The Long Way Home From France

We left Nice, France on a Sept 24th, a beautiful sunny Tuesday morning, the palm trees swaying and the wind, the Mediterranean sea was just beautiful    We flagged a taxi and waved goodbye to our last day in France.   Our first leg of our flight was held in Nice for an extra hour or so while the fog lifted in London.  We finally boarded and then flew to Heathrow and circled for another 45 minutes.    When we finally made it on the ground, our connecting flight was leaving without us because Fred, I and about 700 (this is NOT exaggerated)  other people were trying to get through customs. 

 Since we missed our connection we had to go stand in line ( again with 700 people) and try to be rescheduled.   It was taking too long so they sent US/Canadian/Brits up to arrivals where there were more terminals to help us.   We had to go through English  Customs where they ask questions like " How long will you be enjoying your stay here"  ( I got a stamp at least) and then we were sent to stand in another line.

We were booked to a late afternoon flight to Vancouver BC and another connection to Seattle.  From here we had our first chance to go to the bathroom and head for a flight only 1 hour to takeoff.   We got to the gate and found about 60 of our new line friends waiting to be loaded with the regular passengers into a bus to drive to another terminal  where they loaded us all on the super 747 for BC. Everyone had to carry their carryon baggage up the outside stairs to the plane and find their seats... ( You are right, this took time and we left 20 minutes late)

11 Hours, 3 movies, 2 TV shows and a bad meal later we landed in Vancouver.   We then found that our bags were not sent to Seattle, but terminated in Canada with us and we had to wait for them with all the other passengers to get our bags and then check into the new airline.  We rushed and made it to that gate with 15 minutes to spare... BUT it  was closed.... homeland security requires that you be there 1 hour ahead of your flight. 

It is now 9:00 p.m. and Washington and my body is 9 hours ahead of that with no sleep.   British Airways did give us a nice hotel room located right in the airport.   We were given vouchers for dinner  (Thank heaven for it was $54.00 for a bowl of soup a salad and two drinks....)   At 10:30 we take a much needed shower and fall in bed for a 3:45 a.m. wake up call.

My body is thinking it is about noon, so I am up and at the gate by the required 4:00 a.m.  It takes 53 minutes to go through the Canadian Customs, " How long was your stay in Canada?".... over to US customs, recheck our bags, go through security and board a plane to Seattle.    

Twenty seven minutes later we arrive in Seattle, our bags are first off the belt and Fred Jr. is on the road and the trip is done..BUT... I-5 Traffic is backed up all the way to Tacoma and poor Fred looses 1.75 hours in getting to us.    Fred Sr. is chomping at the bit to get home and go to work.

We we did make it home safe and sound... we both went to work, and when I came home at 5:30 I find Fred sound asleep in bed for the night.    I hung in until 9pm in hopes of turning my inner clock to Washington time, but had to crash myself after that.

So the adventure ends for this trip.