almost 6 miles high

I am sitting in 21D en route from Orlando to Seattle approximately 30,000 feet up in the air.   They are offering free wifi through July so I decided to test it out.  Hopefully my aging laptop battery will make it through a few posts before dying.  I am really curious as to how we are connecting the internet so high in the sky.  I understand how it works on land but in the air?  We must be going through a satellite or something.  Oh well, I figure it's like TV, just accept that it works.  Reminds me of when I was a kid, I used to think little people were inside my clock radio singing.  The science behind how things works is really cool and often unimaginable.

I am on the aisle (because I get up to pee frequently) Sarah is in the middle and Jim by the window.  I love that the airplane seats now have adjustable headrests in coach.  First class has had them for years, it's about time us peons in the back get a quality seat!  Nice to be able to sleep without getting a major crick in my neck.  Though with free wi-fi I might be dinking on the internet and not sleeping.  Sarah is engrossed in a book, but I give her 30 minutes and she'll be asleep - she is like a cat, sleeping whenever she has the chance.  We've been calling her kitty or kitty cat of late!

It's nice to be going home, well kind of, I could have stayed on Marco Island for another week.  I want to go back.  I want to go with my sister for a girls getaway.  Yesterday was our 4th day on Marco Island and it was wonderful.  We didn't have anything planned and our beach guy, Ty, saved us 3 chairs/umbrella in the front row close to the beach.  We woke up around 7:30, ate breakfast of yogurt, bananas and ham slices.  I got to have my coffee on the balcony and read the US Today.  We headed to the beach around 9.  The sun was shining and the water warm.  We dozed, we read, we swam until 1:00 when we went up to the room for some lunch.

In the morning Sarah and I did take a long walk down the beach - we were gone for over an hour.  We saw lots of interesting things.  Diving pelicans, dolphins, lots of little fish and oodles of shells.  We also saw a one footed seagull.  It had two legs but one leg was a stump and the other had a foot.  I wonder what happened to his other foot?  But he managed to get around and fly, walk with the other seagulls.  We saw an old couple walking slowly through the sand.  The woman had a walker and her husband was trying to help her push it.  Rather difficult through the sand!   On our walk I was very intrigued by the people I saw.  People of all ages, shapes and ethnicity.  The common factor was that everyone was having fun.  AND it seemed that most everyone was comfortable in their own skin.  Many folks had cute fashionable swimsuits, but many did not.  And it was okay.  People were having fun, enjoying their families, friends, the warm air and warm water.  People exuded more self confidence in a bathing suit at the beach than I would have thought.  It was very refreshing.  I wonder if it's because most people realize they'll never see each other again?  Whatever the reason it was nice.  People had piercings, saggy skin, wrinkles, lots of jiggly fat and it just didn't matter.  What did matter was that everyone I saw was smiling and enjoying themselves.  And what's not to enjoy about one of the most beautiful beaches in the world?  Especially while enjoying it with people I love.  Sarah and Jim.  Just wish Kristin and Jake could have been with us too.  We miss them.

We were expecting an afternoon thunderstorm, as we'd had them every day so far.  But hardly a cloud in the sky and not as humid as previous days so perhaps no rain was coming our way.   I went back down to the beach at 3, in time for the smoothie handout - smoothie of the day was lemon ice - delicious!.  Every day at 3 pm they pass out smoothies to all guests at the pool and beach, we've had coconut, strawberry and now lemon ice.  Lemon ice was my favorite!  We lingered in the water for the remainder of the afternoon.  It was heavenly.  And the rain never came.  We went up and showered at 6:30 and went to dinner at 7:30.  Snook Inn was our dining destination this evening and it was a perfect night for dinner there.  The restaurant is located at a marina.  Dolphins swam near the boat slips, the sun was setting in a brilliant orange glow.  And the temperature was warm.  Jim and I had the all you can eat seafood buffet.  They had king crab, which was succulent and sweet, shrimp, oysters, tuna, grouper, frog legs...oh my it was delicious.  Reminded me of a place called the Seven Seas in Vancouver that we went to on a trip in the late 70's.   Sarah got a delicious steak sandwich so she was happy too!

The sun is very exhausting and we were in bed asleep by 10 pm.  We packed up after dinner last night so that we could enjoy our last morning at the beach today.  We lounged beach side from 8 until 11 then showered and headed out by 11:45.  We stopped at Crazy Flamingo for lunch, we needed our seafood fill.  I got the blackened grouper sandwich on garlic bread and Jim had the fried grouper basket (fish and chips).  We shared some conch fritters.  Sarah had another steak sandwich, which was even better than last nights.  We were well sated for our 4 hour drive to Orlando airport.  We made it the airport at 4:20, returned the rental car, checked in, waited in a long security line and made it to the gate by 5.  Our flight boarded at 5:50 and we took off at 6:30.  It's been a long day so far, but lots of fun.  Now, I'm sipping a glass of chardonnay while typing this post 30,000 feet in the air.  According to the flight status tracker of flight 19, we are somewhere above Arkansas right now.  Still a long ways to go. ;)