Vacation ~ Day 1

A long day for sure ~ but no issues.

We were up at 3:30a and Brandon was chauffeuring us to Tampa International Airport at 4:15a. No traffic, a beautiful moon and good conversation between the three of us.

I had done the online check-in for us, paid for two bags ~ sure do miss the 1st bag free 😊but had a problem printing out our baggage tags…couldn’t figure it out ~ this Grammy is not the best with new technology ~ and so we headed to the Alaska Airlines Customer Assistance. They had no problems, we used our new Passports for the first time, got our boarding passes and headed to the gate.

TSA check-in was pretty smooth until they got to my backpack and my two bottles of juice…I was asked why I had 8oz plastic bottles of orange/pineapple juice because everyone knows you can only take 3oz per bottle. I explained I was diabetic and needed it in case of low blood sugars. No problem, they put them in some contraption, and it didn’t show anything that wasn’t supposed to be so I was given the all clear.

We were in the 2nd group to board as our seats were fairly close to the front…got all settled in. We took off just past 7:30a.

Our flight was pretty smooth with just a bit of turbulence. Ron and I both napped off and on, chatted a bit with our seatmate, a retired forensic detective from Marysville and just relaxed. Our flight landed on time but getting our luggage was a bit crazy…go down one escalator then up an elevator then ride the shuttle to the baggage claim area. Found our suitcases with no problems and then made a hike to the rental car company shuttle. The ride lasted about 15 minutes. We both commented there is just too much traffic in Seattle for our liking.

We quickly got our rental car. It was supposed to be a Rav 4 but turned out to be a Subura Forester. It wasn’t exactly what we wanted, but it works for us. Another new learning curve. We were handed a key fob, took us a bit to figure out how to unlock the car and then to start it…where do you put the dang key?? In the console and push a button. Everyone knows it rains in Seattle and this afternoon it rained between Everett and Marysville – who knew turning on windshield wipers could be so complicated? But we prevailed and the wipers started working.

By now it was almost 1:00 (local time 4:00 Florida time) and we were starving. We saw the Denny’s sign at 186th and the memories began flowing of the many times Ron has stopped there over the years when he was working for Best Pipe & Steel and it was one of our stops since returning to Washington in 1979. It was pretty much the same except for the prices…but the food was good and we were refreshed and continued on the trip up to Blaine.

We arrived at Kathy & Judy’s just after 4p (7p Florida time), unloaded the car and then settled in for a good visit. Judy treated us to pizza for dinner.

Now, Ron, Judy and Kathy are watching basketball. I balanced the checkbook (need to make sure we have enough $$ for our trip) and then decided to spend some time with y’all.

Now it’s time to call it a night, take a shower and settle in for a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow we are going to Northwood Community Church (used to be Northwood Alliance) ~ we are looking forward to meeting the new pastor, Todd Gallahar and seeing old faces and getting some great hugs!!!

The rest of our week is slowly filling up with visits with friends and family. If you are reading this and in the Whatcom County area and want to get/give a hug send me a text or leave a message here.

Time for this tired Grammy to call it a night!!!

And if you are curious – this is how I left my desk on Friday afternoon ~ wonder what it will look like in 2 1/2 weeks?

And I headed out…