Day 21. Packing, Shopping, Flying Home :-(( - April 2016, Scottishnellies 2nd Live Florida Trip Rep

[scottishnellie]

I was up at 7am and as Kieran was up too, his bed was the first to be stripped. Kevin was up behind me so our bed was next. Got those all washed then woke Hannah to get up and start getting ready so I could strip her bed and get those in with the remaining towels etc.

Hannah took the time to write in the visitor book for Joanne's Dream Villa. We have loved our stay here and would thoroughly recommend it to anyone. I will be making sure I write a nice review for her on the dibb too

I had done online checkin yesterday and had our boarding passes on our phones, so we just needed to return the car and bag drop by 3:30pm. So we worked out we could pass a few hours doing some shopping and aim to leave Florida Mall at 2:15, as its only 12 minutes from the airport.

Packing the remaining suitcases was fine and in fact we ended up under our weight allowance (bet you didn't see that coming!). Not because we hadn't bought much, because we have. I think it was because we took far less with us this year. We had to vacate the villa by 11am but in fact were ready and out at 10:30. Once the other 3 were in the car waiting, I walked round doing a final check and saying goodbye to the villa (tell me I am not the only one who does this!) before locking up and putting the key back in the lockbox.

We headed to Vineland first for a couple of last minute bits n pieces. Kieran and I both got new converse

We were off to The Florida Mall next but stopped on the way at a Wendy's for lunch. When I went to the counter and asked for the chicken meal combos they asked what size of drink, so I automatically said large. Big mistake. HUGE mistake. These things were buckets. I said to the kids if we kept them we could've made a decent sandcastle on our next holiday with them. When we looked around even the Americans had gone for the size down! Food was all tasty enough and Hannah loved the fries as they were already doused in salt and she loves everything salty.

Well fed we were onto the Florida Mall and google maps took us to the car park right at JC Penney. We headed to the Sephora inside here. I had brought my Make Up Forever HD foundation back with the receipt as it had started to leak around the pump. I think it may have been my fault as I left it in the car one day in 94 degree heat and when I got it out it was leaking, but I knew Sephora had a good returns policy and didn't want to take it home like that. Explained to the girl who's was great about it saying she would get me a replacement. I then asked if she would mind colour matching me again as I felt my face was quite a bit darker than when I had bought it the weeks before. She did and I came out a darker, less peachy shade. She showed them both on my jawline and I went for the new colour as it looked perfect. New foundation in hand off we went. Kieran bought another Lego Star Wars thing (I think he must own every one ever made now) and Hannah and I headed for Bath & Body Works again. I wanted to pick up some of the car vents and scents that POOLIEJOOLIE had pointed me in the direction of, and Hannah wanted to get her friends some sets as gifts.

No photos of these unfortunately as we are now home and the car vents are in the cars and the gifts have been given out. I got a nice sparkly one for my wee corsa, and a plain old black one for our family car as its mainly Kevin that drives that. I even put Mahogany Teak in that so the scent is not too girly for Kevin!

We left Florida Mall at 2:15 as planned after packing all the new bits n pieces into the cases. Drive to the airport, followed the very simple signs back to car rental return and into the Budget area. Dropped the car back, he scanned the window bar code and gave us our receipt. Cases out and into the airport. Dropped the bags at the TC desk where it was quite quiet and we only waited 5 minutes to get to the desk.

When we went up towards the gate I wanted to stop and get some food for on the plane. Megandllsmum had warned me the food on the flight home a couple of days before had been rubbish so to take supplies. I just got a chicken and bacon wrap and a tuna sandwich from one of the shops as a back up. The kids already had various snacks and sweets in their bags. We got water and Pringles from another shop and we were done so headed to the gate to wait. We started boarding at the time we should've taken off so left half an hour late in the end.

We upgraded the films again as I can never sleep on the plane and didn't think the others would either. Last year there were only 37 people on our flight and after take off we were all able to stretch out across 4 seats each and sleep if we chose to. This year there were 177 and in fact the plane looked pretty full so we stayed in our allocated seats.

I watched The Revenant and The Intern. Kevin and Kieran watched Night at The Museum 3 and Toy Story 3. Hannah watched all sorts of trashy telly but I can't remember what.

When the food was served Kieran was really happy with his chicken nuggets and veg, but the chicken for the adults was nothing to write home about. We did still eat (most) of it but more through passing the time than enjoying the food. Hannah ate the tuna sandwich later.

Kieran fell asleep not long after his dinner, then woke an hour or so later complaining of a sore tummy. This went on for a while then he fell asleep again. 50mins to landing he woke again and was green. We got the sick bags ready and sure enough, he started. Well we had all the folk around us supplying their sick bags, baby wipes etc, folk were so nice. Poor Kieran bless him. He felt much better once that was over and his colour just changed back to normal. He has never been sick on a flight before. Whether it was the food, falling asleep sitting up so soon after eating, or just the long day I don't know. But he has been fine since.

We landed on time at Glasgow having made up that half hour and didn't take long to get our cases. Out into the taxi queue and were home within 5 minutes. We are so close to the airport that even an airport taxi only costs us £11.

My lovely mum had been in and cranked the heating up in the house for us so it was lovely and cosy. I fell into bed, Kevin and the kids had toast n tea (courtesy of mum also leaving fresh bread and milk) then the kids went to bed and Kevin stayed up. I had asked Kevin to wake me at 10am so I didn't sleep too long but it was torture trying to get up. Then it was even worse trying to wake the kids!

So started a bit of a jetlag nightmare.

And there we have it. That's our fabulous holiday all done and dusted.

Thank you so much to those of you who have kept up with us along this past 3 weeks, and thanks for all the comments and chat after each day's report. It really does make it worthwhile writing it. I'm so chuffed when anyone says they've picked up a tip or learnt something from it. I will go back through the days and check the comments as I know I haven't managed to reply to them all as we went along. Some days I just didn't have time to do the new days TR and answer the personal messages I was sent, as well as check back the previous day's comments so I apologise if anyone commented or asked something and thought I was ignoring them. I will make sure I answer everything now!

We haven't decided what we are doing next year yet so not sure when we will be back to Florida. But I promise if we do, there will be a live TR to go with it!

Thanks all

Helen xx