Here We Go!

 

      It doesn't matter how prepared you think you are, you are never truly ready.  Who could have foreseen the Christmas Day mess we discovered just as we were leaving for the Scarfone Christmas party.  Ryan noticed a water spot on his ceiling.  Upon further inspection, it was huge.  As I took down the ceiling tile, water poured off of it soaking me.  Turns out the connection under the sink in the kitchen had a leak.  Great timing.  So there went my Christmas party and last minute packing.  Best I could do was Magic Wrap the connection to death and slow down the leak.  Fortunately, our buddy Mike was going to come by while we are away to fix it.  Problem 1 solved.... kind of.
     Anticipating massive lines of holiday travel, we got a good early start, leaving at 11am for our 3:30 flight.  First, we were delayed at the border by the border guard in the NEXUS lane.  When he found out we were heading to England, he had to tell us all about his trip there and all the things to do.  I think we chatted for 15 minutes at the booth.  He also couldn't believe that we were traveling over there for a squash tournament.  I am sure that made everyone behind us happy.  Second,  I-94 was incredibly slow.  There were cars in the ditch and median all over the place.  Not sure if they just happened or left over from last night still.  Finally we got to the airport.  Parked, shuttle was right there and we walked in to find......  no one???  We double-checked the date of our flights.  Correct.  Where were all the crowds?  No line checking in, no line checking bags, no line at security, no one in the terminal?????  From our house to our gate seats, 2 hours exactly.
     Exciting moment #2.  Kids wanted to settle at the gate so Mary Pat and I went to get something to eat.  While mowing down on mozzorella sticks at TGIFridays, I felt something hard in the stick.  I spit it out (I know gross) and found that hard thing was my molar that apparently shattered on that mozzo sticks.  Checked tooth with tongue, yep, it is a mess.  Jagged remains down to the root.  I can't let any air, liquid or food near it.  Great.  Not sure England is known for their dentists.
     Finally our flight is ready to go after a slight delay.  We board one of the narrowest planes I have ever been on.  We taxi forever until we discover that we are heading to the de-icer.  By the time we get in the air we are over an hour behind our scheduled takeoff.  Uneventful flight, land, bus to next terminal, time for a quick pizza and board.  Much bigger plane this time.  We took up the whole middle row.
     I warned the kids that we had to try and get some sleep because when we land it will be like getting up at 2:30am back home and starting your day.  Whether it was excitement or dad doesn't know what he is talking about, no one slept.  Emily couldn't wait to start her movie on the plane and mow down on snacks.  Me.  I slept.  More on that later.
    We landed 7:45am London time.  The line for immigration was insane.  I took us over an hour to get to the front of the line.  And what do you know?  Another chatty border guard.  This guy at least knew squash and was impressed that we were here for a tournament.  He was also from Birmingham where the tournament is being held so he gave us some ideas of things to do.  By the time we got through, our bags were just sitting next to the luggage carousal.
    Now comes the part I didn't put a lot of thought into.  How to get to our apartment from the airport.  You would think it would be simple but if you can follow this maze, you can come with us next time.

      We finally figured out the lines and transfers to take and 45 min later we got off at our station and headed outside for our 15 min walk to the apartment only to be facing problem #3.  Rain.  Cold.  We finally arrived at our apartment wet, tired and cold.
     Since no one ate much in the last 18 hours and no one wanted to go out again, I head out to the local supermarket.  Good news, they sell beer in England.  6-pack for me.  Finish buying enough groceries for a few days and head back to the apartment to find everyone out cold.  Yep, not a person awake.  I think I'll join them.
     After a solid 4 hour nap and some dinner we decided to head out to Piccadilly Circus.  Subway ride was pretty quick from our apartment, 5 min walk to station, 10 min on one train, switch, 5 on another.  Piccadilly Circus was gorgeous.  It is like the Times Square of London.  The Christmas lighting was beautiful.  We just browsed up and down the street and took in a cool Lego Store and a Christmas village where Ryan got the best looking hot chocolate and Hannah got a chocolate covered strawberry kabob also the best thing ever.
     We have our plans laid out tomorrow for an on/off tour.  Weather is supposed to be good.  Pictures of the last 30 hours can be found here.