Our last morning, I was greeted by clouds and a light rain shower. I still sat outside determined to soak up as much of Florida loveliness as possible. One of my best memories of any trips here is the time we have sitting by the pool.
I sat there still amused by the frog incident from the previous night when we had got back to the villa. As I walked up to unlock the front door Neil was standing there saying ‘Watch out for the frog’. Halfway up the door a luminous green small frog was resting. I told Neil not to lick it, but he was convinced that it was waiting there so that it could jump into the villa and presumably poison us in the night. He found himself a stick and knocked it to the ground. It then made some enormous leaps frantically in all directions until it landed upon Karen’s bare leg. She screamed so Neil knocked it off her at which point it jumped and landed on the door again. I was just laughing at their antics at which they both got cross with me. Neil moved it away again with his stick at which point we went inside. Karen was insistent on locking the door straight away as if the frog was intelligent enough to let himself in if it was left unlocked.
By the time I had eaten my porridge all the clouds had cleared, and we had wall to wall deep blue skies to enjoy for our last morning. After an early lunch the packing up started in earnest. Somehow, we managed to squeeze everything into our cases although we have had an extra full bag compared to when we had left home.
After checking we hadn’t left anything behind, we set up to the airport via filling up with petrol. Dropping the car off was straight forward as was check in. Karen and I were TSA Pre approved so had a much shorter security queue than Neil but he soon re-joined us.
We used our cards to get into The Club Lounge which was not great. At least it was a quiet palce to wait with free but limited food and drink.
Our flight was late boarding. Karen & I were in Premium this time and had the middle and aisle seats in the middle section. The flight was delayed further in taking off because in our cabin we had what can only be described as a very big fat man who even after being provided with seat belt extenders could not get his seat belt to do up. I think the cabin manager in the end had to use 2 extenders clipped together to go all around him.
The flight was smooth, and the food was Ok’ish. Karen & I both watch ‘Sing Sing’ which was an interesting film. Then I tried to sleep which I managed intermittently.
Landing at Heathrow we had to wait a while for Neil’s case to arrive on the carousel before we headed to meet Sunny who delivered our car back to us. The drive home was fine although by the time we got to Wymondham I was seriously starting to flag.
We got home to lawns that had grown rapidly due to the Feed & Weed I have put on before leaving and 16 mole hills in the back garden. I hate moles with a vengeance. Another problem for my to do list.
And so that was it for our trips in 2024. It had been another amazing year with trips to New Zealand, Iceland, Lanzarote, Lincoln, Kent, Yorkshire, Alaska and now Florida. Can we top that in 2025 – well we will have a good try.
We go on these trips to have a good time, explore the world, and spend time with people who we enjoy being with. Blogs are a way of recording them. I don’t ever want the blogs to take over or get in the way of the trips themselves. I am very grateful for the messages of support and encouragement I receive about them. Christmas and 2025 here we come.
