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We woke up on the morning of the 8th day and had to say goodbye to our palm trees.

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Vacation was officially over and though I didn’t want to leave quite yet…

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We headed to the airport in Charleston, enjoying a few final glimpses of the South Carolina low country.

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It looked like the buzzards had lined up to see us off…

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But they were just having breakfast.

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Yes, my last image of Edisto Island was a carcass. Bet they don’t highlight that in the tourist brochures.

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We relinquished the giant rental vehicle… me quite easily – the husband with pangs of regret…. and began the long haul to the terminal. Seriously Charleston, could you put Avis any further away? Damn.

You’ll notice the husband is lugging both of our suitcases because…

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Yes. Mine might have been a trifle overpacked…. but it’s still rude of the airline to advertise the fact. Luggage has feelings too.

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Goodbye South Carolina. We enjoyed our visit immensely.

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Washington National Airport…

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Where your dog has a rest room too.

And apparently a fire hydrant.

We had two hours to kill and opted for lunch at PF Changs. We don’t have them up our way and I wanted to try it.

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One tasty Asian pear mojito in…

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I was questioning this man’s seating choice.

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I don’t care if there’s a heart, it’s still the business end of a very large horse.

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One horrible chicken lo mein and one even more horrible beef fried rice later, we vowed not to eat at PF Changs if they ever do make it up our way. Blech.

In other news, the flight to Maine did not start smoothly.

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Because of course, out of all the seats on the plane… my husband’s had to malfunction. The cushion was basically free floating and not attached to the seat frame at all. Every time he tried to sit down it just slid out from under him.

This delayed the flight a good 45 minutes while we waited for the maintenance people and did not endear us to our fellow passengers. After another 20 minutes of tinkering by the repair guys?

Velcro to the rescue.

I kid you not.

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An ignominious end to an otherwise delightful trip.

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At least it wasn’t duct tape.

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