Getting home
We were supposed to get home Monday night, but our flight was canceled so we ended up spending the night in London and getting a flight to DC as everything else was full. We were supposed to connect to Indianapolis, which is a two hour drive, so not ideal, but it was the only option.
Tuesday, we had another hotel breakfast, though not as good as the one in Glasgow, and went back to the airport. I was tempted to make everyone get up early, store our bags at the hotel, and go see something, since the flight wasn't until 5:00, but everyone was exhausted and we slept pretty late. It was good we got there early because we had to straighten out a few things on our last minute booking. The overseas flight was fine, but it was storming in DC so that flight was canceled. Many other flights had also been canceled so all the hotels anywhere near the airport were full and we had to go all the way to Falls Church. It was immediately obvious how rude Americans are, comparing the reaction to two canceled flights in as many days, one in London and one in DC. I was proud of the kids though. They handled themselves very well considering the circumstances.
Wednesday, I got up early and started working with British Airways. It took a couple hours, and the earliest confirmed flight we could get was Thursday evening. There were some standby options, but since we were three people and so far from the airport it didn't seem worth trying. Once we had a flight and knew we were going to be a while, the day got better. We had breakfast, which wasn't great, then the kids relaxed while I walked to a laundromat and got some clean clothes for everyone. Then we ordered Lebanese food for lunch, which ended up being enough to have leftovers for dinner, and went swimming in the hotel pool. It was a pretty basic hotel, but it was clean and comfortable and I liked it. It reminded me of the hote's we would stay in on road trips when I was a kid.
Thursday we had breakfast, packed up, checked out, and stored our luggage, then went into DC to meet my cousin for lunch.
After that we went to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History for a little bit, and relaxed in the mall.
So after all our travels, we got to see a little bit of our nation's capital, and we made the best of the situation.
We took the metro back, picked up our bags, and took a taxi to the airport. Definitely a planes, trains, and automobiles kind of day. Our flight was delayed, and we ended up with about 10 minutes to get from an A gate to a B gate in Charlotte. The kids got there first, the door was closed, but they were waiting for us and let us on. We finally made it to Columbus, no bags made it, including the roller carryon I had to check in DC, but Jay was waiting for us, and we have clothes here so it's all good. The two bags we shipped ahead from Wales are still stuck in customs in Indianapolis, but the three we checked in DC arrived Monday. We're slowly getting settled in and organized. Jay had the kitchen remodeled while we were gone, so that's nice. It's good to be back.