It's Thursday, January 10, and there is a lot of snow out there. Thankfully spring is around the corner (in my world) There is just two days left of the vacation.
Florida Vacation
Day 6, Wednesday, January 2nd
Today we had the opportunity to sleep in agian. We were under a bit of time restraints as we had to check out of our room by ten. While Bill went for his run, the kids and I cleaned up and packed up. To help speed things along, I headed to the lobby to use the hotel computer so I could check in and book our airline seats and print the boarding passes. Everyone else stayed back to load the car. I guess other guests in the hotel had the same idea. I was third in line and unfortunately the gentleman in front of me wasn't very computer savvy and he was taking a long time. Luckily, the hotel wifi was working (although very slow) and I was able to check into Westjet. So with our compact car once more loaded to the brim, we headed to our last attraction, Sea World. The forecast said it was going to be another warm day, and once again it was quite accurate (maybe we need the same forecasters in Calgary). The drive and parking was pretty quick. When we entered the park, the Manta ride is the first thing we came upon. Bill and Patrick decided to keep their streak going and headed for the 45 minute wait line for the ride. Ashley was fending off a headache, and I, well, just do not do roller coasters. Ashley and I wandered around until the guesstimated time was done. When the guys were done, we made our way to the killer whale show "Shamu", which was on the far side of the park. We opted for a seat in the splash zone, but near the top section. We were fairly early, so we had prime seats. Thankfully, we were high enough that no whale water reached us during the show.
It was after lunch time, and Patrick had requested his last meal (his words) be a buffett. There just happen to be a buffett place on the grounds (not a very good one as it turns out). A quick bite of lunch and we roamed around the rest of the park. The trek took us to feeding the sharks, feeding the rays, observing some sharks, and observing some rays. Ashley loved feeding the rays the best. Of course there were two more rides that had to be tackled. Journey to Atlantis was another water ride. I sent the other three on it while I watched our bags. I had hoped to spray some extra water one them, but the machine I was at turned out to be broken. I should have practiced on it long before they came screaming down the track. The last ride ws another roller coaster ride called the Kraken. It was ironic because the actual ride was supposed to take 3 1/2 minutes and the line up for this ride was only two minutes long. It was now getting close to 5:00 p.m., the time we figured we should head off to the rental car place. We changed and repacked the suitcases in the parking lot. Some of us wanted dry clothes to put on, and some of us knew we would be hitting cold weather in Winnipeg. We filled up with gas at a nearby 7-11. It was a pleasant surprise to see that we only used 1/2 a tank of gas, and an unexpected surprise to see we had no gas cap lid or lock on the car.
The shuttle took us to the airport; we checked the bags and headed to security, where; surprise there was a sign that said the line would take 15 minutes. (only in Florida). A new line opened up, and we were ushered to the new attendant (she prechecks your tickets and passports). She didn't seem very happy, so I tried to make small talk with her and joke with her - not a good idea. She just ignored me and continued to curse under her breath about her job. We got to the security machines, and this time, there was no choice about a full body scan or pat down, you just got the full body scan. Before we new it, we were at our gate. Less than a couple of hours and we were on our way to Winnipeg. Yup, thats where we were making our connection (Bill's not allowed to do the vacation planning anymore - says Ashley). The flight was fairly empty, so I made a seat change and had a couple of seats to myself.
We arrived in Winnipeg just before midnight. One good thing about this flight, customs goes really fast that late at night. There were no line ups. I think the customs agent was trying to be funny - when we told him where we were, he looked at the kids and said they looked too old to want to be doing Disneyland. Then he looked at us, and said we must be the ones who wanted to do Disney. hahaha - I didn't get the humor until 15 minutes later - must be from the sleep delay. There were drug sniffing dogs out in full force and Patrick actually got questioned by a customs "security" guy as he was waiting for the luggage. We were standing off to the side and Patrick was waiting to get the bags. Poor Patrick would look over at us as he was talking, and we pretty much just watched. I think he was looking for acknowledgement that he belonged to us. Oops.
So now we grab our bags, and head upstairs to departures and find a good group of seats that look comfy as beds. Our flight to Calgary doesn't leave until 6:00 a.m. in the morning. Will finish the saga then.
Night
Stacey
No comments:
Post a Comment