Preparing for Departure and Coping with Arrival

Since we would have to wake up in the wee small hours of the morning to make our flight, Steve and I decided to spend the night at Kevin and Meg's in Philly, so we could sleep a smidge longer. Mom and Dad generously agreed to drive us to the Newark Airport, which meant that they crashed at the Williams-Hackenberg pad, as well. Oh, darn, we had to spend more time with Meg and super cute Asher.

Two-thirty the next morning came way too early for my liking, but we had a plane to catch. Our flights were uneventful, save for the fact that we had to sit on the runway in Dulles for over an hour due to bad weather up in New York. Admittedly, it felt slightly odd being grounded for bad weather when outside it was gorgeous. Since we knew we'd be arriving in London later than planned, Steve called our hotel to let them know we'd most likely be in after midnight. Not a problem, they assured us. Cool. We bought lunch from Wendy's since our flight information said there was no meal provided; however, they did feed us a hot breakfast (apple-stuffed pancakes, sausages, a small fruit plate, and a fruit-filled croissant we saved for later) and a snack (a turkey sandwich, chips, and KitKat bar), which we tucked away for later. Nice.

It didn't seem to take too long between the time we landed and the time we sat down on the tube, but that trip added another hour and a half to our journey. Our hotel was on the other side of London at the Docklands. We were SO ready to be in bed by the time we finally arrived at the Ibis Hotel. Unfortunately, despite the fact that there was a little note attached to the desk saying that we would be arriving late, someone opted to give our room away anyway. Big mistake. Fortunately, I'm a middle school teacher, so I have the patience of Job and was surprisingly laid back under the circumstances. After waiting for a long time for them to figure out what the heck they were going to do with us, they finally found a hotel for us. Great! It was back at Heathrow. Fantastic. Needless to say, we weren't exactly thrilled about spending another hour or so in a taxi heading back to our previous point of departure. When we arrived at the Novotel, the man at the desk told us they only had one room available--a twin. I literally started chuckling at this point. I couldn't help myself. We finally crawled into bed around 3:30AM. I told Steve things would look better in the morning...which came shockingly early.