Oh, 6:00 am came early on Tuesday. I needed to get ready, finish last minute packing, eat breakfast and be out the door of the hotel by 7:10. Chris had a train to catch about an hour later. We had our last breakfast buffet in the City Cafe around 6:45. Chris walked with me to the Underground. He had planned out my return subway trip to the airport--this time Terminal 1--and with directions in hand, I said goodbye at the entrance to the subway. I watched as he walked away. Kind of sad.
Before traveling I was worried that I might end up in the wrong place. I learned that there were always signs showing the direction I needed to go and most often friendly people who were willing to answer my questions. With time I am sure that I could be comfortable navigating the subway on my own as well. It was just freaky to know that taking the wrong train could send me in the completely wrong direction and mess up the rest of my day's travel plans.
I arrived at Heathrow with plenty of time to spare. I think every plane I boarded required me to walk to the most distant gate possible. I lucked out on the way home from London to Washington, DC and then again from Washington to Denver and had an empty seat next to me. Some people on the London flight had an entire row to themselves and were able to stretch out. Perhaps it was a good thing that I couldn't though as I didn't sleep at all on the way home (it made it quite easy for me to get back on my schedule). The food was awful. Good thing I had some power bars and granola bars.
It took about twenty minutes after deplaning in Washington for me to walk off the plane and arrive at Immigration. In my experiences exiting the United States and then returning this year, I have loved how the agents always say, "Welcome home." I was through Immigration and Customs in no time. I picked up my luggage and then rechecked it for the flight to Denver and had to go through Security again. There was a lot of hurry up and wait on this trip--mostly at the airport.
I was anxious to get home to my girls. United slowed me down a little in Washington. There was a medical emergency on my plane's previous flight and it took about forty minutes to get that cleared. Once taken care of, we were able to board, but even the captain was pretty frustrated with the "paperwork" required to replace the oxygen bottle that had been used in the emergency. We left over an hour behind schedule.
I arrived to pouring rain in Denver. Fitting. As I walked from the terminal to take a bus to Pikes Peak parking lot, I got soaked. Not much of good hair day this time around. After waiting some more, I finally arrived at my car and left the lot. The drive home with the rain was a little slower, but I finally made my way to Tasha's to pick up three very excited-to-see-me girls. I was pretty happy to see them as well. We stopped for a few groceries at the store and then home.
It wasn't long before I heard, "What did you bring me?"
