Amy woke up late for seminary (on purpose) so that she could get in a little more sleeping. She planned to come home and get ready for the day after dropping Misha off at school. I cleaned the kitchen, did laundry, finalized my packing--pretty much passed time until I left for the airport at 10:15.
Then I received a text from Amy saying she need to have a form signed so that she could attend a choir performance, and it needed to be done before I left. So I left a little early to head over to the school, hugging my oldest peep one more time and then off to the airport. But wait, United sent me my first plane delayed notification--30 minutes, then 45, then 55, then back to 48. I was on the phone with Chris who checked to see if there was any other better options for me. I originally had a two hour lay over in Chicago and felt that I would still be fine with the delay.
I parked in the garage at the airport and headed in to the United Premier check in just to make sure that there weren't any further delays that might affect my layover in Chicago. I had checked in on my iPhone app and linked my passport to my boarding pass. From then on, it was pretty slick. Well, except for the fact that I couldn't remember putting deodorant on that morning. With as much as flying on my own made me nervous, I thought it a good plan to pull off to the side of the hallway, find my deodorant in my suitcase and apply before heading through security. I'm sure the people at the airport have seen crazier things. I just used my boarding pass on the iPhone to get through security and to board. And.....I got to I use TSA Pre-check! This global entry stuff was slick. No removing shoes. No removing jackets. No removing liquids from my carry-ons. Slick. As I reached the B Concourse and headed up the escalators, the dude in front of me wasn't paying attention to the back side swing of his backpack and nearly knocked me down the escalator. That's okay, he didn't see a thing.
I arrived at the B Concourse with plenty of time to wait in the United Club lounge. Fortunately they provided a bit of lunch since I hadn't planned ahead too well for that.
Before I left home, I changed luggage at the last minute hoping not to have to check my larger bag. I chose Amy's smaller case ; I had to unzip the extender to make it bigger. So just before I boarded to Chicago, one of the gate attendants told me that I would have to check at the end of the jet way because my bag was too wide. Drats. Oh well, they checked it all the way through to Amsterdam for me.
Once boarded, I settled in to my seat and prepared for a short hop to Chicago.
I watched Me Before You. Before leaving for Chicago, I asked Chris for advice on getting to my gate at Chicago since I have not spent much time at the airport. As we landed the flight crew asked anyone with a tight connection to turn on their attendant button so that others around them could let them off the plane first. That didn't happen and people crowded in the aisles the moment we stopped at the gate. Fortunately I was near the front, but I felt badly for the people at the back of the plane. Add to that, it took about ten minutes for the gate crew at Chicago to attach the jet way so that we could deplane.
I still had time to spare even with the late departure and the jet way snafu. I took off down the B Concourse, down the escalator to C Concourse, and along the moving walkway. I got to board in boarding group 1 and settled in to my lovely first class seat (Thanks Chris!) ready for a 7 1/2 hour flight to Amsterdam. We then sat and waited for passengers connecting from other flights whose planes had arrived late. No need to have rushed.
My seat mate pretty much kept to herself which was fine. I took a few notes and then spent the next couple of hours watching movies--My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 and Miracles From Heaven. I put my bed in to the sleep position, which was fabulous for flying, but never really fell into a deep sleep. I probably dozed here and there, but not too much. My seat mate seemed to have zonked but that was not surprising since she started off the flight with two glasses of champagne and just kept on drinking every time something was served.
It was 8 am when I asked the flight attendant for the local time. Happy news since my flight landed shortly after 9 am. I got to watch the sunrise through the clouds. I also took the opportunity to brush my teeth in the bathroom, fix my hair (though I realized at this moment that I had a lame hairspray sprayer that just glopped spray on to my hair. Poop.) As we neared Amsterdam, the clouds cleared out, morning dawned, and I spied a windmill farm in the ocean.
The pilot made up time in the flight over and we pulled in only 25 minutes late. As we taxied to the gate, it seemed as though we were out for a Sunday drive. Twenty minutes to the gate. And then another ten minutes to connect the jet way. Amsterdam was beautiful and green.
