theDIBB - Beaching It With The Poole's Day 15 The End August 2016

My Little Traveller

We woke at 6.30am and today we had to leave this amazing villa and go home :(
I had a bagel for breakfast and basically just got on with gathering our stuff and finishing the packing. We had to leave by 10am but we had agreed we would leave as soon as we were ready.

Our flight was back on the Thomas Cook Hi Fly at 5.05pm, our drive was a 3 hour drive though and we had not pre booked seats so did not know what we would get or if we would sit together so really I was thinking the sooner we got the there the better. We had agreed we would eat at the airport and not detour somewhere else, especially with the bags being in the car.

In a moment of wonder, I don't have many! I decided to see if I could check in online. It didn't work on the way out which is why I hadn't given it much thought but do you know I managed it! I could see we were all in row 24, so I was happy we were altogether.

So we did have to squeeze and shove all the stuff in, and the weight was really tight but we got it all in and wrapped up and we were in the car by 9.14am.

I had a good look in every room before locking up the villa and I had my sentimental peaceful moment out by the pool saying goodbye. Thanks so much to Derek and Wendy for letting us stay in your beautiful home and we look forward to the same time next year :)

The drive was uneventful and a little boring when you are not full of adrenaline like we were on the way down. We put $15 of petrol in the car as we had paid for the full tank and I hoped this would be about right. I knew it was roughly 160 miles and we had half a tank now. We got on the I-75 and did a stop at the rest area where we got some snack out the back of the car and munched those on the way to the I-4.

We were soon on very familiar ground and took the photo above..Grace was glad she saw the Mickey ears because she had been asleep on the way down.

We arrived at the airport at 12.15pm 3 hours after we left and got someone to help with the luggage, we find this much easier. We had no issues with the car, and as I drove in to the airport the fuel light came on so I was happy with that :)

We were soon at the Thomas cook check in which did not open for 35 minutes but we were only about 4th in the queue so we stuck it out. I took a deep breath when they weighed the bags and they were all between 21 and 23 kg. we were all done and we were free now to find some food. I had done some googling the night before and had looked at the restaurant in the Hyatt. This is actually the high light of the day. It was quiet, great food and very relaxing to be away from the hustle and bustle and have good table service. If you have time and want to do something different I can definitely recommend this.

We had a flat bread for the table again which we thought Grace would eat most of it (she didn't like it!) and Grandad ordered a lentil dip to start. Then I, Daddy and Grandad all had burgers and nanny had a chicken sandwich. All really nice and a great server. We were out of there by about 2.20pm, so we went down to the food court to get some dessert and myself a Cinnabon ...this I had promised myself before we even went out.

Yum yum, it was completely delicious and very very filling, but I loved it :)

We then took some very essential photos.

We then went through security rather uneventfully apart from I who had to go in one of those scanner hints where you have to put your hands above your head! That was a new one on me!

We were going from gate 85 and thankfully the flight was on time. We got one last Starbucks and waited patiently until boarding began at about 4.30pm. It was really busy as a Virgin flight was also leaving at the same time. We beat them though, which did make me chuckle. We were due to arrive 15 minutes ahead of schedule at 6.10am. The flight was a good one. Nanny and Grandad had 3 seats to themselves and a family of 3 on Daddy's side moved due to the IFE not working, and I had an issue with mine so when they had moved Daddy moved over there so I did manage to get nearly 2 hours sleep over the 3 seats. Grace watched the IFE for a couple of hours then slept all the way home.

We landed at 6.08am it was a good flight and we were very happy with the Hi fly after all the negativity.
We were straight through passport control and had our bags within 50 minutes of landing, our longest wait was for the mini bus to get to the cars! Stanstead was fantastic and again, no complaints.

Were soon back in our cars and indoors by 8.30am, tired but happy to be back.
So we have tried to muddle through today and I am still awake :) we are all shattered but we will put Grace down at 7 and go up then ourselves for a catch up.

Thanks to all of you for staying with us on our trip, it was a great one and I will do some highs and lows and sort the index etc out in the week.

We have booked the same villa for the same time next year, so hopefully we will see you then.
Thanks again
Angela X