It’s always a little sad and a bit of a relief to be on the last day of a vacation. On the one hand, getting back to the real world is not fun. Work, transporting kids, deadlines, cooking, cleaning, shopping, etc. On the other hand, Ellie and Georgia were at home, as will my bed and my pillow, a kitchen where I can make real food without having to rely on servers, and all my stuff that I didn’t bring. Like my normal face products — I miss those.
I set an alarm for 8 am, but I woke up closer to 5 am. I checked mail & news but then got sleepy and crawled back into bed. I woke up again around 7:30. Madeline was still sleeping, but Andrew was not in the room. My hair was insanely crazy, so I washed my face and then tried to tame my hair. It was not easy, with eleven days of hard water, chlorine, salt water, and sweat. Obviously, I had washed my hair many times along the way, but that stuff lingers. I woke Madeline a little after 8 am so she could get ready and pack. Andrew returned not long after I texted him that we were up.
Packing went relatively smoothly, although unfortunately we left behind a lot of the groceries I had bought in Orlando. I’ll know better next time. On the way to Florida, I had put all of Madeline’s costumes in a carry on. Going home, all the costumes were in the Dream Duffel with the rest of the dance supplies, so I used the carry on for all of our dirty clothes. That gave each of us a little extra room in our suitcases, which was nice. I packed some of the food, but nothing that would make a mess, like pudding.
When we were all packed I called guest services to request someone come help us with our luggage, and they were there in no time. They took about nine bags while Andrew, Madeline and I went down to breakfast at the Sunrise Cafe, the place we’d eaten breakfast on our first morning on Amelia Island. When we finished, Andrew went to get the car, and Madeline and I went to the main entrance to make sure our luggage was there. We loaded up and started out on the three-hour drive back to the Orlando airport.
It was a relief that traffic was much lighter on Independence Day than it had been on Saturday driving to Amelia Island. We did reach one spot outside of Jacksonville where we were completely stopped, but it turned out that it was simply because there were lines of traffic in both directions trying to turn into what looked like a park, maybe a state park. I’m guessing there was something going on for the holiday. Andrew again did a great job negotiating traffic, and soon we were pulling into the rental return garage at the airport.
It was a bit of a hike to the Southwest terminal with all of our luggage. Madeline had a suitcase, I had a suitcase and a toiletries bag, Andrew had a suitcase, there was the carry on (which we checked) with the dirty laundry (cue the Don Henley music), and the Dream Duffel. Checking our bags went very quickly, and soon we were heading toward security much less encumbered, with just one carry-on each. TSA pre-check was quick, as was the shuttle to the terminal. It was about 2:15 at that point, and we hadn’t had lunch yet, so we went to a sit-down restaurant at the terminal that we’d eaten at before. The Nashville chicken wasn’t spicy in the least, but other than that things were pretty good.
We arrived at the gate around 3:00, with the plane on its way from Milwaukee on time. We were all very tired and ready to be home! The last day is the hardest day. The flight boarded a few minutes early, and the crew came on asking everyone to please find a seat quickly because there were storms moving in and they didn’t want the runway to close. Believe it or not, people did get settled quickly. I was relieved when we pulled away from the gate, and even more so when we were wheels up. The flight home was uneventful, we got our luggage in good time, and the drive home went quickly.
It was great to be home, but there was so much laundry to be done!
(I started typing this at the Orlando airport and realized I didn’t have any pictures, so the picture at the top of this post is of the carpet at terminal 125. Seems fitting enough for a travel day.)
Great trip report of all of your adventures! Appreciate your attention to detail, felt like I was along for all of the fun! Being the mom of 3 boys, never experienced the dance process but have 1 granddaughter who is involved & I am always amazed at all that goes into the process. Congratulations to Madeline & her fellow dancers who performed so well at Nationals!
Thanks, Charline! Good to hear from you!