Day 1

Travel from Washington Dulles to London Heathrow

We drove to Dulles Sunday afternoon armed with 8 suitcases and four carry-on bags. We had to pay a charge for one bag as we found out that the weight limit per bag is 50 pounds, not 70 (this is what it is on OTHER international flights). After we handed each bag across the scale for the lady to tag we then had to recollect everything and drag them over to the baggage check in line. For WHAT do they use the little conveyor belts behind the counters now? Their paperwork?! After dropping off our bags at the security area, we started searching for the end of the security check-in line. I am pretty sure I have never stood in a line this long in my life! Not even for a roller coaster on a Saturday afternoon! No kidding, the line nearly wrapped around the entire Dulles International Terminal and it took 1 hour and 50 minutes! Along with the rest of the passengers on our flight, we raced to the “people mover” and then we nearly got trampled by the people behind us to get to our gate. We boarded the plane only minutes later.

Safely aboard we started preparing for our transatlantic flight. After the plane closed its doors the captain informed us that we would be waiting about 30 minutes more due to some baggage issues. We took off an hour later. Our flight arrived into London at 7:40am. It took about 7 hours 30 minutes of which Nathan slept zero minutes and Alyssa slept about 30. Tired but excited we arrived ready to stand in more lines. We did the best we could to prepare the kids for yet another marathon of line standing. However, after about 30 minutes of waiting in the customs line, an official took pity on our family and took us to the front of the line. We could not believe our luck!

Our next adventure began with our shuttle drive to the hotel. Our driver “forgot his wallet” so he had to ask us for money to pay for parking. We were too tired to question this, but we were very concerned. Then we proceeded to sit in traffic for the next hour while trying to get out of London. Once out of London, we stopped again to get fuel. The driver had to ask us for money again because he of course had no money for gas! However this time he assured us that this was “most unusual” and he apologized for the inconvenience. I took pity on the guy after he told me that he was taking all of these charges off our fare. We finally arrived at our hotel at 11:00 am.

Nathan slept for most of the car ride and was barely awake enough to get out of the van. He stood precariously in front of me while I checked in at the counter losing his balance several times since he was too tired to stand stably. The woman behind the counter, oblivious to our exhaustion, told me that my room had been cancelled since we were scheduled to arrive yesterday and we did not show up. As I tried to explain the oversight, Alyssa plunked down in the middle of carpet silently laying her head down on top of her bag. The woman must have noticed this because she managed to find another room for our family.

Our room was filled with housekeeping staff when we made it down the hall. They were busy preparing a cot, a hide-a-bed and the regular bed for all of us to sleep in immediately! Yeah! They were no sooner out the door than Nathan was asleep under the bedspread, shoes and all.

As the kids slept, Dale was busy getting the rental car in Cambridge. He arrived about 2 hours later after struggling with the left side of the road and the stick shift on the left hand side. He said that he grabbed the door handle several times on his trip to the hotel trying to shift the car.

Dragging the kids out of bed two hours later, we stumbled down to the realty office to collect the keys to our house in Hardwick. After taking several laps of Cambridge, we found our way out again and drove to our new house. Everyone was very happy about the house, the yard, the proximity to school and the neighborhood.

We reluctantly left the space of our house to return to our little hotel room. We were ready for a good night’s sleep.