As we hoped, we woke up in a timely fashion without an alarm. We had to pack everything, but this is always easier when heading home and things can get lost without serious issues. We packed all the breakables in the padded electronics backpack, and we put other stuff we might use in other carry-on, but we put most everything else in the larger checked bag. We finished packing around 7:30, and then just killed time until around 8. We checked out, then got in a vehicle with a larger family at 8:10. Again, it was a 3 minute drive to the airport. We had to "check" the blue carry-on bag, since the flight was full. Since they literally carried the bag about 50 feet to the plane, we weren't too worried about them losing things.

The the flight was completely full, and in fact one patron had to sit in the co-pilot's seat. It was an easy flight up the coastline to Belize City. We got our bags, and then had to walk to the other end of the airport, which wouldn't have been so bad except for one of the bags being so heavy. We checked into our United flight to Houston, then asked if they had a lounge there - sadly, no. Immigration was easy, and there was no line for security this time. When we got through security, there was a different United flight about to leave, so we found another area to sit. We wandered around, looking for a full service restaurant, but there was none to be found. So we got some empanadas, some pringles, and a big bottle of water. When it was all said and done, we finished with just five dollars Belizean money, about perfect.

The longer we sat, the seating area got more and more busy. Eventually we got up since couldn't really hear the announcements coming from the United gate. This was a bad idea, since there was no seating left near that gate. For whatever reason, there were two flights going out at basically the same time, one to Houston and one to Newark. Ours was boarding first, but not many of the Newark people got out of the way. Justin got upgraded to first class. He fell asleep immediately, but was awoken (to his irritation) to ask if he wanted to eat. Now awake, he got food and drink, but couldn't fall back asleep. The in-seat entertainment was movies only, but the flight was not long enough for the movies to end.

At Houston, it was cold and overcast. Immigration and customs were an absolute breeze; perhaps we should travel through Houston more often. We did a bag drop for our checked bags and then went towards security. Inexplicably, there was a really long security line to get into the terminal, and there was no TSA pre-check line either. After we finally made it through, we went towards our gate, then found the closest United club. It was very "eh", but it did at least have comfortable seats. We checked with Crystal's parents whether the dogs were alright, and found out they were, which gave us a big sense of relief. Now with true high-speed internet, we caught up on US events and news. We also tried to find places to swim with whale sharks - successfully this time. The two that looked most promising were Mozambique and Mexico.

At the gate, there was yet another school trip on the plane. We never went on any out-of-state, let alone out-of-country, school trips when we were in high school. We wondered what sort of schools had the resources for this. We were in the emergency exit row on the plane back. We just listened to podcasts and tried to sleep, Crystal with more success. We landed around 8pm. As we came in on the final approach, we could see the flickering lights from our balcony. It was so weird to pick up bags in San Diego (99% of the time we have only carry-ons), and we had to wait awhile also. Our Uber driver was Mohammed. Someone honked at him for (allegedly) driving too close. We joked that the people wouldn't think he was too close if they'd ever driven in Istanbul or Tehran. We found out Mohammed was actually from Iran, and was shocked we'd been there last year. He was very happy to give us some Persian history on the short ride back to the house. He probably would have told us more, but the ride was only about 5 minutes. After coming into the house, we had dinner with Crystal's parents and sister, checked up on the pups, and kicked our feet up. Once again, we had a great trip, and are eagerly awaiting the next one.