Sunday, April 5, 2015

Day 12, Travel to Port Charlotte after Debarkation of Vision of the Seas

Tampa Bay; Port Charlotte; 3-21-15

We were woken up by our 5:30 wake up call and were pretty much the first people in the Windjammer. I had my final 2 over medium eggs and wonderful fruit filled bread. I was down on Deck 5 to get my 4 bottles of rum promptly at 6:30! All 4 bottles fit nicely in my little black roll along suitcase which I had purposely left empty for just that purpose.

We left our cabin about 7 and waited on Deck 6 in the Centrum for awhile before going into our assigned waiting area in the Dining Room. We really didn't have long to wait before they came in and called our number. Our luggage was waiting for us and we were 3rd in line for US Customs (of course, we got behind some very ignorant college guys that hadn't filled out their US Customs forms, didn't have pens to fill them out, and were holding up the line before a Royal staff person pulled them out of line and lectured them about having them filled out before they even got into line - it was awesome!!! - by the way they were acting, I'm sure they were hangover, too! - I sure was glad to see the last of those college students).

I only had $86 to declare on the US Customs form! Woohoo for me! And most of that was liquor. The agent asked if I bought liquor. I told him 4 bottles. He asked where it was. I told him in my little black suitcase. He asked if I bought tobacco. I told him absolutely not - ick! He chuckled at that. Said have a good day and that was that.

When we were picked up at the hotel by the shuttle driver a week ago we had asked him the best way to get back to the airport. He gave us his card and said to call him and he'd come back and pick us up. When I called, his cell phone went to voice mail that said he was unavailable. We decided to just grab a cab when a guy asked Jim if we needed a ride to the airport and that he had 2 seats left in his van. Wow, that couldn't have worked out any better. Of course we took it!

We had reserved a rental car for our drive down to Port Charlotte to spend the day, the night and most of the next day with Steve and Barbara Hundley.

We got down to their house late morning. They have a lovely home on one of the canals leading out to the gulf. We went for a boat ride, enjoyed the wonderful weather, ate until we were stuffed, and drank two blenders full of Nellie's Punch between the four of us! It was a good day!

I could live here!

Jim helping Steve get the boat ready to go for a ride.
 
For some reason I didn't get a picture of Barbara so here's a picture of the two of us taken back in 2013 when we were in New Orleans rocking our Seahawks shirts! She still looks the same!

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