Well as I'm writing this, I am at 30000 feet going 552 mph a little south of Iceland. We are flying home! Hooray! As a coworker said, there's nothing like going to Europe to make you glad you live in America. I am very ready to go home. We got up at 3:30 to try and catch just a little more sleep (because 3 to 4 hours of sleep sounds better when you add that extra half hour). Mom and I had decided not to shower, just freshen up and go. I got on my iPhone after I got up and checked us in to our Alaska Air flight to Yakima and screen shot the tickets. We also paid for all the luggage since every checked bag is $25 on that flight. It took three trips up and down the stairs to get all our luggage down those 4 flights. We needed to be outside waiting at 5 AM for the shuttle to pick us up. There was supposed to be an invoice available for us in the morning so I went over to the desk to see if I could also print the tickets. The young man behind the desk was a little hesitant, but went ahead and let me. I tried to use the link to the tickets I had emailed to myself but it wasn't working, something about not being compatible with the Adobe they had on there. I told him I couldn't but that I'd screen shot them and that I was sure there would be kiosks in the airport to print them. He said no, they had no place to print them at the airport and that a screen shot wouldn't be good enough for the check-in. He had me go back to the check-in page and go through it again to get to the tickets and print them from there. When he saw that it said Alaska Airlines, he said excitedly, "Are you from Alaska?" I said no, that we were from Washington State in the US on the west coast and that Alaska Air flies all over the Pacific Northwest. We talked a bit about it and he said he really wanted to leave Britain and that he was hoping to move to Vancouver B.C. But he needed to save up some more money. I told him it was nice where I was from, we really did have to save a whole bunch of money to travel to Britain. He said he knew I was American from my accent and I said yeah I knew that really gave me away. He was sad that he only spoke 4 languages and I said that it was better than me, I only spoke 1 and a half. He asked how you speak only half a language and I said that I had taken high school French and was only good enough at it to read some of it, but not speak it too well. Tickets in hand I went back and Mom and helped her get the luggage out to the curb and we sat on the steps in the dark early morning cold until the shuttle came. It was a good thing we picked the earlier time because he picked up quite a few more people and we didn't get to the airport until after 6:30. They had said to be there 3 hours before our flight and we were, but just barely. It was a pretty easy check-in process and it was all self-serve. We printed our baggage tickets and a lady helped us put them on. When we went to the counter to hand over our baggage, the tickets were not on the right luggage and so "my" luggage was the small carry-on and "moms" were the two large ones. We both held our breath as my large suitcase was weighed, but it must have come in under. The agent asked to see a receipt for our payment on the extra bag and we were both a bit dumbfounded. Shouldn't that all show up when you scan in my ticket? I had to get on the free wifi (which required my name and email and something else that just seemed absurd for access to 45 minutes of free wifi) and go to mom's email and show her the emailed receipt. And as I'm frantically trying to get online and find it, she just kept repeating that she needed a receipt. I understand your request, can you understand I can't produce it immediately? She was okay with the emailed receipt thank goodness. However she only wanted to see our ticket from London to Vancouver. I tried to hand her all of them so that she would check us all the way through, but she very brusquely gave them back to me. Mom asked her before we left if the bags were checked all the way to Yakima and she said yes. I was dubious since she hadn't looked at any ticket other than the one that got me out of her country. Next up was security and that went pretty smoothly too. Until Mom set off the metal detector because she was still wearing her Fitbit and had to be patted down. We found out our gate wouldn't be announced until 9:05 and we had about an hour to wait, so we went looking for the VAT place. It turns out you do need a form from EVERY store you buy from that you are going to declare, so we were only able to do two VAT refunds. Your welcome Britain we helped boost your economy. We sat and waited for our gate to show up on the monitors and I did a little last minute shopping. The gate number showed up a little bit earlier than 9:05 and we took the long trek out to it. (Down a hallway, down an escalator, around the corner, down a very long hallway with three people movers, up an escalator and one more long hallway...) The plane was late getting to our gate because not all of the crew had shown up on time so we waited a little longer than we were supposed to. And now it's on to Vancouver! See you in North America!
When we arrived in Vancouver we were about 20 minutes behind our scheduled arrival time. I wasn't sure where we would pass through customs, whether it was here or in Seattle, but I was kind of panicked at the time we had to make it to our connection. We had to turn in our Entry cards that were given out on the plane, but when we got to the check point the man said we needed to fill out a different card. But he was SO nice about it! "Oh, well it looks like you need to fill out this card instead of the one you got, but just go right over there and then come right back to me, don't worry about getting back in the line." I had forgotten how NICE people are here in North America! So we did and made it down to the U.S. Security check. And here we really started to panic. There was quite a line and we hoped it would move quickly, but...It...Didn't...Move. You could see people putting their stuff on the conveyor and moving through, but the line didn't seem to move up in accordance with the number of people going through. Finally we made it through the door way and BOOM! Merging lines people...merging lines. Apparently they had two planes disembark in the International terminal. So did they open one of the other TWO lines to get us through quicker? No. Mom pulled out her watch and we spent our time in line coming up with contingency plans. We could probably get stand-by on the 11:00 plane to Yakima, it's never full. We could rent a car and drive home from Seattle. We could try to get a ride on the Airporter Shuttle. Then finally we were at the front of the line. The people right ahead of us used like 5 bins to put their stuff in. A pair of shoes here, a purse there. By this point I had become old hat at the security line. Shoes off and in the bottom of the bin, iPad on top of that, tickets and passport, jacket, bag on the other side laying down flat. We got through and put ourselves back together and went out the door to someone who had us identify our bags from pictures taken as they were checked in London. Then around the corner was customs. They helped us with the answers we had messed up (Are you bringing back any commercial items? Well, yea, we have souvenirs. Anything to sell? No. Then mark that as no. Oohhh.) When we made it into the terminal to catch our flight we had 10 minutes. So we ran. And made it just as they started general boarding. Thank heavens! We took that puddle jumper back to Seattle and then went to the baggage carousel to see if our luggage was there. It was. I knew no one in London would be like, "Oh sure we definitely checked that all the way to Yakima," like they knew where that even was. So we collected our bags, got some trolleys and went up to check them in at the Alaska Air desk. More self-service kiosks, where we printed our luggage tickets and our boarding passes (see Europe...they print the passes at the airport...revolutionary, I know). We then had to go back through security (our 3rd time that day) and it all went really smoothly, so that we had about an hour and a half to get something to eat. They'd fed us very well on the Air Canada flight (a lunchish meal, drinks, a hot-pocket type snack, drinks, ice cream and pretzels, more water...), but it was time for some dinner. We ate and then got some real fresh brewed coffee. Aaahhh real coffee. Then it was just one more puddle jumper (which we both slept the whole way on) and we were home! Mom ran and got the car and went off to get the dogs from the kennels because they closed at 6 and it was 5:45. I got all the luggage from the garage door slide and sat and waited in the terminal for her to come back. While I was waiting there was an airport employee that asked if I needed a ride or to call someone. ()See! So nice! I said that my ride was coming and she did, with two dogs that gave us both stern barkings and clingy love all the way home. We got our luggage in, loved the cats, and sat around in a bit of shock. When I turned on my iPad it hadn't quite changed back from London time and it said it was 3:30 again. We'd been up for 24 hours, but we'd made it home.
People have asked since we've been back if we'd go again and the answer is most definitely yes! We've even already talked about what we'd want to see when we go back. But it won't be right away, maybe in a year or two. I've mentioned in this post how nice everyone is here and "nice" is not as descriptive a word as I would like. People in America (and Canada), random strangers on the street, are interested in your welfare. If you look lost and ask for help to get somewhere, they will point you in the right direction and may even go out of their way to walk you there if you're unsure. In Europe they were ready to get rid of me the moment I opened my mouth. They did not want to be bothered with my incompetence. Overall they were not unfriendly, they just weren't willing to help. I think that further we were out of London this was different, people were more willing to help you, but we weren't out there alone much on this trip. Maybe it's just the number of people in London that makes them that way. But we are much more versed in travel over there and the options for food and I think we would feel much more comfortable traveling by ourselves when we go back. I've heard from lots of you that I've seen in person or on Facebook how much you've enjoyed taking this trip with Mom and I, and I love to hear that you do! I worry that my long posts are just a bore, something to scroll quickly past on your newsfeed. So thank you for all the encouragement. And I'm so glad I did write down everything at the end of every day. It was a wonderful trip that I got to live over again. See you all in the more mundane posts of life...
When we arrived in Vancouver we were about 20 minutes behind our scheduled arrival time. I wasn't sure where we would pass through customs, whether it was here or in Seattle, but I was kind of panicked at the time we had to make it to our connection. We had to turn in our Entry cards that were given out on the plane, but when we got to the check point the man said we needed to fill out a different card. But he was SO nice about it! "Oh, well it looks like you need to fill out this card instead of the one you got, but just go right over there and then come right back to me, don't worry about getting back in the line." I had forgotten how NICE people are here in North America! So we did and made it down to the U.S. Security check. And here we really started to panic. There was quite a line and we hoped it would move quickly, but...It...Didn't...Move. You could see people putting their stuff on the conveyor and moving through, but the line didn't seem to move up in accordance with the number of people going through. Finally we made it through the door way and BOOM! Merging lines people...merging lines. Apparently they had two planes disembark in the International terminal. So did they open one of the other TWO lines to get us through quicker? No. Mom pulled out her watch and we spent our time in line coming up with contingency plans. We could probably get stand-by on the 11:00 plane to Yakima, it's never full. We could rent a car and drive home from Seattle. We could try to get a ride on the Airporter Shuttle. Then finally we were at the front of the line. The people right ahead of us used like 5 bins to put their stuff in. A pair of shoes here, a purse there. By this point I had become old hat at the security line. Shoes off and in the bottom of the bin, iPad on top of that, tickets and passport, jacket, bag on the other side laying down flat. We got through and put ourselves back together and went out the door to someone who had us identify our bags from pictures taken as they were checked in London. Then around the corner was customs. They helped us with the answers we had messed up (Are you bringing back any commercial items? Well, yea, we have souvenirs. Anything to sell? No. Then mark that as no. Oohhh.) When we made it into the terminal to catch our flight we had 10 minutes. So we ran. And made it just as they started general boarding. Thank heavens! We took that puddle jumper back to Seattle and then went to the baggage carousel to see if our luggage was there. It was. I knew no one in London would be like, "Oh sure we definitely checked that all the way to Yakima," like they knew where that even was. So we collected our bags, got some trolleys and went up to check them in at the Alaska Air desk. More self-service kiosks, where we printed our luggage tickets and our boarding passes (see Europe...they print the passes at the airport...revolutionary, I know). We then had to go back through security (our 3rd time that day) and it all went really smoothly, so that we had about an hour and a half to get something to eat. They'd fed us very well on the Air Canada flight (a lunchish meal, drinks, a hot-pocket type snack, drinks, ice cream and pretzels, more water...), but it was time for some dinner. We ate and then got some real fresh brewed coffee. Aaahhh real coffee. Then it was just one more puddle jumper (which we both slept the whole way on) and we were home! Mom ran and got the car and went off to get the dogs from the kennels because they closed at 6 and it was 5:45. I got all the luggage from the garage door slide and sat and waited in the terminal for her to come back. While I was waiting there was an airport employee that asked if I needed a ride or to call someone. ()See! So nice! I said that my ride was coming and she did, with two dogs that gave us both stern barkings and clingy love all the way home. We got our luggage in, loved the cats, and sat around in a bit of shock. When I turned on my iPad it hadn't quite changed back from London time and it said it was 3:30 again. We'd been up for 24 hours, but we'd made it home.
People have asked since we've been back if we'd go again and the answer is most definitely yes! We've even already talked about what we'd want to see when we go back. But it won't be right away, maybe in a year or two. I've mentioned in this post how nice everyone is here and "nice" is not as descriptive a word as I would like. People in America (and Canada), random strangers on the street, are interested in your welfare. If you look lost and ask for help to get somewhere, they will point you in the right direction and may even go out of their way to walk you there if you're unsure. In Europe they were ready to get rid of me the moment I opened my mouth. They did not want to be bothered with my incompetence. Overall they were not unfriendly, they just weren't willing to help. I think that further we were out of London this was different, people were more willing to help you, but we weren't out there alone much on this trip. Maybe it's just the number of people in London that makes them that way. But we are much more versed in travel over there and the options for food and I think we would feel much more comfortable traveling by ourselves when we go back. I've heard from lots of you that I've seen in person or on Facebook how much you've enjoyed taking this trip with Mom and I, and I love to hear that you do! I worry that my long posts are just a bore, something to scroll quickly past on your newsfeed. So thank you for all the encouragement. And I'm so glad I did write down everything at the end of every day. It was a wonderful trip that I got to live over again. See you all in the more mundane posts of life...
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