We set our alarm for 6:30, so we had enough time to get ready, take the rental car back and be shuttled to the airport. I didn't actually get out of bed until 7:00. I got ready, put clothes on and we started putting the stuff we didn't need into our suitcases. I wasn't ready for our vacation to end.
We left the stuff in our hotel room and went out to the lobby to see what kind of a free continental breakfast they had available for their guests. I was not really impressed on what they had but at least it was something to eat so we didn't have to go spend more money on something else. Mom had biscuits and gravy and I had a plain biscuit, eggs with cheese and some apple juice. We threw our stuff away when we were done and headed back to our room to finish up before it was time to head back to the rental car return and then the airport.
We made a couple sweeps of the hotel room and then took the luggage and bags out to the rental car. My suitcase was dangerously heavy. I was really worried about it. Mom went to go check us out and return our room keys. I picked her up in front of the lobby when I was done and then decided to fill up the rental car at the QT gas station just down the street about a block. It was Mom's turn to purchase gas. I was happy that with all the driving we did, we only had to get gas four times.
We set the GPS to the Sky Harbor Airport and followed the signs to the rental car return. It didn't take us very long and there was minimal traffic to fight with. We followed those signs for the Thrifty car rental, and it just kept going and going and going. I didn't think we were actually going to get there. We did after a million signs. We parked where we were supposed to, grabbed all of our belongings, unplugged the GPS, made sure we didn't drop anything under the seats or on the floor and set our stuff aside. The attendant told me to leave the keys in the rental car, I handed him my slip and he handed me a new slip to take with me as my receipt.
I asked Mom how many miles she think we drove on this trip. She guessed like 1100 and I guessed 1350. I looked at the slip and we drove that poor white VW Jetta 1500 miles! That is our record so far. We grabbed our stuff and walked to the Sky Train, to take us to Terminal 4. It was a fun "train" ride to the airport.
We got off the train and took the elevator to the ticketing area, checked in, printed off boarding passes and luggage tags (I always have to put Mom's on for her because she can't read the directions on how to do it) and got in line to weigh our luggage. Haha, mine was 7lbs overweight which was going to be a $75 fee. We had to add some of mine to Mom's luggage to even them out. Once they were under 50 lbs. each, she took them, checked our passports and boarding passes and off to security we went!
I didn't realize I hadn't dumped out my water in my ThermoFlask and I missed the place where you dump out your water, so I tried chugging it and almost choked. The lady asked if I was okay and pointed to the place where you would dump out water. They are usually before you get into the security line and not after, so that is why I didn't see it before we got in line. Oh well. They had you take off your shoes, sweatshirt and I took my laptop out of my bag and put them in the bins. I stepped into the x-ray machine, and I was good to go. I grabbed my stuff, put everything back on and waited for Mom. Her bag was searched further because of her candy stash, lol. It looked weird on the bag scanner. She eventually got her stuff gathered and we headed to our gate, D8 and sat for a little bit.
We were there super early so Mom watched some of her shows on her phone and I worked on the dreaded inventory that was due in about a week. We had to document everything worth money in Grammie and Grandpa's house for the lawyer. It was going to be very tedious because Grammie and Grandpa had a lot of stuff and barely got rid of anything. Our flight didn't leave until 12:15 p.m.
I got up to use the restroom and to get a couple of drinks and a crunchy snack to pass the time. I did the five waypoint Adventure Lab, Welcome to Arizona, when I came back to the gate with drinks and my BBQ chips. Mom had checked us in too late the day before, so we were in group C. I worried that we wouldn't have seats together and no storage in the overhead compartments. We sat and people watched before it was almost time for us to board.
They called group C, we got in line and made sure we had our boarding passes visible. We scanned our boarding passes and made our way down the bridge and into the plane. We looked to see if there were two seats together and we were lucky. There were still quite a few of them available. I found one with a window and a middle seat and popped down next to a guy wearing a Boston Red Sox hat...he stayed to himself most of the trip home watching movies. Mom threw her extra bag in the overhead compartment, sat down, buckled up and made ourselves comfortable. We were hoping we didn't have a smelly person or a baby near us.
Most of the flight Mom rested her eyes and I wrote in my journal and watched live TV on my phone when the Wi-Fi connection didn't suck. I watched the Penguins play the Bruins but didn't get to finish it because we got to Seattle before it was over. We are not used to these really short flights since the last four or five have been over 6 hours or in other countries.
I could see familiar landmarks as we approached SeaTac, on time. It was raining and I was bummed out after being somewhere sunny and sunny for the past week, however, I was glad to be home so I could sleep in my own bed and bother Ben, hahaha!
We landed, our plane found its appropriate bridge and we had to sit for a bit since we were close to the back and had to wait for everyone to get off in front of us. I let Ben know we were almost off the plane but had to go get our luggage and use the restroom. He told us to let him know when we were done. Our luggage was readily accessible when we got off the plane and used the restroom. I was glad we didn't have to wait a long time for it or to find out they lost it like what happened to Doug last year.
We stood outside the arrivals and waited for Ben and my Escape to find us. He pulled up, parked and helped us throw our luggage into the back. We got in the car, and he made fun of my sun burn as we made our way towards I-5 south. The rain was so depressing! We told Ben some of our stories as we drove home. I was getting hungry and asked if we could get some food before we went home, and Ben said sure since there weren't any dinner plans.
We drove to Jersey Mike's near our house, and picked up some subs. We went to Walmart to get a few things as well. Mom brought home a sub for Dad and a couple other things she knew wouldn't be at home. She didn't want to go anywhere the next day and I didn't blame her! We went back to the house, helped Mom get her luggage (grabbed my stuff out of it) and bags into her Expedition and off towards home she went. I told her to text me when she got home.
Ben helped me bring in my luggage and I started unpacking everything and separating everything. I told Ben I brought him back beer to try. I had a giant laundry pile to do. I got in a shower, did a couple loads of laundry, petted the cats and I took down the St. Patrick's Day decorations since wasn't March any longer. The next couple weeks were going to be busy, and I was not ready for them at all. It was so nice to be on vacation and not have to do daily home or work things. I am not sure where we are going next, but I hope we have this continuous nice weather streak we have going while we are on vacation.
Some notes on the day:
We walked 5,000 steps and flew almost 2,000 miles.
We drove the rental car 1500 miles which beats all of our previous rental car totals.
I found five Adventure Lab waypoints, which translates to five geocaches.
I grabbed six new counties and one more Jasmer cache. I have three more to finish my Jasmer grid.
I found 67 caches and of those 67, 24 were Adventure Labs.
Next Adventure: The Friends Experience: The One in Seattle
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