Good-bye San Diego - Hello Marion (MAR 13)

The forecast rain returned during the night with showers throughout the morning. Coffee, newspapers and being online plus repacking our bags and having a late breakfast made for an exhausting morning. 

We received a text from his mother that our grandson Ian had arrived home in Doylestown, PA after an uneventful red-eye flight.  He told his mother that the plane was fuller than the flight he had taken here on Monday, but still had a number of empty seats, including the one next to him.

Solamar Hotel granted our request for a late checkout. This enabled us to move smoothly from our room to check-in at the airport without the need to park our bags somewhere.

As an aside, soon after we checked into the Solamar, I got a text message asking if everything was satisfactory (which it was). Subsequently, when I had a request or query, texting the front desk elicited a prompt, friendly, helpful response. It was the first time that I had encountered this service in a hotel.  It was great. 

At noon we headed for the airport in a taxi driven by a pleasant gentleman from Ethiopia. We chattered and laughed with him all the way, which in San Diego thankfully is not far.  After he wished us well and drove away, Pam & I agreed that we had understood less than half of what he said and had just keyed our laughter to his. 

There was little congestion at the airport. We soon found ourselves at our gate.  We moved off to an unused gate with lots of empty ("social distancing") seating to await boarding our JetBlue flight. This proved to be an extra 30-minute wait due to a delay. 

We were grateful to get aboard the plane and settle into our seats. With COVID-19 wreaking havoc across the country and resulting restrictions blossoming everywhere, it was not unthinkable that air travel might suddenly be curtailed or, given that we had recently been out of the country, we might not be allowed to board our flight. This morning seeing in USA Today on page one above the fold a picture of a JetBlue plane being decontaminated after someone who had previously tested positive for COVID-19 flew on it (and is now banned from JetBlue for life) amped up the anxiety. I wondered if the incident would cause JetBlue to implement severe passenger screening. In reality, we were never asked where our recent travels had taken us and we went through no active health screening, although I suspect there may have been some passive screening going on at TSA.

During the course of adapting to a JetBlue flight schedule change weeks before we left, in a moment of extravagance I had upgraded us to Mint class. At the time I had some buyer's remorse.  Sitting in nice seats bleeding off stress while eating good food and generally relaxing, every dime and every point was worth it. We may have been jumping out of the frying pan into the fire, but we were headed home where logistically and psychologically we could better weather the storm.

Having departed late, although not quite as late as they said we would, we made up that time and more in flight, landing in Boston about 15 minutes early, albeit with a bumpy descent.

The bags came quickly, but due to airport construction rendezvousing with our driver involved three elevators and some walking. $5 for a luggage cart was money well spent.

A lack of congest on any roadway between the airport and home made for a efficient final leg of our trip.

We pulled into our driveway at 0037 on Saturday, March 14.

Home!