This year we finally get to return to Europe! The journey began July 1st, when we left our friend Lee at our house to take care of our babies (our dogs) and we headed down to Calvin's parents' house in Lancaster. From there we traveled to LA to go to Megan Overholt's wedding, and then on July 3rd we headed to LAX to fly out for England.
It's funny how amazing trips always begin with a lot of waiting and exhaustion. We got to LAX the prescribed 3 hours early, but security and all that took less than an hour, so we had to wait almost two hours before boarding. The flight was cramped and very long- we sat in the middle of a five-person section in the middle of the plane, so every bathroom or stretch trip was an ordeal. Finally the ten-hour flight ended, and we were in England!... sort of. We then stood in the line for customs for about an hour. Eventually, we made it across the border, then bought our Oyster cards for the Underground, took the tube (full of funnily-obnoxious British teenagers) to Paddington Station (only took the wrong tube once on the way there) and arrived to wait for our train to Oxford. Again, we were a bit too early (I had pre-booked the train tickets) but we were at least able to find a couch at a bar where we could relax and clean up a bit. We got on our train, ready for another hour of sitting, hoping to catch a short nap- but our seats were right next to a large group of Special-Needs British teenagers returning from a trip to London. Needless to say, the train journey was not as quiet as we had hoped.
It took us a while, but eventually we got to Oxford. Kelli's cousin's husband, Michael, met us at the train station, and then we had a short walk to the bus, from which we had a short walk to their apartment. Well, these technically are short walks, but of course on the way to the bus, the wheel on Kelli's brand-new suitcase busted, so I (Calvin) got to carry the 40-pound bag most of the way. But we made it to the apartment, after about 16 hours of traveling, and got to enjoy being welcomed by Kelli's cousin Joy and her darling daughter Riley. We had dinner, relaxed a bit, and finally crashed- and slept for 12 and a half hours.
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2 comments:
Oh no, are you going to be able to get the suitcase fixed? Or replace it? That will be a real drag to have to drag that suitcase all over Europe!
We did end up buying a new suitcase, unfortunately.
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