Flying Fun

The two weeks at home for Danielle's graduation and house packing ended far too fast. "We" decided to carry all of the things we would need for the next 2 years with us on the airplane because the boy scouts taught Ty that all he needs is a good pocket knife and a sleeping bag to survive anywhere in the world. I let him worry about the wisdom of that advice while I tucked away essentials like chocolate chips, pop tarts, tomato paste, mac & cheese, deodorant, and Dove soap in between layers of books and padded the priorities with clothes.

Ty's visa was hand-delivered late Monday night and early Tuesday morning we deposited our 9  65+ lbs suitcases and 5 carry-on bags at the airport ticket counter. It really was a little overwhelming seeing all of those huge bags with "heavy" warnings plastered on every side - especially when we saw the tiny plane bringing us to Seattle.

We had 22 hours of flying ahead of us: SLC to Seattle to Paris to Mumbai. Plenty of time to sleep and enjoy a few movies. Oh, if only! Here we are in London enjoying some delicious Wagamama's.

A two-hour mechanical delay in Seattle domino-ed into a missed flight in Paris. A quick exit from Paris resulted in losing my cell phone and landed us in London for 7 hours while waiting for a flight to Mumbai. A taxi strike in Paris and London trapped us at the airports. We were so exhausted we didn't even care that the media system was broken on the last flight. One of Ty's suitcases wandered off somewhere along the way - probably to hang out with my cell phone - but after 41 hours of travel time we were ecstatic to be collecting the luggage that DID miraculously decide to show up!

After strolling through Indian customs (they really didn't seem at all curious about what was in our massive  8 remaining suitcases), we loaded up two vans and celebrated our victorious arrival with some much needed sleep at the lovely extended-stay Lakeside Marriott. Bless you, down comforter!