We took the overnight train from Inverness to Euston and then caught a bus from Euston to Paddington. We checked our luggage at Paddington so we could go breakfast without having to drage everything around (which was especially a problem given Lori's lack of wheels on her suitcase situation). We finished breakfast more quickly than anticipated, but after two weeks away from home and putting in 12-15 hours days of Having Fun and Seeing Stuff, and also being tired from being cheapskates and not getting bunks on the train, we decided that we'd just go to the airport early rather than try and do anything else, which turned out to be a good thing.
When we got back to Paddington we learned that the express train that usually runs between Paddington and the airport was not running that day. At all. Awesome. Which meant taking the tube. Which meant adding money to our card, crowds, changing lines, and generally taking way longer to get to the plane than planned. Which was fine because we'd ended up leaving earlier than intended anyway.
So we got to Heathrow about when I had planned only to discover that somehow I'd gotten the time of our flight completely wrong and/or that the time of our flight had changed and I'd missed the memo and that we had six minutes to check in if we wanted to be on the flight. Which, obviously, we did. Luckily, six minutes turned out to be just enough time since the attendant let us check in at the fancy people check in. We did not check in soon enough to get seats together, but we were close enough, and just happy to be permitted on board. We raced through the airport and made it to the gate just in time to walk onto the plane. *Phew!* Talk about stressful.
The flight back was WAY more grueling than the flight to London and my ankles were like three times their normal size by the time we finally landed (though, in fairness, that had already started on the train). As per tradition, we stopped at In'N'Out on our way home from the airport.
I had one day in California before my flight back home, which I spent pretending that I could TOTALLY run on five hours of real sleep after almost a solid 24 of travel and then hanging out with 'my brother's family. We had dinner and made birthday cake to celebrate the fact that my birthday was the next day, and generally had a lovely time. And then it was time for me to go back to real life.
I loved going on this trip with Lori. It was an epic adventure and it was really awesome to have some time to really get to know my baby sister who a lot of the time is still just five years old in my head. She's not five anymore and she's a wonderful young woman. I'm SO excited for her to head up to college and spread her wings because she's going to be great!!!
And now I can't wait for when it's Kolby's turn to graduate and pick somewhere awesome and fun for us to go!
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