Celebrate Me Home

Monday we awoke to find our ship of fools back in the real world.  Bummer.  We had one last breakfast at the buffet and one last visit to the soft-serve ice cream machine.  Then before too long, our assigned Zone number was called and we were allowed off the boat.  As we trotted off the boat, Annette and I were told to go through a different door than all the people in front of us.  My heart stopped. And I'd done so well!  Now comes the weird security stuff, and poor Annette's been sucked into my personal hell now, too!

But no, the people in front of us had a butt-load of luggage with them, so they went to the elevators.  We only had a backpack (me) and a bag (Annette) so we got diverted to the escalator and/or stairs.  Whew!

We then had to pick up our luggage from the holding area.  This was the first of several reminders that for the past several days, we've had people doing everything for us.  And now we have to lug our own luggage!  Sigh.  We, with our luggage in tow and Customs forms in hand, got in line and slowly made our way to the Customs people.  I decided that some of the best words you can hear is when the Customs agent tells you, "Welcome home."  Just made me feel good.

We had arranged for the shuttle to take us to the airport, and the very comfy, air-conditioned bus was a welcome site.  At the airport, we gratefully paid a tip to the skycap people to take our luggage off our hands and check us in.  After hitting the ladies room, we were pleased to breeze thru TSA and we made a beeline straight to Starbucks!

We had a couple of hours before our flight left Tampa.  But ultimately made our way to Detroit where we anticipated a lovely three hour layover.  I will do anything to avoid the Atlanta airport!  Turns out we were pleased we did the Detroit thing, though, because we got to see the coolest tunnel thingee between terminals.  I took a video, but it's too big for me to upload.  You can find it on my Facebook page.

We got home to Evansville about 8:30 pm and Annette dropped me off at the 'do about 9:20.  I was so happy to be home.  And the kids were happy to see me.  Although instead of welcoming me home, Sophie just decided to plop her furry little butt on my suitcase in an attempt to stop me from leaving again.  Such a sweetie.  So glad to be home!