Back to the U.S.A., March 25, 2015

  We had breakfast at our hotel, the Hampton Inn. We felt like we were already back home as the hotel is just so American. We got the shuttle to the airport which was a short ride. Our flight was slightly delayed, but it was no problem. Once again, we were happy to have paid a little extra for roomier seats, plus it meant that we boarded early, also nice.
   The flight was smooth and we got great views as we flew over Cuba which looked very green with barrier islands. I hope that we get to visit and to go birding there some day.
    The airport scene in Fort Lauderdale was TERRIBLE. We waited in useless line after line and the staff seemed as confused as the passengers were. The first long line was passport control. As usual, we were questioned longer than most people because Mark lost his passport back in the 90s when it flew away when we were in Exmouth, England. The next snafu was getting our luggage. There was confusion which carousel it was on because another plane landed at the same time. We actually went back and forth between two carousels as the airport personnel also had no idea which one our flight was using. It took well over half an hour to get our luggage. It turned out that the bags from our plane were sitting in the middle of the floor. We gathered that and waiting in an even longer line to go through customs. All of this took longer than the entire almost-three hour flight!
  Finally, we were outside. I called the hotel (Cambria Suites) where we left our car. They said it wouldn't be long. Well, it was about an hour before we got our car and headed toward Lake Worth to stay with Michael and Nancy. Our plane landed around 4 and we got to their house after 9. Not impressive.
  But, it was nice to be at Michael and Nancy's and it was great to have them both feeling much better health-wise than when we last saw them.