Bahamas Cruise, Day 5

Waking up "early" today was really difficult...early really being normal...like 7:30 AM.  After breakfast, it was time to figure out our gratuity situation.  Royal Caribbean has a $12/day gratuity policy, and you can give extra if you felt like the service was above and beyond.  I really thought the food service staff and stateroom attendants did an excellent job, so of course, they needed to be rewarded for a job well done.  Their wages probably aren't awesome, so the extra money would probably help. 

Disembarking from the ship took some time.  We were in our holding area (the theater) for probably an hour before we could get off the ship.  I think there was some holdup at Customs.  Once we got outside, Meg, Page, Robyn and I decided to head straight to the airport even though our flights were not until later on in the afternoon.  Megan and Kristin wanted to see if they could catch the music festival that was happening downtown.  The 4 of us hopped in a taxi and away we went.  The cab driver was telling stories about driving princesses and princes around Miami.  The princesses were easier to handle, since all they wanted to do was shop.  The princes, on the other hand, wanted to party and get as many women as possible and stay out very late.  The cabbie said that during one instance, he went home because he was tired of working past his shift and the prince called him to ask where he was.  "Well, we were supposed to be done 5 hours ago.  I'm home now.  I'll come back if you pay overtime." 

Meg amused herself at the airport by playing with the mice that Robyn was knitting

When we got to the airport, Meg, Robyn and I got out and Page stayed since she was going on another airline.  We delayed giving goodbye hugs, hoping that we could link up after we got through security.  We later found out that the terminals were not linked so we couldn't give goodbye hugs, cry).  After a half hour of trying to find Page and being unsuccessful, we went through security and ran into Kristin and Megan.  Apparently, all the roads were closed off for the festival and it wasn't possible for their cab to get around so they decided that it'd be best to head to the airport too.  We had quite a lot of time to kill, probably about 4 hours.  There was sitting...and more sitting...until we got hungry.  Lunch was at TGI Friday's, and then we decided to sit some more.

The flight was very uneventful. I think I fell asleep as soon as I sat down because I don't even remember taking off.  After we got our bags at baggage claim, Kristin wanted to take one last picture.  It was funny because I didn't realize that we were all supposed to be frowning that vacation was over.  I think Robyn and I were the only ones smiling in the picture.  I was okay coming home.  I had my fun, but I felt like it was time to get things back to normal.

I Metroed to the station near my parents' house because that's where I left my car, Julie picked me up (she was going to be home for the weekend).  I launched into stories from the trip, gave everyone the presents that I bought, and then raided the fridge since it had been almost 10 hours since I had eaten lunch.  Then it was time for me to go home.  RJ was very clingy when I walked through the front door.  I guess he was lonely.  The nap on the plane must have been rejuvenating because I immediately started unpacking and doing laundry and getting the house in order.  Since I had the energy, I might as well have put it to good use! 

Bahamas, it's been fun, but there's no place like home!