Woke up, packed and wandered around Ponta Delgada. We got lunch at Conversa à ???.
Though the airport only has ten gates, we used every minute of the two and a half hours the airline recommended we allow at the airport. Returning the rental car alone took almost an hour with the jovial agent inspecting every inch of the car inside and out. Check in took nearly an hour. Passport control crawled. The agent was kind enough to get contiguous seats for Wade and me (meaning Tiffany), and was flexible with the 8kg carry on limit for my bag. Once on the plane, a family traveling together asked if I’d trade seats from row 33 to 6 so that they could sit together. So that was cool. Helped with my connection, not that it was necessary. CBP took all of two minutes. I spent more time waiting for Wade and Tiff to catch up from the back of the plane than we collectively spent getting through customs. Meanwhile, the non-Global Entry line looked to be about two hours long. So, also cool.
I made it to my next gate and killed time walking around the terminal. Everything else about the flight home was super easy. Slept the last few hours.