Fly Away

Last night’s sleep was brief. I couldn’t get to sleep and then didn’t stay asleep. I haven’t been sleeping great anyway, then add in suitcase anxiety (small) and getting a covid test and passing the test (not much worry, but people test positive with no symptoms, so…) and I slept about 3 hours. I went to the lower level of our hotel to get my test and I passed uneventfully at 6:20am. Uneventfully until the tester couldn’t get the computer to work. She is not new to her job, she had already tested someone else this morning and everything worked fine. It would not let her enter my birthday. You might not know, but I have a bit of a history with computer glitches. I go by a computer and it glitches. It took an extra 20 minutes, and she ended up having to get an iPad to do it, but I got the necessary documentation.

We packed up the last suitcase and had weight to spare! We had almost 2 pounds of extra space! Woohooo! We loaded up two carts in the lobby and off we went. We had the best airport checker-in-er person ever. She did not weight-shame us for one second. She thought it was too bad that our trip was cut short, but we told her it was all good, just different than expected. Because we were flying comfort supreme happiness (Keith says it was actually called premium select)(It is just in seats that actually fit an adult, and they give you headphones instead of earbuds)(And a granola bar), we got two free checked bags each (part of why we chose that class)(and we used miles instead of money and it was on a miles sale) and got to go up the secret escalator to the special people security check. Cool. We expected Keith’s trumpet case (one trumpet, one cornet) + 2 lap tops would get the extra once over, but both of my carry on bags had to be hand searched. They tested my Caerphilly castle guide book – luckily Caerphilly castle wasn’t trying to get me in trouble – and looked at my camera battery and I was free to go. The guy just studied Keith’s case’s x-ray and sent us on our way.

We stopped by my favorite clock to watch the man inside painting on the minute hand, then headed to the duty free shop.

We’ve never purchased anything from duty free before, but we have been looking at bringing back a bottle of whiskey/whisky for our neighbor who took care of plowing and shoveling snow for us. We know he likes such an item and we thought bringing some Penderyn from Wales would be good. But it’s heavy. In researching, we found that duty free has stuff that is only available at duty free, so that is where the interest should lie. If we got it at the airport, we wouldn’t have to pack it! Having absolutely no knowledge in the area of spirits, we walked around a lot and googled a lot, and ended up with an unpronounceable bottle from Scotland. I liked it. Alcohol bottles are pretty. We did not get the bottle of McCallan, although I suspect our neighbor would have liked it.

The plane was good. We watched King Richard (Venus/Serena Williams story)(Very good), The House of Gucci (Keith fell asleep for an hour in the middle and didn’t miss anything. Lady Gaga is just beautiful in it. Good, but slow), Ghostbusters: Afterlife (ohmygoodness, After Life is our Netflix show. We finished it on Saturday night. Season 3 wasn’t as good as 1&2 – kinda too much of the gross character – but still good)(Ghostbusters was very good – not scary at all. A fun trip for those of us who loved the original), and I rewatched half of Encanto. I definitely had waves of tiredness – at one point I wondered why I was wearing earmuffs on the plane….mmmm, those earmuffs are called head phones and they let you hear the movie. I used the bathroom and someone had obviously flushed without closing the lid. The walls and floor were very wet. I didn’t actually know you could flush with the seat up. We told the flight attendant and she says it happens all the time. Huh.

Friends Anne and Dave picked us up from the airport. We sent Dave a text that said we landed and he said yes, he knew, and sent us back a picture of our plane. Until very recently, he might have been the one flying our plane, since the MSP to Amsterdam route was his usual route. Dave came right in and rolled one cart of luggage out – while Anne waited in the van. Anne made us welcome home taco soup, since she correctly figured we wouldn’t have groceries in the house. What thoughtful and kind friends!!

The day was beautifully warm and the snow is melting. We got to our door and found more gifts from friends. Louise and Tom left a cooler with pizza, apples, waffles, maple syrup, maple butter, eggs, bread, toffee pretzels, and sparkling mandarin water. I can’t even believe how nice and kind and thoughtful people are. I will admit to tearing up at that point. Our adventure was fantastic, but our people are even better.

THEN, Alexander brought us McDonald’s (We love McDonald’s – all three of us)(I can’t thank the food bringers enough because I am really sure I am not going to be organized enough tomorrow to go grocery shopping and I am sooooo glad we will have food already here). We heard about what he’s been doing (Tiki Bar in Stillwater on a Wednesday night?)(Yes)(If that doesn’t strike you as bizarre, you don’t know Alexander)(Turns out a middle school friend plays piano there and Alexander heard about it and thought he would show up after 10 years and surprise him)(he was surprised)(a very good time was had by all), because he said he has been reading the blog every day (every day!) and knew all about our trip. (He did want to understand the umbrella and tried it out in person)

Keith had to run to CVS to pick up prescriptions, so he dropped me at Maren’s so I could bring her her present – cherry cola tic tacs (this is a very extravagant trip) and so that I wouldn’t go to sleep while he was gone. He texted that he was back and I made it out the door in only 6 minutes. He was sound asleep.

My laptop still thinks it is in Amsterdam and it is 3am, which means I have been awake for 22 hours. That seems about long enough. G’night