Gabbi and I decided to continue our Snorkeling Adventures at Secret Harbor. I admit, it did seem like I was working harder at this vacation, now that Geoff was gone -- driving, organizing, carrying, packing beach gear, etc.

Got there and went out in our snorkel gear, Gab with her vest - and with fins for the first time. Urchins are fairly close to shallow end at some parts of SH, so snorkeling shows children things that they may not otherwise want to see.

I don't think she was really into it. But, she went along - unexcited. Gab exited at the swim platform out in the bay, and decided to take a break on deck. I continued the snorkel and kept myself in that area - looking for a turtle and 2 rays that someone had just seen under the platform. No luck....after much searching.

SH is a beautiful place to snorkel.

After the long snorkel, we decided to head in and go to get ready to change for our Indigo lunch with Sherri. I can't recall if we did anything else before going to meet Sherri. Sherri's daughter and her baby granddaughter came along and we all enjoyed lunch. Sherri and I ordered Black and Blue with salads. I love the combo of the Black and Blue with their delicious Cesar salad. And, I must say, Sherri kept up with the Mojitos!! Wooohooo! At this point, Gabbi had met new friends in the pool and was busy swimming and eating in between jumps. Everyone was having a nice time.

My friend Dex stopped by to drop off some saltfish pates that I'd been trying to find all during this trip. It was so strange....I can normally find them without a problem - carnival village, the blue truck at Coki, etc. But, on this visit, each time I asked for them, I was told that they weren't ready, weren't being made that day, sold out, etc. (sigh). Why was it so hard to get one saltfish pate? Dex came to the rescue with 2 of them. There had been three - but he ate one 🙂 I'm glad Dex and Sherri finally met - Dex is an exceptionally nice guy and he had a soda with us while we continued our Mojito fest - then he went back to the office.

After a couple of hours, Sherri's daughter needed to get somewhere, so they left. Gabbi was still enjoying her newly found friends in the pool, so I stayed and relaxed. It was our last full day and we'd done so much...yet it seemed like there was so much more I'd wanted to do. We hadn't gone to the West End STT, hadn't been to Brewers Bay to collect sea glass, hadn't snorkeled Waterlemon, hadn't sailed, hadn't enjoyed a sunset......so many reasons to return soon. Also, I hadn't yet dined at Toad and Tart and enjoyed Anna's clam chowder!! A must do for that night!

After going home and checking on the older kids, we headed over to Toad and Tart to say hello (and goodbye!) to Anna and to enjoy some of her awesome clam chowder. I also had the mahi ma hi nuggets (maybe I am calling them the wrong thing?). Everything was delicious, as always....and we enjoyed talking to Anna.....and Jessica (her sleepy, spoiled cat).

Anna was surprised to learn that we were leaving the next morning. It also felt too soon to us - as we normally stay 15 days and this was only 12. I guess those 3 days make a difference....or maybe it always feels too soon to leave.

Home and early to bed. We'd meant to pack - but decided that it could wait til morning.

Up early the next morning and got everything packed and cleaned up. This is where Geoff got off easy - all he had to do was pack his stuff and leave. I had all of the snorkel gear to pack, fridge to empty, go around and make sure nobody left anything under a bed, behind a door on a hook, in a drawer, bag up all of the shampoo and stuff, put the villa's
games back in the drawers - you know...the final packing.

Gabbi was so over all of this hard work and was asking to go to Coral World. I decided to indulge her on this last morning, so off we went. I saw that they'd added a new bird exhibit to Coral World.

Our flight was at 3, so we had a noon deadline to exit Coral World and get back to the villa - with the intent on being at the airport at 1. We made it on time - but the line was unbelievable!! Wow, the crowds. It was Saturday - and prime travel time. We checked in and were able to get a porter to load our bags. He loaded a bunch of other people's bags on top of ours - sooooo many bags on his cart. Then he took us all around to the special entrance, which didn't seem so special since it still took us a while to get through with everyone trying to use the porter. Once we got through Customs, we had about 40 mins til departure...only 10 mins til boarding. The porter asked us how many bags we had with him and charged us the $2 per bag fee. I was worried that he was sending us through security screening and we hadn't yet seen our bags get unloaded from his cart - and there were at least 10 bags on top of ours, for people who were probably BEHIND is in the Customs line. I asked "are you sure you'll have time to load our bags? We leave in about a half hour". Of course, he said yes.

As usual, the people at the front entrance to the security area were grumpy and mumbling to us. This is where we usually get bummed out - because these people are so rude (whomever is at this podium at the time). Do they only hire rude people to work this little podium? Mom and dad, without us telling them about our experience, came home 5 days later and said this was the only downer of their entire tip - dealing with this same podium. Same as our last trip. Oh well. We're used to it - so we just ignore the rudeness and move on. I set off the beeper and had to go to screening. Then, they decide that my son's GF, who did not set off the beeper, also needed screening - not sure why. She had actually been all the way through and had collected her items off of the belt when they called her back to have her screened.

We always get screened with the wand, swabs, luggage search, etc- always! We get screened going down - and screened coming home...whether we set off the beeper or not. What's up with that? Once, a TSA agent showed me a code on he bottom of my ticket "SS" and told me that it indicated that I should be screened - somehow, we have been flagged. She said it is probably because we go back and forth so much. I don't think it's that much (twice a year?) - but I wonder if other frequent visitors find themselves being screened so much. We are used to it now - we walk in and make a bet on who, in our party, will get screened - even Gabbi gets the "SS" screen sometimes.

So we made it through just in time to board. The flight home was uneventful and we, thankfully, had a non-stop into PHL.

Exited and to the luggage carousel. As many of your know, we were missing several bags. We noticed that the other people from our flight who were still standing around without bags were people from the porter line. We all deduced that the Porter hadn't loaded our bags on time. Went to the USAir desk and the lady argued with me about the STT baggage process... she was saying "I don't see how this is a USAir issue, you HAVE to load your own bags into security in STT!" I explained that we did not, that the porter does that for you. She wouldn't believe me, claiming that she had worked in Customs and she knows the STT rules. Well, rules or not, we did not load our own bags.

I was worried because Chris had all of his favorite summer clothing with him and only last year, all of his clothing had been stolen from the trunk of the car when he had packed it up to come home from college for the summer. He (I) had replaced much of it, but last year had been a big loss since he had all of those authentic basketball shorts and expensive jeans and such - all of his summer and winter clothing had been taken. Now this - he was really stressing out about it! And, though my snorkel gear wasn't anything special, Geoff is a diver and his mask and fins were the professional kind. Sheesh.

Luckily, I called the next day and a nice lady from USAir baggage claim was able to confirm that our bags had arrived at PHL the night before, when the Charlotte connection came in around 11p. Phew!

All is well that ends well!!!

It seems like forever ago now - so much fun. More memories to last a lifetime. A very special trip, indeed.