of the villa by 10am when the cleaners were due, otherwise we'd be charged for another night's accommodation. Our original plan was to shower and go, return the key to the HotelBeds office and find a restaurant for a buffet breakfast. However, as Harrison still had three packets of Pop Tarts left and we had a reasonable amount of milk, we decided to use these bits up and then find somewhere for a buffet lunch instead.
Cookie flavoured Pop Tarts
Three hours until we had to be on the road was plenty of time to do a last load of washing and tumble and air dry it. It's bad enough unpacking the suitcases when we get home but doing mountains of washing too is not a pleasant welcome home present!
Goodbye 329 Lancaster Drive and thank you for having us. See you again soon :-)
Sounds as though we were in a very long road but this wasn't the case. House numbers are a bit random here - all three digits but not a lot of sequencing. It's as though you can pick a number; any number! For example, the numbering system in our road for adjacent properties .... 217, 227, 237, 247, 257, 319, 329, 339 etc.
By leaving today we'll miss out on the 4th July celebrations. The adverts on the television are all about the special discounts on large purchases, such as household appliances and cars, that are available this weekend. There are also many outlets for buying fireworks, my favourite being 'Phantom Fireworks'! Wonder if they actually work? I'll never know!
Having handed the key back - that was all we needed to do, there was nothing for us to sign nor for the agent to complete - we started our amble back towards the airport. We didn't need to be at the airport until about 4:30pm, it was only an hour's drive so we needed to fill our time with something. As we were in no hurry, we decided to take the back roads for a 'scenic' tour through the suburbs. We travelled through some dodgy, ramshackle areas but also some very nice ones.
One area that particularly stood out for us was Nona. It consisted of lovely gated developments with good sized, well kept homes and grounds. There was plenty of building going on too. If you wanted to purchase a large, brand new detached house the prices started from $300,000 which is equivalent to £176,000! We were struck by how well thought out the area was. As we continued north towards the airport we passed a huge new elementary school. Next door to it was the new middle school, equally as big. Next to that was the new high school which was even bigger and finally a college campus building. Basically you enter the school system at one end of the road and finish at the other! I also saw a small, single storey office style complex which consisted of a daycare, kindergarten, paediatric dentist and a paediatric doctors office. How handy!
What do you think about this drive through pharmacy that I saw?!
Only three hours to go before we need to be at the airport and I'm pleased report that we only ate in McDonald's once during this holiday and that was because it was the only place we could initially find somewhere to park at Clearwater Beach. We may have popped into Wendy's three times (including lunchtime today) though....! So much for our lunchtime buffet. With the plane not leaving until 8:05pm I didn't want to have to find another meal at the airport. Unfortunately, Harrison discovered Wendy's 'Son of Baconator' burger and would have eaten one every day, if we'd have let him.
We continued on the back road mystery tour and found ourselves at Florida Mall. No idea how that happened considering that we couldn't find it with directions the first time! Spot of last minute shopping and we decided to head straight for the airport on the toll road. It was $1 and I managed to scrape together exactly that amount in cents, five cents and dimes. Saved bringing them home with us :-) Thankfully there was a very friendly woman at the toll booth who just waved us through with a smile! Little did we know, there was another toll due in about half a mile. We had to pay another $1.25 which left us with $5.50 cash. Not enough for an airport trolley.
Finding the Alamo car return was very straightforward as was checking it in - they used a handheld bar code reader that brought up our reservation details and that was it! We started looking around for a trolley park but it wasn't necessary as a man offered us his flatbed trolley. I asked him how we paid and he said by tipping. When I told him that we only had $5 his colleague said that was fine and that they'd transport our luggage for free. He didn't have far to take us because the British Airways check in desk was just through the airport entrance. We were a few minutes late for boarding the 5:35pm flight and about four hours early for our own. Had there been one more meal available on the earlier flight, they could have rushed us through and squeezed us on. The extra time hanging around Orlando airport isn't so bad though because apparently our flight is quite empty so we've been given seats with space between them.
Waiting to go
Departure area.
The time passed quite quickly and we were boarded first.
I was looking forward to this 'empty' flight and we settled into our seats. Everyone else soon joined us and the plane started filling up. Not sure that I'd class this as empty. There were some empty seats but not very many. Harrison and I were seated in the central section of three seats but there didn't seem to be anywhere to connect his oxygen. It looked as though he would have to swap with Bernard who was seated across the aisle. Directly in front of him were a couple who both had streaming colds and were coughing and spluttering very loudly. The last thing we needed was to knowingly expose Harrison to them. Unfortunately, it's not something that's considered at check in! Bernard had a quiet word with one of the flight attendants to see if we could all be moved. She took Harrison's oxygen tubing and plugged it in (first time!) to an outlet nearer the front. She'd managed to locate one more empty row of seats although it was immediately behind where the families with babies in sky cots sit. We moved forward apprehensively because the family in front of us were directly behind us on the way over and their toddler was a pain! She had nothing to entertain her so kept complaining loudly! Hopefully, as this was a night flight, we wouldn't hear much from her! As far as I was concerned, my new seat was the best in cattle class. Even though we were in the second row, there wasn't a seat in front of me, so I could stretch my legs right out. Harrison was happy because he had a window seat again, so could give me a constant weather update regarding the lightening. Bernard had the whole centre section of three seats to himself. Toddler girl was much better on this flight. Even when she was awake she was very good and had fun playing with empty miniature gin bottles! We'd left all of our hand luggage in the overhead lockers above our original seats. I went back to get Harrison's medication to find that our seats were now occupied by two horizontal bodies. Good job we didn't want those seats back!
Our choice of evening meal was chicken tikka or spinach lasagne. No choice for me and Harrison as we don't like Indian food. We love spinach lasagne though!
The holiday must have really helped Bernard and I to relax because we both decided to have wine with our meals.
The rest of the journey was uneventful. I watched 'The Two Faces of January'; Harrison watched the Lego Movie and I'm not sure what Bernard watched.
Harrison settled down to sleep when his film finished but he didn't want to close his blind because he needed to know when it was time to wake up for breakfast! His flights always revolve around the meals. Breakfast was a huge disappointment for him. Actually, I don't think many people were very impressed. It was beautifully presented in a box....
....and this was the best bit about it! Inside was a small croissant and portion of jam, a chewy granola bar and a packet of dried cranberries. Most people ate the croissant and a few ate the granola bar. Toddler girl attempted the cranberries - put them in her mouth individually, chewed each one then took it out again and handed it to her mum! Kept them both busy for a few minutes!
We landed about 9:15am local time and had to wait for the plane to empty before we could retrieve our hand luggage. This worked significantly to our advantage because the crew decided to call for special assistance for us. By the time it arrived, the gate was deserted although we joined them in the immigration hall, but not for long. Our driver transported us past everybody in the queue and handed our passports to an immigration officer. Within a couple of minutes we were through and first into the baggage reclaim area. Arriving first at check-in in Orlando meant that our bags were last onto the conveyor belt here. Even so, from landing at Gatwick we were in a taxi and on our way home within an hour.
Harrison said that he had a fantastic time and was very happy that he was able to make it. His favourite bit was Kennedy Space Center and he's going back next year!
No comments:
Post a Comment