Well we have finally arrived at our final destination: the hotel. It has been an absolutely crazy and exciting journey! I am going to detail the past 30 hours or so and I was planning on including all of the photos I had taken. Unfortunately, I have not yet figured out how to do it and our internet is a little slow but I will be working on it and I promise they will be up soon. :)
At 12:45 yesterday we began loading Dad and Sarah's cars for the long ride to the Baltimore Washington International. We had a total of 8 bags, seven people, one dog and a very large crate! The boys drove in one car (except Tyler, he drove separate) and the girls, including Luna were in the other. Once we got to Baltimore we headed over to a near by mall for dinner and a little shopping. After our time there we headed over to the airport around 7. Once we got there and got the cars unloaded we headed through check in. Our bags were stuffed full and we just barely made it under the weight limit, thank goodness! After check in we spend a little more time together and chowed down on some delicious cupcakes that Sarah surprised us with! Then 30 minutes before boarding time it was time to take Luna to her drop of point. I hated saying goodbye to her; I am such a nervous furmama! Mom, Dad, Kyle and Sarah stood in line right up until we had to go through security. It was so hard to say goodbye but we all did good and were able to hold it together (mostly...).
Once we were through security we waited at our boarding gate for about 20-30 minutes and then we began boarding. I was so excited, it had been about 14 years since I have ridden on a plane so I was like a kid in a candy store. As luck would have it we were in the very last seat, which meant over head storage for us was practically non- existent but thankfully we were able to make it work. At about 10:30 pm we slowly started pulling away from the gate. This is the point where I became extremely nervous because I hadn't gotten my ticket saying that Luna was on the plane. First I asked the flight attendant about it; she didn't know what I was talking about so she said she would ask. Well she took too long to get back to me so I stopped another attendant to ask her. They eventually finally brought me her slip and went down and checked personally, so I was a little needy right off the bat. After I knew she was safely on the flight I felt so much better and was able to actually be excited. Finally we started our way to the run way. I don't know if this is how every airport works but the path so the actual runway was so long and windy I thought maybe we were actually in an airplane version of Mario kart. Once the plane took off we read our good bye journal Sarah gave us which was a journal with notes from friends at our going away party. My mom had also surprised us by having my family write notes on index cards that she was able to add in. It was so awesome to be able to read all those messages as we started out our adventure.
Shortly after that I decided I was ready to try to sleep. Right as I was about to be fully asleep they came around with food and woke me up. It looked horrible but I was hungry and it turned out to be pretty good, well at least the part I ate was! Then I was ready to try to sleep again but this time right as I was on the edge of unconsciousness we hit some big turbulence and we had to put on our seat belts. I finally tried again and this time was awoken by a screaming baby, who screamed for quite a while. FINALLY I had some relief and was able to sleep for an hour or two. When I woke up I had my next meal and then whipped out my Disney Princess coloring book for some quality coloring time. At this point it was about 9:30 am (or about 3:30 back home) and I was able to see outside. I got up for a few minutes to look out the window and even took a few photos. Then when I got back in my seat I took advantage of the TV screens on the seat in front of me that allowed me to see from a camera under the plane, it was really neat (and yes, I didn't take pictures). I wasn't really sure what to expect from the plane but it was a bit bumpy and it reminded me of riding in the bus on marching band trips.
Finally we landed and began the process of getting to the buses. We picked up Luna pretty quickly after we got off but due to some technical difficulties it took quite a while to get our bags. Once we had collecting a few things we went through some very unorganized sorting of who was to go where and then it was off to the buses. Too give you an idea of how long it took we landed at noon and didn't pull off on the buses until 2:30. The scenery was beautiful on the way and I was able to get some picture. We decided that to help with jet lag that we weren't going to sleep on the bus so that we would be able to sleep tonight at the hotel. I am sure Daniel was ready to kick me out of my seat but I had to keep waking him, sometimes literally every few seconds. Two hours onto out bus ride we stopped to eat at a McDonald's, it was much nicer than an American one and it was neat to see things in English and German. The rest of the bus ride went a bit better, even if we did end up dozing off once or twice.
At 8:30 we finally arrived at Vilseck, the connecting base to Graf. We had to get some paper work taken care of then we met up with some friends who were so amazing as to have a cell phone waiting for us. Then we waited for our sponsor to pick us up and take us to the hotel. We checked in around 10 and then went to the shoppette to get some snacks and ordered some delivery. We have a really nice suite with a living room, kitchenette, bedroom and nice bathroom. Attached are photos from everything so far! It's off to bed for us now!
Gute Nacht!
At 12:45 yesterday we began loading Dad and Sarah's cars for the long ride to the Baltimore Washington International. We had a total of 8 bags, seven people, one dog and a very large crate! The boys drove in one car (except Tyler, he drove separate) and the girls, including Luna were in the other. Once we got to Baltimore we headed over to a near by mall for dinner and a little shopping. After our time there we headed over to the airport around 7. Once we got there and got the cars unloaded we headed through check in. Our bags were stuffed full and we just barely made it under the weight limit, thank goodness! After check in we spend a little more time together and chowed down on some delicious cupcakes that Sarah surprised us with! Then 30 minutes before boarding time it was time to take Luna to her drop of point. I hated saying goodbye to her; I am such a nervous furmama! Mom, Dad, Kyle and Sarah stood in line right up until we had to go through security. It was so hard to say goodbye but we all did good and were able to hold it together (mostly...).
Once we were through security we waited at our boarding gate for about 20-30 minutes and then we began boarding. I was so excited, it had been about 14 years since I have ridden on a plane so I was like a kid in a candy store. As luck would have it we were in the very last seat, which meant over head storage for us was practically non- existent but thankfully we were able to make it work. At about 10:30 pm we slowly started pulling away from the gate. This is the point where I became extremely nervous because I hadn't gotten my ticket saying that Luna was on the plane. First I asked the flight attendant about it; she didn't know what I was talking about so she said she would ask. Well she took too long to get back to me so I stopped another attendant to ask her. They eventually finally brought me her slip and went down and checked personally, so I was a little needy right off the bat. After I knew she was safely on the flight I felt so much better and was able to actually be excited. Finally we started our way to the run way. I don't know if this is how every airport works but the path so the actual runway was so long and windy I thought maybe we were actually in an airplane version of Mario kart. Once the plane took off we read our good bye journal Sarah gave us which was a journal with notes from friends at our going away party. My mom had also surprised us by having my family write notes on index cards that she was able to add in. It was so awesome to be able to read all those messages as we started out our adventure.
Shortly after that I decided I was ready to try to sleep. Right as I was about to be fully asleep they came around with food and woke me up. It looked horrible but I was hungry and it turned out to be pretty good, well at least the part I ate was! Then I was ready to try to sleep again but this time right as I was on the edge of unconsciousness we hit some big turbulence and we had to put on our seat belts. I finally tried again and this time was awoken by a screaming baby, who screamed for quite a while. FINALLY I had some relief and was able to sleep for an hour or two. When I woke up I had my next meal and then whipped out my Disney Princess coloring book for some quality coloring time. At this point it was about 9:30 am (or about 3:30 back home) and I was able to see outside. I got up for a few minutes to look out the window and even took a few photos. Then when I got back in my seat I took advantage of the TV screens on the seat in front of me that allowed me to see from a camera under the plane, it was really neat (and yes, I didn't take pictures). I wasn't really sure what to expect from the plane but it was a bit bumpy and it reminded me of riding in the bus on marching band trips.
Finally we landed and began the process of getting to the buses. We picked up Luna pretty quickly after we got off but due to some technical difficulties it took quite a while to get our bags. Once we had collecting a few things we went through some very unorganized sorting of who was to go where and then it was off to the buses. Too give you an idea of how long it took we landed at noon and didn't pull off on the buses until 2:30. The scenery was beautiful on the way and I was able to get some picture. We decided that to help with jet lag that we weren't going to sleep on the bus so that we would be able to sleep tonight at the hotel. I am sure Daniel was ready to kick me out of my seat but I had to keep waking him, sometimes literally every few seconds. Two hours onto out bus ride we stopped to eat at a McDonald's, it was much nicer than an American one and it was neat to see things in English and German. The rest of the bus ride went a bit better, even if we did end up dozing off once or twice.
At 8:30 we finally arrived at Vilseck, the connecting base to Graf. We had to get some paper work taken care of then we met up with some friends who were so amazing as to have a cell phone waiting for us. Then we waited for our sponsor to pick us up and take us to the hotel. We checked in around 10 and then went to the shoppette to get some snacks and ordered some delivery. We have a really nice suite with a living room, kitchenette, bedroom and nice bathroom. Attached are photos from everything so far! It's off to bed for us now!
Gute Nacht!
Hey glad to hear you guys made it there and doing good.. I hope you enjoy it there. I would love to visit Germany again.. - Kris @ Pretty Pawz
ReplyDelete