It was our last day on the island; at 3:00 p.m., we had to fly home.  Since we had a few hours yet to ourselves, we knew exactly how to spend that time: "one more and we'll all go!"

At breakfast, we talked about how we should spend our last few hours of freedom.  We could go for another walk, but we had already covered most of the island in just three days.  We could go shopping, but we had already bought souvenirs for everyone and ourselves.  Then, John suggested that we go sailing again.  "Sure," I said, "but this time, let's not send everything flying overboard again!"

We changed into our swimwear then went down to the shop to purchase yet another waterproof camera, as well as beverages, to take with us on the boat.  This time, we planned to attach the camera to my life vest, so that we wouldn't lose it.  After all, we wanted to have the pictures to prove that we did indeed go sailing!

John and I went down to the beach, where we found the sailboat rental kiosk was open for business.  We rented a smaller Hobie and took that out onto the water for a one-hour run, which was just enough time to have fun before we had to check out of our room.

There wasn't a whole lot of wind out on the water that day, so we lazily ran back and forth across the bay; we never once got the boat up on one runner, nor did we lose anything overboard.  It was just a nice, leisurely cruise.

John also considered once again taking the sailboat to Texas, but we knew that would be a bad idea because they didn't want us to take the boat out of the bay.  The other day, we weren't told how far out we were allowed to sail.  That morning, we had a different representative, who was much more strict about where we could go.  She told us that we could only run between the two furthest hotels at either end of the bay, and we couldn't go out any farther than the southern tip of the island.  It was still a wide range, but we couldn't get out on the open sea at all.

Despite those limitations, we still had a great time.  While we were sailing, we saw dolphins leaping out of the water off in the distance - always a great sight to see!  We also chased another sailboat around the water; this one was occupied by a father and son, who set out at the same time as us.  To top it off, we didn't have a single drop of rain during the entire hour...not one!  In fact, the sun was starting to break through the clouds that had lingered over the island for the past several days.  It was going to be a beautiful day; too bad we had to fly home...

At the end of our hour, we headed towards the shore and beached.  Before leaving the sailboat with the representative, though, we asked him to take a picture of us in front of it, to commemorate our lovely vacation... and, of course, to shoot off the last of the pictures on the disposable, waterproof camera (which had survived the trip this time!).

After leaving the beach, we returned to our room to change clothes and finish packing.  Though we still had a couple of hours before we had to leave for the airport, we had to check out well before then.

So what did we do during that time?  We checked our luggage with the bellhop and went to the bar, of course!  Yes, we returned to the Tiki Bar and drank dirty bananas, knowing that it would be the last time we would have them for a long time...

At 12:00 p.m., we retrieved our luggage from the bellhop and went outside to wait for our ride to the airport.  Instead of a van or a shuttle, it was a Lincoln Town Car that arrived to transport us to Ft. Meyers.  Although it wasn't a limousine, it was close enough.  John laughed at my surprise; to him, it was perfectly normal to be taking a luxury car to the airport.  He often takes Execu-Cab to Sky Harbor, if he isn't planning to park in long-term parking.  "This is all part of that five-star living I keep telling you about," he said.  "It's really hard to be driven around like this!"

Whatever!

We arrived at the Ft. Meyers Airport around 1:00, a whole two hours before our flight home.  Once again, there were no lines at check-in and security, so we were at our gate within ten minutes.  That meant that we had plenty of time to relax and eat lunch.

Our flight to Charlotte departed on time; and unlike our departure, we only had a one-hour layover there.  That didn't leave us much time to go drinking, but we did insist on indulging in more of that wonderful gelato!  We enjoyed that while sitting on the floor near our gate.

Our flight to Phoenix was delayed by about a half an hour, which didn't surprise us at all.  After all, we normally have at least one delay no matter where we travel.  That put us back into Phoenix around 8:00 p.m., instead of 7:30.  No big deal, of course.  True, we were dying for the sight of our loving child, but it also meant that we were returning to one-star living.  I guess that was why John made such a big deal about preparing for five-star living; it's not the leap from one- to five-star; it's the leap backwards that will kill you!  I mean, a person could get used to living like that!

As soon as we landed in Phoenix, we retrieved our luggage then dashed out to the parking shuttle to catch a ride to our car.  On the way home, we stopped to pick Mary up from Bill and Erika's house; Mary was ecstatic to see us and couldn't wait to see what we had brought back for her.  (Typical kid!)  Bootsie, on the other hand, was less than ecstatic to see us and didn't care whether or not we had brought anything back for him.  (Typical cat!)  After a brief chat with Erika, to thank her for taking good care of Mary, we took the kid and the cat - and ourselves - back home...

**********

(Author's Note: I just want to mention that, because of this trip to President's Club, John did not lose his job with ACS after all.  Thanks to the networking he did during the night of the Black & White Gala, John managed to get hired on with another client right away, before the work with his former client had been completed.  Lesson learned: networking pays off!)

Return to Boats, Beaches, Bars and Dirty Bananas.

Return to Naked in the Woods.