Flying to London

Finally, the day arrived when we would be leaving for our long-awaited holiday in Europe. The bags were packed, notes were written for the kids who would be missing school the next day, light timers were set, the oven and iron were off and we were ready for Spring Break. And then it started snowing. In late March. But what else is new for Chicago weather. We picked up Rebecca and the boys early from school, grabbed our bags and hopped into our limo at 3PM. The snow wasn't yet causing traffic issues, so we made it to the airport in good time and checked in with British Airways. The agent mentioned we'd be flying out of the new Terminal 5 on our hop from London to Paris and assured us that would be a real treat. (Folks, this is foreshadowing, a common literary technique, and your key to quality literature).

Our plane arrived late to the gate and we found ourselves sitting on the tarmac for quite a while (over an hour-and-a-half) waiting for de-icing and snow removal. We knew then we weren't going to make our connection to Paris (more foreshadowing). There was an empty seat in our row on the 767, so Thomas jumped over to sit with his brother, leaving J. R. with an empty seat beside him, which unfortunately would eventually be filled by his six-year-old dear daughter when we learned the video system at her seat was not working properly. She managed to mostly behave through "Bee Movie" except at the end when she loudly called for her mom that the movie was over, waking J. R. from the sleep he had tried so hard to fall into. But other than that, it was a pretty uneventful flight to London. That would change when we landed, but more on that on the next page, because that's another day...