Well after a scare that we were not going to make our flight we have arrived in London. I will give you the full story. Monday we left the house at 1:00pm to catch our 7:14pm flight out of San Francisco direct to London Heathrow. On our way down to San Francisco from Mom and Dad Kelly's house we were caught in bumper to bumper traffic. Labor day on the road is not a fun place to be on Monday afternoon on the I-80 heading east. When I said bumper to bumper I mean it literally too. We actually got re-ended by a person behind us. Luckily there was no damage to Dad's car but the minivan who hit us will remember as he has an imprint of Dad's trailer hitch in his bumper. I have never been in a car that was hit before so this was a first for me. We were only going 5 mph so it felt like I was in a bumper car and got hit from behind. No injuries were had, thank goodness!
So back to the traffic-yuck! When we did not get out of Sacramento until two hours later I thought we never would make it. Usually to get to San Fran only takes a little over two hours. We actually got up to 65 mph at one point so I thought yes this is looking good. Just as I thought this again we were slowed down to 10mph or less. Well traffic we sat in on and off, but we arrived at the airport just in time at 5:00pm to check in for our international flight to London. With our 6 huge duffel bags at 50 lbs each, 3 carry ons, the porta-crib, stroller, carseat, diaper bag, and laptop computer bag we checked in and were going to make our flight.
The flight could not have been better. Mason was the best baby EVER!! I fed him rice cereal as we were loading and then fed him his milk as we were taking off. I then set him in his car seat put a blanket over him and he talked himself to sleep. He slept the whole 10 hr flight only to awake 20 min before landing. So I fed him as we were landing and then he was smiling at every passenger and greeting them as we waited to get off the plane last. We put him in his stroller and he fell back asleep as we went through customs and gathered our bags. We managed all our bags by ourselves to the taxi line. When we told the taxi driver we were staying at the Holiday Inn in Stratford he did not want to take us there as he said it would take forever to get across the city today due to a underground tube strike. Yes All the tubes were closed. After a few moments one guy decided to take us and our bags. We barely fit, but we did it! Mason again was wonderful. He sat in his seat playing with toys and then fell asleep the last 30 minutes of the 1 hour ride.
So we made it to our hotel where we have a reservation until Sunday. The first thing we did today was to get a cell phone so we could contact letting agents to look for a place to live. We rode the tube to Walstead (yeah no strike today!) to go to a letting agent in the area since all the properties they post online are actually not available you really do not know what is out there. After visiting three agents and them telling us there is nothing available unitl October I was getting discouraged. We then went into another and he had one available in two weeks that was a little higher then what we wanted to pay but we thought we better look and see. So we have an apt. tomorrow to look at the place. We then called around to other letting agents from our hotel and have three more properties to look at tomorrow as well. Then on Friday we have 2 more set up so far. I think we may not be homeless! Hopefully one of these places will work out. Please pray for us that we will find a safe place within our budget to live.
Mason has been doing well despite the 8 hour time change and getting Grandma's nasty cough/cold. Thomas is also sick with a cold and is sleeping as I type this. I am staying healthy and hope I will continue. Well, that is the update for now. Sorry no pics but with the stress we had getting to the airport we did not have time to take any pics as there really was no down time.
We love all of you and will keep you updated as our journey/adventure continues.
Love,
Kristin, Thomas, and Mason
8 comments:
hope you have fun... i'm jealous!
how stressful! Glad that you made it safe, and glad that Mason was so perfect on that long flight! Can't wait for pictures. We'll have to start skyping soon.
What a stressful trip to the airport. I would have been freaking out!! I'm glad Mason was such an angel on the way there. Good luck finding a place to live! Miss you.
The US is just not the same without the Roses. Glad to hear you guys made it okay and I'm to hear Mason was amazing. Good luck with finding a place, hope everything works out smoothly. Cannot wait to talk (skype) with you guys again soon!
What a relief that Mason was so good for the flights. That is always the part that I worry about. Hopefully you guys will get a place to stay in, it seems like you have a lot of possibilities. We'll keep our fingers crossed. Hugs!!
What an exciting time for you guys!!!
Sounds like a great adventure! Hope everything goes well for you!
Glad that you made it to London safe and sound. Good luck looking for housing. I'm so jealous. I've never been to England. Have fun!
Post a Comment