Our flight left around 3:00 from Heathrow. We took our time getting out of the hotel and made our way to the tube to get to Heathrow. We had to transfer from one rail line to a tube line that would take us to Heathrow. We were trying to avoid having to carry the bags up and down stairs so we asked someone who was working on the train and he gave us the best route. We did have to go up a long steep escalator and had a little incident while we were on it. Jarret went first, then me, then Rylee and Jill was last. When Rylee got on, she had one foot on one step, the other foot on the next step and her bag partway on the third step. As the escalator was moving, she lost her balance and fell into Jill. I heard the commotion and as I looked back, I could see Jill falling on the escalator. I handed Jarret my bag and hurried to get to Jill and Rylee. As I got to Jill, her feet were facing up towards the top of the escalator and two very nice British ladies were keeping her from falling down any farther. She was able to get herself turned around so that she could sit on the steps as it was moving until she could get her balance. I'm still not sure how we got the bags without them falling all the way down the steps. It was a scary moment because the escalator was still moving as all of this was happening. All Jill could think about was to try to get turned around. Needless to say, we managed to get everyone standing before we got to the top of the escalator and we got all of the baggage off without any more problems. Jill got her knee scraped up but we're lucky that she didn't have any more serious injuries. The whole thing happened so fast, from the time I saw her fall to the time we got to the top of the escalator was probably less than 1 minute, but it seemed a lot longer than that.
We managed to get to the airport in plenty of time. I had to turn in our personal wi-fi device and was going to try to get some of our VAT tax back from some of our purchases. The line was really long and since we didn't have that much, we decided to skip it. We got through security without any problem and decided to get a little lunch since we had some time. After lunch, we hit a small gift shop and decided to buy a couple of last minute items. We started to look for our gate, I thought we were in the right area for it, but found out that we still had a ways to go. We had to follow the way to a train that would take us to our section of the airport where we could board the plane. It turns out that it took us a while to get there and by the time we got to our gate they had already started boarding. I don't like to cut things so close but we made it on the plane and on our way back home.
The flight home was smoother than the flight over until we got to Seattle. We had just started our descent and looked like we were getting ready to land when all of a sudden they hit the gas and we started to climb again. After a few minutes they came on the speaker and said there was an issue that they had to take care of and that they had figured out the problem. The plane continued banking around the area until we could get back in line in order to land. The landing was a little hard but we made it home safely. We managed to get our bags, go through customs, and get back into our Honda chariot for the drive home.
The drive home was fine. We stopped in North Bend to get some food and then continued on our way. Once the kids finished their food, they went to sleep and slept the whole way home. I wasn't too tired until we got to about Moses Lake. We stopped for some gas and I tried one of those 5-hour energy drinks. Well it worked for about an hour and a half but it was long enough to get us safely back home. It was nice to get back and sleep in our own beds for a change.
It's been about a month since we got back and it's still hard to believe that we were there. We got to watch some of the Olympics on TV after we got home and it was really fun to see an event at a location that we had seen first hand. I've also caught things on TV where they're in England and I recognize some of the sites. I don't think I'll ever watch a show about England or Paris the same way again. I saw someone on the news that was in front of Buckingham Palace and I recognized where they were and how we had been at the same place. I also watched part of a documentary about WWII when Germany occupied France and they showed a picture of Hitler looking out over the Eiffel Tower. It looked like the vantage point was similar to the location when we first saw the Eiffel Tower. It sure gives things a different perspective, especially when you can directly relate to it in some manner.
We're so glad and fortunate to have taken this trip with our kids. They're just the right age so that they'll remember it for their entire life. Both of our kids loved London and I'll bet money on it that they'll go back there sometime. Now it's time to start planning for the next trip.....you'll have to wait to see where we end up....
