Thursday, November 26, 2020

Thanksgiving Week in Florida

We had a great trip over to Orlando!  By flying on Monday we missed those heading out for the entire week and had flown over the weekend.  I made a reservation for parking at Hobby and we were directed to an undercover spot in the first row.  The bus pulled up, the driver took our bags from the car and transported us directly to the terminal.  We were immediately greeted by a Southwest employee who took our pre-printed boarding passes and generated bag tags then put our bags on the conveyor belt and away they went!  

Security was about 10 minutes and since we know the ropes, we had no issues.  I-pad, phone, Kindle in one bin.  Purse and shoes in the other.  Ted goes first because I always get patted down with my hips.  That way he is there when all our stuff comes out.  We had lunch at Wendy’s then sought out a space away from others awaiting to board.  I was able to purchase early boarding and we knew all middle seats would be empty.  We were in the second group of 10 to board and we snagged aisle and window, row 6.  Only a bag of Chex Mix and glass of water was offered.  

In under two hours we were landing amongst the palm trees at an airport so familiar to us after living in Orlando five years during a time of heavy travel during our life.  I used to complain on the train that they would welcome visitors but what about me?  I lived there.  Welcome me home!  Now they do!  A pleasant surprise.  

We hung back at baggage claim until our bags were there for the grabbing.  Larry had come inside and Kristin was circling so we walked right out the door, hopped in the car and headed to their house.  I just wanted to share what we had done to minimize our exposure.  I will say that wearing a mask for several hours can cause a slight headache.  

Tuesday we drove to St. Augustine to meet Tom and Eileen, our neighbors when we lived in Florida.   They moved to Palm Coast which is just south of our meeting place, The Columbia Restaurant.  After a very Cuban/Spanish dinner we walked a bit and then boarded the tram for a tour of the city lights.  You could not buy seats, it was necessary to buy rows.  So I bought two and we sat 3 and 3.  There was plexiglass between each row too.  Normally I would remove my mask outside but there were way more people there than any of us could have imagined.  Good thing we made a reservation for 3:30 dinner because the wait time was 45 minutes.  Unheard of on a Tuesday!  So my mask stayed on!  Not the best photos from a moving tram.  The second is the Cathedral and the fifth one Lightner .museum.







We made a pumpkin and pecan pie on Wednesday morning as well as fresh cranberry salad.  Eventually we went to the Orlando Museum of Art to see the trees, wreaths and gingerbread houses set among art displays.  There was a boutique, silent auction and raffle as part of a fundraiser.  We were delighted to see two paintings - one of the Children’s (La Infante) hospital in Paris and a bridge over a canal in Bruege, Belgium, both of which we have seen in our travels.  A Chihuly greeted us at the entrance!  











A dinner at Nonna’s Italian restaurant, followed by another few episodes of the Crown and it was off to bed for me.



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