Getting Away

7:20 Am Frankfurt:

Well, we made it through the first ring of hell. And it was actually fine. The bassinet that Lufthansa offers is wonderful. Annabelle had a bottle on takeoff and fell asleep soon afterwards. She slept for about 4 hours of the 7 hour flight.

Sadly, you find me living up to a stereotype. I always hate doing the expected but I figure I deserve a break today (wasn’t that the old McDonald’s slogan). Yes, I am sitting in the McD’s in the Frankfurt airport. I was looking for a lounge to go to but the Euro lounge doesn’t exist any longer and there is another lounge, but it doesn’t open until 9am so I wandered around until the neon arches caught my attention.

Annabelle is sacked out and I’ve just enjoyed the traditional breakfast of Americans the world round, French fries and a coke. Yum!

Well, hopefully the next flight will be as smooth but there is no bassinet and it’s not an overnight flight so Annabelle will be awake for most of it. It’ll be interesting but at least I’ve got a bellyful of junk food to keep me going!

Much later….

Well the flight from Frankfurt to Dulles was as good as a nine hour flight can be. I was stuck in the middle of the row, but got a bulkhead seat and because it was a 747, they did have a bassinet so that worked out great. Annabelle was less patient with my cruelty in putting her through such contortions this time. She fussed for about 3 hours, which was painful. But then fell asleep for the rest of the trip. All in all it was as good as it could have been.

Dulles was an absolute nightmare. It was worse than any experience in any airport I’ve ever been to – and remember, I’ve been to some doozies. It was definitely the 9^th ring of hell – people shoving, shouting, sweating. The lack of organization is absolutely stunning. I’ve just never seen anything like it. Anyway, I don’t think I would have survived if not for two guardian angel women who saw me with this kid hanging off me, too many bags that weighed too many pounds, and no luggage cart. They each grabbed a bag, threw them on top of theirs (they had luggage carts) and we inched through the hellish swarm together.

Somewhere, Annabelle became a US citizen, but the moment was lost in the frenzy.

We barely made our flight to Minneapolis, it was like a bad movie with me running through the airport with the bags fluttering behind me, Annabelle flopping in the Bjorn and finally sliding through the gate door just as it was closing.

I had dreams of showing up in Minneapolis with Annabelle dressed in a cute outfit and me freshened up and smelling great. Instead, she was in clothes smeared with food, poop, and drool, my hair was standing up and neither of us smelled very pleasant. But damn was it good to be home.

Except, did I mention that Dulles lost my luggage?

But damn it was good to be home.

I left Annabelle with my dad and Mom and I went out for Thai food.

Damn was it good to be home!

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