Monday, September 10, 2012:

Well, our long awaited trip to London and Italy is about to start. All packing has been accomplished, several times over in fact. Shirl has done a wonderful job in keeping her suitcase to a small carry-on size while mine is close in size, just a little larger.

One of the disadvantages of living over in sunny Sequim is getting transportation to SeaTac airport, south of Seattle. There are options however most are inconvenient or are very expensive.

Friends here have offered to drive us there, but that requires them and us to leave before dawn to make the long drive to the airport and possibly experience a bridge opening which could cause a serious delay in arriving at the airport. Since our return flight does not arrive at SeaTac until late at night, this again would again cause quite an inconvenience to our friends.

There is a local shuttle company that will drive you over from your home but they would not be available for picking us up due to our late arrival when we head back home, thus requiring an overnight stay at a local hotel.

The other option is for us to drive over and park by the airport, but being an early morning departure this requires staying in a hotel near there and pay parking for the 6 weeks we are gone. Again, not a desirable option.

Then we have the best option of all, good friends in Seattle have offered for us to stay at their house tonight and they will drive us to SeaTac in the morning and let us leave our car at their house for the duration of the trip. Not only do we save on the cost but we also get to enjoy their company for an enjoyable evening. Thank you Pat and Irene.

Our morning departure from SeaTac was not to smooth, and hopefully it is not an omen of what lies ahead.  As we sat on the plane the pilot mentioned that we would have a 10 minute delay and indicated that all of the American Airlines computer systems had crashed.  Not the best term to use for those of us sitting on an airplane!

Well, after 40 minutes he came back on and advised that all was well and all systems were back up and we would be leaving shortly.  His version of shortly is a little different than mine, but “shortly we did in fact leave the gate and start to move away.  After going about 50 feet we noticed that the plane was starting to go back in the direction it had just departed from.  Again, not a good sign. They made another announcement and indicated that they had detected a leak in the sink of one of the two toilets at the rear of the airplane.  After several lengthy trips to the rear of the plane by the airline maintenance personnel they decided to just lock out that toilet and allow us to proceed, only an hour beyond our original departure time.  Obviously, with a 100% full flight going with only one toilet at the rear of the plane was a major problem for the passengers. 

Upon our arrival at O’Hare Airport in Chicago, we proceeded to taxi for approximately 15 minutes, going the complete circle around one of the terminal buildings and during this time the pilot accidently turned his radio microphone to the wrong position so we were able to hear him ask for directions….not sure who he wanted to talk to but he kept saying “are you still there?”  at which point several us in the plane answered “yep, we are still here”.  Now this next statement might ruffle some feathers, but when the cabin door finally opened and we started to leave I did notice a female officer come out of the cockpit!!!

After our initial flight you would hope our experience with American Airlines would go off smoothly, but not so!  Upon boarding the wide body Boeing 777 for the next leg to Heathrow I noticed that our previously confirmed seats had been changed and they now had Shirley and I on opposite sides of the plane.  

At this point Shirley's negotiating skills came alive and she  quickly had three guys changing their seats so this loving couple celebrating their second wedding anniversary that night could sit together.  We have no idea why they would relocate two people with the same last name under the same reservation so they are seated on different rows and on the opposite side of the plane.

Regardless, we arrived in London to be greeted by a beautiful sunny day.  We are presently waiting at the airport for our daughter Kathy's flight to arrive so we can proceed to our condo located right on the banks of the Thames.