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Back Stateside
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Hello there my friends...yes, I am back safely Stateside. For our last morning in London we packed up and left our B&B on Hugh Street and went to the Starbucks in Victoria Station for a quick coffee and bite to eat before setting out on the Underground to go to Heathrow. The station was busy with commuters using public transport to go to work...I'll miss the train stations. One last tube ride...I'll miss the sound of the announcer saying "mind the gap" as the doors open...and I'll miss the screeching sound of the train on the tracks as it comes to a stop...and I'll miss the rocking motion of the train cars and the sound of the train on the tracks as it speeds along with me trying to balance myself like a surfer in the aisle of the traincar whilst holding on to the metal poles so I don't go lunging forward into the other commuters when the train jerks about. I've found that it's those little things that stick with me and that I miss. The trains have always been one of my favorite things that I've experienced in the UK. We took the District Line from Victoria Station to Hammersmith and then switched trains to the Piccidilly Line going to Hatton Cross where we had to get on a shuttle bus to take us to Terminal 4 at Heathrow Airport. They are do constructioin at Heathrow so the tube doesn't go all the way there right now (of course, it makes me think...what airport ISN'T doing construction right now!?!!! seems like every airport I've been to here in the States and abroad has some sort of construction work going on that ends up rerouting and diverting people making it such a chaotic mess)....anyways....but we've traveled this route a couple times already so we did it like pros. We actually got to the airport quite early and they didn't have our flight info posted yet...so waited it out in a cafe. Then we queued up (lined up) for a LONG snaking wait to check in. Now...going over from Seattle had been able to just carry on our backpacks (they were the right size and weight)...but regulations at Heathrow seem to be a bit tighter on weight limit. Cuz...though over the 5 weeks we had purchased things and had a lot more stuff...we shipped it all home thru out the time...so our packs were the same size as when we traveled over...BUT the lady at the desk made us check them in anyways. Oh well...we figured perhaps they were tightening things since the bombings last week? We weren't expecting it though, so we quickly took our smaller daypacks out of our back packs and filled them with things we'd need on the plane (and in the haste mom had left all her rolls of film in her backpack...which we hope survived any xray screening). But overall...the process wasn't too bad. Then we went thru the security checkpoint...no problems there. Smooth sailing thru. They still hadn't posted the gate for our flight (they don't post till an hour before take off!) so we still had loads of time so we got a bite to eat at a pub in the airport and then once they posted the gate we set out to it and boarded shortly after we got to the gate. Now...one sidenote here...I have been totally surprised that this entire trip (with all the flights, all the trains, all the security checkpoints, and with the terrorist bombings) I NEVER GOT SEARCHED! The whole trip! See...this is quite the accomplishment cuz I'm one of those people that seem to get searched every time I fly. They either want to search my bags or they want to strip search me! But I never got searched! Somebody was praying for me in a big way! But...one thing did happen...when my boarding pass was printed for this flight the printer got a bit ascued and so the numbers weren't quite lined up on the ticket where they should be. So every check point (thru the security spot and boarding the plane) they had to call to get the okay to let me thru (cuz my seat# wasn't printed where it was supposed to be printed). But that wasn't much...I mean a couple minutes of waiting while they varified by phone that I was an actual passenger. Ha! British Airways is wonderful airline to fly on and if I go overseas again I would want to use them once again...I have no complaints there...but I must admit this was the worst flight I've been on ever! We were seated right behind a family of 4 who had a 1year old child who screamed and cried what seemed like the entire 9 and 1/2 hour flight! Thank God for the inflight movies with headphones to try and drowned out the noise! I watched 3 movies! And by the end of the flight my back, neck and head were hurting like crazy! I think I was just tired and ready to come home. We had a smooth flight from London...over the big blue to Seattle...and now we're in Bremerton, Washington for the weekend staying with friends of my parents. I'll drive down to Boise on Monday with my mom (she'll be staying with me for a week down there so she can check in on our new house we're building in Star, Idaho...and dad must go back to work but he'll join us in Boise for next weekend). It was such a wonderful 5 week holiday...so many wonderful places, people, and experiences...I've got all sorts of mixed emotions...it will take me awhile to process and sort it all. It was a great time and I really praise God that I had the opportunity to go over with my parents...it was very special to experience it with them. I can't wait to get our film developed and relive the trip thru the photos. I look forward to sitting down with some of you and sharing the photos and more stories. Thank you so much for your prayers (for our safety & health) and your thoughts and emails to me (blessings to hear from you while I was over there) and for being so wonderful and reading all of these "journal" emails from me (I know I have the gift of gab and I wrote a lot during this trip! I hope I didn't bore you). This will be my last "group email" from this trip...I think email is such a blessing to stay connected like this...and it was a treat to "take you along" with me on my UK and Ireland travels. I send my love! God's peace be with you! Slainte! (Cheers!) Lisa
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