{"id":100813,"date":"2026-10-05T04:48:50","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T11:48:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/?p=100813"},"modified":"2026-10-06T07:40:58","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T14:40:58","slug":"day-12-coming-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/?p=100813","title":{"rendered":"Day 12 – Coming Home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"<\/figure><\/p>\nEstimated reading time: 4 minutes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Day 1<\/a> Day 2<\/a> Day 3<\/a> Day 4<\/a> Day 5<\/a> Day 6<\/a> Day 7<\/a> Day 8<\/a> Day 9<\/a> Day 10<\/a> Day 11<\/a> Day 12<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were up and finishing off the packing when we decided to have one more breakfast at the inn. Downstairs, we flew on our newly acquired brooms and landed at our favorite table, where Hocus Pocus decorations awaited us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The book was waiting<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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“Please read me!!”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We said goodbye to Gail!<\/p>\n\n\n

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Bye bye, Gail, we’ll see you again soon!!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

After breakfast, we brought down the bags, placed them on the porch, and waited for our ride. Colleen and Mark were right on time! We drove toward Manchester and stopped at a key roundabout where Jon jumped in our car, and Mary got into Colleen’s truck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colleen and Mark dropped off Mary and the baggage while Jon and I returned the rental car. It was a carefully orchestrated plan executed with absolute perfection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saying goodbye after so much fun was tough!<\/p>\n\n\n

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Saying goodbye after a wonderful week with family.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Now we are on our own, oh dear! (Click the images to see the full-sized image)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Finally, she got to see a moose.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Just us (and a Moose)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We waited over an hour, so we stopped by one of the many pubs and had a glass of Vico before boarding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We had a drink before taking off from Manchester<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Mary was a happy girl.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Then we headed off into the wild blue yonder, Chicago our next stop on the way home. The clouds were white and puffy, and there was zero turbulence. We landed in Chicago about 40 minutes early because a strong tailwind was pushing us along. This, of course, gave us more time to get into trouble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had a glass of wine, and I had two hot dogs; they were wonderful. Of course I shared with my bride. At times like these, we have serious conversations!!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So true!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A real Chicago hot dog;g, I ate two!!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We boarded a second, larger airplane. We were in row four and had our drinks served almost immediately; we love first class. Mary had a nice hunk of salmon while I opted for mights (I was having Mexican food withdrawal symptoms). I knew I was likely to be disappointed, but wow, the enchiladas were spicy and cooked to perfection. Hats off to AA!<\/p>\n\n\n

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Finally some real Mexican food!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

It was a smooth flight, and halfway there Mary’s head hit my lap, and she was out like a light! I finished off my vino and watched my phone for the next hour. Soon, we were floating over Los Angeles, which is always beautiful.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Like a box of jewels.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The captain said, “Put your tray table up.” I had no tray table; I did, however, have Mary’s head. Following instructions, I lifted her head, checked her seatbelt, and warned her just as the tires hit the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n

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We were about to land. I told Mary to lower the landing gear on her broom!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

We took wheelchairs, and I am glad we did. From exiting the plane to the pickup point, we needed three elevators and at least a mile walk. I can’t do that anymore unless I have a lot of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We loaded up the limo and headed home, arriving around 10:30 pm. We unloaded the baggage and put it in the garage. As the driver departed, I went to open the door to the house, and no bueno! The damned door (which we NEVER lock) was locked. Robin is very security-conscious; in general, that is a good thing!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mary went into Superwoman mode and immediately went to the backyard where she keeps a spare set of keys. I was glad she remembered because I had forgotten. The keys had not been moved in six years!! We made our entrance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LA\/Orange was having a heat wave, and it was 90 degrees outside when we arrived home. Thanks to the magic of the internet, I turned on the air as we passed over the house and gave it an hour to cool down. We got out of our traveling duds and headed to the TV\/Living Room to watch a movie while everything cooled down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We crashed at 11:30 pm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 Day 9 Day 10 Day 11 Day 12 We were up and finishing off the packing when we decided to have one more breakfast … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=100813"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100858,"href":"http:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100813\/revisions\/100858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=100813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=100813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=100813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}