Traveling Home

Starting the almost 30 hour trip home we began by heading to the airport before 4 am, with a flight at 6:20.  We got our tickets and got in a pretty long line for baggage claim.  The line was slow moving with one particular passenger having about 9 bags that needed to be repacked and didn't speak English or Italian it seemed.  She managed to tie up about 3 out of 4 of the attendants at any given moment.  Luckily Italian airport security lines are much more relaxed than in the US and we moved quickly though it.

Like all of our flights our group tended to switch around seats.  On the first flight my mom switched with Robert so we could sit together and long and behold my mom ended up sitting by the "bag lady".  Robert turned around and told her he owed her a coffee.. little did we know he probably owed her a steak dinner as she had a "interesting" flight.  The lady we later found out was headed for Peru, made an impression on my mom starting when she pointed and demanded my mom's cookie she was given by the stewardess for her "bambinos" then proceeded to take it.  Later in the flight my mom watched as she swiped a pop off the cart meanwhile asking for a 2nd pop from the stewardess (i.e. really here 3rd)... later came the breakfast sandwiches which she repeated the action swiping one off the cart and getting 2 from the stewardess.

We arrived in Amsterdam after the first leg of our flight for a four hour layover which I picked up some tulip bulbs to plant.  We had to be at our gate for checkin about 1.5 hours early as it was an international flight.  The 9+ hour flight acutally went by pretty quickly and most in our group stayed awake watching movies the entire flight.  I read some and managed to watch 3 movies.

When we arrived in Minneapolis our 6 hour layover went by quickly as well for going through customs took awhile and then we had to grab some dinner before our late night flight.  I was glad to finally be able to use my phone after a week and a half break.  Our group started to show signs of fatigue right before our last flight to Boise so it was no surprise most tried to sleep on the last flight.  We got home around midnight last night and 7 of us made our way to my house to crash for the night. It felt great to sleep in my own bed last night (our mattress is quite a bit softer than those in Italy) and to see our puppy dogs and cat.  

Shirley, Mom, Grandma and Grandpa left by 8 am this morning for their drive to Oregon while Robert and i started in on unpacking and laundry.

I will have a few more posts now that i have time to add more photos.  I also have the favorite moments from all the passengers and our tour director from our trip to share.. so look for more posts soon.

Great vacation and also glad to be home!