The Adventure Ends

I awoke this morning to the gentle swaying of the ship. It was so relaxing I did not want to open my eyes. Why hadn't my wake up call come? Reluctantly, I peeled back my eye lids to grab for my watch. 6:10. The wake up call was scheduled for 6:30.

Should I rise and shower? Or should I lay in bed for a few, last, relaxing moments? I decided to bite the bullet rather than delay the inevitable. Reluctantly pulling back the heavy covers, I swung my legs off the side of my bed. I gazed sadly out my window at the approaching Miami coastline for a few lingering moments, then headed for the bathroom. Nature called. Time for my day to begin.

Going home after a cruise is always sad, but this was the first time I left warm, Florida winter weather to return to cold, Wisconsin winter weather. I need to move back to Texas...or maybe Mexico? No, I have trouble learning Spanish. An island in the Caribbean might be nice. Most of those seem to be pretty much English-speaking. Which island should I choose? Maybe I should worry about that later.

Eric (brother), Amy (sister in-law), Anne (daughter) and I debarked the ship together. Pulling our bags off the carousel, I saw that the duct tape on my duffel bag had not held. In fact, the rip in it was even longer. I would say it was roughly two and a half feet long now and I felt very worried that my things would fall out of it.

Thank goodness my brother was with me! He knew just what to do to fix the problem of my luggage. On our way to the airport, Eric stopped at a Walgreens to pick up a roll of duct tape. -- He originally handed me a roll of the gray stuff, but Walgreens had several different colors from which to choose and, as I was buying the tape for myself rather than a man, I chose bright pink.

Airport note 1: Airports should play cruise ship deck music in their lobbies to keep returning vacationers in a brighter, more relaxed mood.

Airport note 2: Airport lines are very long on the day a cruise debarks. Airplanes are also very full. When going home after a cruise, it might be a good idea to spend one night at your debarkation port.

Airport note 3: Men are usually pretty friendly. I like it.

Amy checking email

As Amy used her cell phone to get back to work right away, checking email, and Anne read, Eric and I watched passengers and looked out the airport window at palm trees and green leaves. There was no mistaking my bag through the as we watched luggage being wheeled to the plane's cargo bay. A dark blue bag with a foot and a half of bright pink tape around and around it my dark blue bag to keep the contents from spilling out. (This is definitely my suitcase's last run.)


Back home, subfreezing temperatures greeted us as we dashed with our luggage between the airport and our personal chauffeurs' truck. Amy's parents were there in perfect time to pick us up. Ah, it is good to live near family.
 
When Anne and I pulled up to the house, she pointed to the door. It was ajar. That is not good. I know I locked and closed that door before we left the house. I pushed the button to open the garage bay. Garbage was pulled out of the garbage cans and strewn all about. It looks like an animal was rooting through it. But how would an animal turn the doorknob, much less unlock it? 
 
Getting out of the car, I investigated. The handle was unlocked. Did I unlock the door rather than locking it before I left? Maybe. Anne did not pay attention to me when I suggested we call the police before entering the house. She paused, but she just walked right into the house. I followed, figuring that if someone was in the house, we would be safer in numbers. And detemining that I would pull out my cell phone to call the police at the first sign of an intruder.
 
Fortunately, nobody was in the house and it looked like nobody had been in the house. I guess our intruder really was just an animal, after all. I guess I have a mess to pick up in the morning. For now, though, I think some hot tea and television would be nice.
 
And so the family cruise adventure comes to its conclusion.