Fjord Cruise - Day 1
On July 24th, we woke up at 3:30am to start getting ready for our vacation. The day before, we brought Kara (and half of her room) over to my parents' house, so they were all happily sleeping and Kara was none-the-wiser (our approach to not letting HER get anxious about us leaving was to just not bring it up unless she asked - and she never did!).
We got up, showered, I did my hair (because there's nothing more comforting to me on such a long day than to be able to twirl my hair - I've been a hair twirler my whole life and I'm glad it's socially acceptable, unlike sucking my thumb), ate breakfast, and we loaded the car to go pick up our friends who were coming with us. We pulled out of the driveway at 4:59am and left our house behind as we started one of the greatest adventures I'll ever take.
Steve and Maureen Shannon usually go with us on cruises and are actually Lara's parents. Even though they are a full generation older than us, we have a ton in common, including love of a card game called bridge. We play bridge with them every week - we've been doing this for 7 years now. Bridge every week PLUS cruises.
The Shannons had a rough night with thunderstorms and power outages and they were not feeling super chipper for their long trek for the day. So, I drove to the airport (which was great - I didn't get carsick). We decided to fly out of Dulles (even though it's an hour away, and there's usually traffic, even though BWI is 10 minutes away) because there is a direct flight to Heathrow in London. Direct flights are a saving grace to this anxiety ridden woman. If I'm going to fly over an ocean and be cool with it, I need to not have to worry about missing my connection.
We got to Dulles in about an hour, unloaded out suitcases and bags, and Michael parked the truck in the parking lot and rode the shuttle back to meet up with us. We decided this was easier than all of us getting on the shuttle with all our luggage. Especially since our flight didn't leave until 9:30 and it currently wasn't even 7am yet. Ah, nice and early. I love it. (We had to put a ton of extra time in there in case traffic was worse.)
Dulles was very smooth and my xanax was flowing beautifully through my veins. I just took my day one step at a time and didn't think about anything except what I was doing right then. While we were waiting for Michael, we found scales, so we all weighed our suitcases and I had to reshuffle ours. We were over a bit. Then the most handsome man on the planet walked through the doors and towards us - it was Michael and the truck was parked. So we got in the short line (thank you priority access - you were worth every penny), got our boarding passes, and dropped off our suitcases.
Then we walked forever to get through security, then we walked a ton more to get the shuttle, then we walked a ton more to get to our gate. Dulles is big, man.
Oh, I forgot to tell you, while we were waiting for Michael to get back from parking the truck, we got a text that our flight was delayed TWO HOURS. lol! Anxiety me would have been crying because we could have slept later than 3:30am had we known that yesterday, but anxiety-free me decided it was cool because traffic was super light before rush hour anyway. Now we can go have some more food. I'm ready for second breakfast - those poptarts I ate 4 hours ago are gone.
We ate at Potbelly (which I had no idea had delicious breakfast sandwiches) and filled up our empty water bottles. I just now found out they have water bottle filling stations in the airport since you can't bring water through security. So, you just pack empty bottles and fill them up after security. For free. Genius. And they have signs there saying something like, "you just saved 900,000 bottles from being used by reusing yours" or something equally satisfying.
So, we ate, we were cool, and we talked. Everything was great, anxiety was low, and I wondered who I was because normally I'd be dry heaving from the delay and what we were about to do. But, I wore my "HIS" necklace and remembered that I gave this trip to the Lord and He was in control of it. He was on the plane waiting for me, he was on the ship waiting for me, and he was protecting Kara. Nothing was going to happen that he didn't already allow to happen.
Then we got bored and played on our phones. Lol!
I went and got a coffee and scone and sipped it luxuriously. (Is taking your time drinking coffee a vacation for you too? Most days it's how I measure a good day vs a bad day - being able to sip my coffee down to the last drop.)
Finally they called us to get on the plane. Since I'd been so cool about just sitting in my chair and drinking my coffee, I said, "holy moly, we're about to fly to LONDON!" lol! I was still cool as a cucumber, but it shocked me a bit. I kept hearing Joey from friends saying, "In London?!" Remember that episode? When he found out about Chandler and Monica?
As we got on the plane, we enjoyed our Economy Plus seats - they were a tiny upgrade that gave us 5 extra inches of legroom, which wasn't as nice as the full on beds first class got, but honestly I really felt a lot more comfortable with those 5 extra inches. I have long legs. But wait! Our bags don't fit under the seats in front of us. All the high tech outlets and such they provide took up a lot of the usual space and we'd have to put our bags *gulp* in the space above us. That is usually so stressful for me because they fill up fast and my stuff is far away from me and I have to get up every time I want something and and and well, it's a control thing. Since we had Economy Plus and Priority Boarding (yes, worth every penny), we were the first to get on the plane and the overhead bins were still empty and it was no big deal. We sat down after putting our stuff up there and I looked at Michael and said, "wow, our stuff is up there and we're still alive." Yes, my anxiety is really that bad.
Of course, once we got on the plane, we sat there for another hour before we got going and I thanked God for the invention of direct flights. There was no connecting flight we would miss, we would not have to sleep in the airport and wait until the next day to fly, we would not miss our cruise ship because of this, we were prepared. And I was sitting next to Michael. Who is my favorite. Ever.
Every seat had touch screens full of free movies, tv, music, games, and a map of where we were with stats about our flight. AND there were American outlets in between every seat so you could use your own devices without worry of them running out of juice. I loved all of it. Flying internationally is fabulous. Except for the food - they serve traditional airplane food. Yuck.
So, in between movies (I watched Divergent, Saving Mr. Banks, and some tv shows), I checked in with our flight maps and stats.
Then we were there! Landing in London! We ended up being delayed 3 hours, but I can think of worse things that could have happened on that flight (think LOST), so I was super happy. And traveling with Michael is fun - usually he travels with work, I travel with Kara only, and we never go anywhere big together.
Just when I thought Dulles was big, Heathrow is the biggest airport ever created! We walked and walked and walked and walked. It was unreal. The fact that it was 1am and completely empty made it seem even bigger.
We waited forever for our luggage, then headed out to get the shuttle to our hotel. But, it was 1:30am, so the shuttles weren't running. Anxiety, stay away, we will take a taxi. Taxis won't take credit cards, even though the sticker on their windows clearly picture all the credit cards they accept, and they won't accept American dollars. And all banks in the airport are closed. And none of us have ATM cards. So, my anxiety stayed away and I sleepily wondered what was going on and why we weren't in our London hotel bed yet. Steve took off for the airport (which was so far away) and returned a long time later with 20 pounds. God sent him an airport worker who graciously exchanged money with him, which she probably wasn't supposed to do, but we had no other option. Steve tipped the taxi driver 50 cents. Thanks a lot dude.
We arrived at the hotel around 2:30am to a trainee behind the desk. There was someone who know what they were doing next to him, but the trainee insisted he could do it, so it took a good 30 minutes to check in. We had our luggage, were safely there, and it looked like a nice hotel, so I was still super cool, even though I ingested my last xanax a good 24 hours ago. This was all God. I waited patiently for the trainee to give us our room keys and tell us when breakfast would be served.
By then, our room (which I upgraded to an executive King) was an oasis and after a shower (it was SO HOT in Heathrow - they turned the A/C off overnight!), we were snug in our beds by 3am. I'd say it was almost 24 hours later, except for the 5 hour time difference - it felt like 10pm to us. But, after the long day, it DID feel 3am after all. :-)
We slept HARD that night. Didn't hear a peep, didn't move, and woke up with sore backs from sleeping so hard and not moving at all. lol!
My anxiety was still not there at all. I'm telling you, traveling is usually what makes it the worst ever, so it was miraculous. I felt great! God is so good!
We got up, showered, I did my hair (because there's nothing more comforting to me on such a long day than to be able to twirl my hair - I've been a hair twirler my whole life and I'm glad it's socially acceptable, unlike sucking my thumb), ate breakfast, and we loaded the car to go pick up our friends who were coming with us. We pulled out of the driveway at 4:59am and left our house behind as we started one of the greatest adventures I'll ever take.
Steve and Maureen Shannon usually go with us on cruises and are actually Lara's parents. Even though they are a full generation older than us, we have a ton in common, including love of a card game called bridge. We play bridge with them every week - we've been doing this for 7 years now. Bridge every week PLUS cruises.
The Shannons had a rough night with thunderstorms and power outages and they were not feeling super chipper for their long trek for the day. So, I drove to the airport (which was great - I didn't get carsick). We decided to fly out of Dulles (even though it's an hour away, and there's usually traffic, even though BWI is 10 minutes away) because there is a direct flight to Heathrow in London. Direct flights are a saving grace to this anxiety ridden woman. If I'm going to fly over an ocean and be cool with it, I need to not have to worry about missing my connection.
We got to Dulles in about an hour, unloaded out suitcases and bags, and Michael parked the truck in the parking lot and rode the shuttle back to meet up with us. We decided this was easier than all of us getting on the shuttle with all our luggage. Especially since our flight didn't leave until 9:30 and it currently wasn't even 7am yet. Ah, nice and early. I love it. (We had to put a ton of extra time in there in case traffic was worse.)
Dulles was very smooth and my xanax was flowing beautifully through my veins. I just took my day one step at a time and didn't think about anything except what I was doing right then. While we were waiting for Michael, we found scales, so we all weighed our suitcases and I had to reshuffle ours. We were over a bit. Then the most handsome man on the planet walked through the doors and towards us - it was Michael and the truck was parked. So we got in the short line (thank you priority access - you were worth every penny), got our boarding passes, and dropped off our suitcases.
Then we walked forever to get through security, then we walked a ton more to get the shuttle, then we walked a ton more to get to our gate. Dulles is big, man.
Here we are waiting for the shuttle
Oh, I forgot to tell you, while we were waiting for Michael to get back from parking the truck, we got a text that our flight was delayed TWO HOURS. lol! Anxiety me would have been crying because we could have slept later than 3:30am had we known that yesterday, but anxiety-free me decided it was cool because traffic was super light before rush hour anyway. Now we can go have some more food. I'm ready for second breakfast - those poptarts I ate 4 hours ago are gone.
We ate at Potbelly (which I had no idea had delicious breakfast sandwiches) and filled up our empty water bottles. I just now found out they have water bottle filling stations in the airport since you can't bring water through security. So, you just pack empty bottles and fill them up after security. For free. Genius. And they have signs there saying something like, "you just saved 900,000 bottles from being used by reusing yours" or something equally satisfying.
So, we ate, we were cool, and we talked. Everything was great, anxiety was low, and I wondered who I was because normally I'd be dry heaving from the delay and what we were about to do. But, I wore my "HIS" necklace and remembered that I gave this trip to the Lord and He was in control of it. He was on the plane waiting for me, he was on the ship waiting for me, and he was protecting Kara. Nothing was going to happen that he didn't already allow to happen.
Then we got bored and played on our phones. Lol!
I went and got a coffee and scone and sipped it luxuriously. (Is taking your time drinking coffee a vacation for you too? Most days it's how I measure a good day vs a bad day - being able to sip my coffee down to the last drop.)
Finally they called us to get on the plane. Since I'd been so cool about just sitting in my chair and drinking my coffee, I said, "holy moly, we're about to fly to LONDON!" lol! I was still cool as a cucumber, but it shocked me a bit. I kept hearing Joey from friends saying, "In London?!" Remember that episode? When he found out about Chandler and Monica?
As we got on the plane, we enjoyed our Economy Plus seats - they were a tiny upgrade that gave us 5 extra inches of legroom, which wasn't as nice as the full on beds first class got, but honestly I really felt a lot more comfortable with those 5 extra inches. I have long legs. But wait! Our bags don't fit under the seats in front of us. All the high tech outlets and such they provide took up a lot of the usual space and we'd have to put our bags *gulp* in the space above us. That is usually so stressful for me because they fill up fast and my stuff is far away from me and I have to get up every time I want something and and and well, it's a control thing. Since we had Economy Plus and Priority Boarding (yes, worth every penny), we were the first to get on the plane and the overhead bins were still empty and it was no big deal. We sat down after putting our stuff up there and I looked at Michael and said, "wow, our stuff is up there and we're still alive." Yes, my anxiety is really that bad.
Of course, once we got on the plane, we sat there for another hour before we got going and I thanked God for the invention of direct flights. There was no connecting flight we would miss, we would not have to sleep in the airport and wait until the next day to fly, we would not miss our cruise ship because of this, we were prepared. And I was sitting next to Michael. Who is my favorite. Ever.
Every seat had touch screens full of free movies, tv, music, games, and a map of where we were with stats about our flight. AND there were American outlets in between every seat so you could use your own devices without worry of them running out of juice. I loved all of it. Flying internationally is fabulous. Except for the food - they serve traditional airplane food. Yuck.
So, in between movies (I watched Divergent, Saving Mr. Banks, and some tv shows), I checked in with our flight maps and stats.
Then we were there! Landing in London! We ended up being delayed 3 hours, but I can think of worse things that could have happened on that flight (think LOST), so I was super happy. And traveling with Michael is fun - usually he travels with work, I travel with Kara only, and we never go anywhere big together.
Just when I thought Dulles was big, Heathrow is the biggest airport ever created! We walked and walked and walked and walked. It was unreal. The fact that it was 1am and completely empty made it seem even bigger.
In the effort of staying calm and just focusing on what I'm doing right now, I admired the cool lines of the escalator.
Oh, look, I know him!
I know them too! They were so tired and probably thought I was crazy for taking their picture after a long day and a long flight, but they were happy I wasn't sprinting to the bathroom with an anxiety attack, so they went with it. :-)
We waited forever for our luggage, then headed out to get the shuttle to our hotel. But, it was 1:30am, so the shuttles weren't running. Anxiety, stay away, we will take a taxi. Taxis won't take credit cards, even though the sticker on their windows clearly picture all the credit cards they accept, and they won't accept American dollars. And all banks in the airport are closed. And none of us have ATM cards. So, my anxiety stayed away and I sleepily wondered what was going on and why we weren't in our London hotel bed yet. Steve took off for the airport (which was so far away) and returned a long time later with 20 pounds. God sent him an airport worker who graciously exchanged money with him, which she probably wasn't supposed to do, but we had no other option. Steve tipped the taxi driver 50 cents. Thanks a lot dude.
We arrived at the hotel around 2:30am to a trainee behind the desk. There was someone who know what they were doing next to him, but the trainee insisted he could do it, so it took a good 30 minutes to check in. We had our luggage, were safely there, and it looked like a nice hotel, so I was still super cool, even though I ingested my last xanax a good 24 hours ago. This was all God. I waited patiently for the trainee to give us our room keys and tell us when breakfast would be served.
By then, our room (which I upgraded to an executive King) was an oasis and after a shower (it was SO HOT in Heathrow - they turned the A/C off overnight!), we were snug in our beds by 3am. I'd say it was almost 24 hours later, except for the 5 hour time difference - it felt like 10pm to us. But, after the long day, it DID feel 3am after all. :-)
We slept HARD that night. Didn't hear a peep, didn't move, and woke up with sore backs from sleeping so hard and not moving at all. lol!
My anxiety was still not there at all. I'm telling you, traveling is usually what makes it the worst ever, so it was miraculous. I felt great! God is so good!
Comments
Enjoy traveling without anxiety for both of us! Don't take it for granted. :-)