Day Eight: Good Ol' USA

Apparently we used up all our "good travel karma" Thursday night in France. Today was a very long day. We woke up at 5:30 am (12:30 am EST) and were on our way home. First, we took a taxi to the train station, then went to the platform on the board for the train to the airport. Turns out that wasn't the right train, so we had 3 minutes to get to the other platform and get on the right train, luckily we made it. The train takes 45 minutes to get to the airport, where it lets you off in the South terminal, then you have to take a train to the North terminal. We go to check in, where they threaten that Chadd's carry on bag is too big because the United Kingdom works on different rules than every other country on Earth, and we are told we won't make it through security with our bag. We decide to take our chances getting with it through security, because his carry on has all our souveniers in it. We got through security (the one thing that went right), and went to our gate. Our flight was scheduled to take off at 9 am, and at 8:20 they made an announcement that they found a mechanical problem and engineering was coming out to look at the plane, they would update us at 8:40. We went to the British Airways lounge to wait. About 10 am, we found out that the part that they needed to fix the plane was in Frankfurt, yes, Germany, and they were trying to figure out how to get it. There was another flight to Atlanta at 11 am, so they moved us over to that flight. The 11 am flight didn't actually take off until 12:30 pm, so we were definitely going to miss our connection in Atlanta. What's funny is that we waited about 30 minutes for them to find somebody's luggage in the cargo hold so they could remove it from the plane because the person wasn't on the flight. You are required to fly on the same flight as your luggage whenever you fly internationally. Why is that funny? Because when we got to Atlanta we found out that our luggage was still in England on the first plane we were supposed to be on!

Then, on the flight, I ordered the beef entree, they had run out. After all this, I deserved their blanket! So, I took it. Our new flight home is scheduled to leave Atlanta at 6:30, orginally we were going to be home by 5:40. Our flight is so geriatric it takes forever to board, and we arrive home just before 9 pm. Then we have to go to the luggage office to report our bag missing, and there is no one there. It takes someone about 15 minutes to show up, and they confirm our bag is in London, and it should arrive tomorrow. Hopefully. My Mom and sister meet us at the airport with Claire Bear (who is asleep) to pick us up. We end up crawling into bed about 11:15, about 23 hours after we woke up.

On the Claire Bear front, this week while we were gone she started saying "dada". Very cute. And she waves to everyone!