Welcome Back to Blighty

For his birthday, Charles asked only that he be allowed to get off the plane here in England. In other words, he wanted our marathon travel experience to be over, and to fall into the welcoming arms of the delicious and much-missed Bart and Tony.

Long story short*: success! As you can see above, Bart remains as saucy as always. Perhaps a tad saucier.


And Tony's grown a bit of a faux-hawk for our visit. We love it, and might obtain some hair gel so Iain can copy the look.

Kira, who as you can see is totally relaxed, couldn't care less whether Iain's hair goes up in the middle or not. She just wants a nice brush down.


It's spring, so Kira and Cooper are shedding like mad. Bart and I rewarded their excellent baby behavior (Cooper is so patient) with fifteen minutes of solid brushing. That put a tiny dent in their piles of thick, glossy fur. A tiny dent. Iain finds them, and Cooper especially, very interesting. I wonder if he thought all dogs were brown with short hair.


Here's the birthday boy, relaxing after our epic journey. It's so nice to sink into a puffy leather sofa, enjoy a cuppa, and know that no one is going to demand to see our passport for a good while.

*Long story:

• We waited for an hour and a half in the line to check in at Dulles. The reason the line took so long was two-fold. First, British Airways had 3 lines, and they checked in people on earlier flights with 3 or 4 members of staff. They allocated only one woman to our line, since we departed later. Second, a party of about 20 had a single person in the line. When he got to the front, the entire mechanism ground to a halt. It turned out that he was checking in all 20 of the party, and checking more than 50 bags. You read that right. It took more than an hour, and in that time the line failed to move at all. At. All. Finally, the earlier flights finished and a bunch of people came to work our line. By that time, the Party of 20 had completely blocked the aisle. Thanks, dudes.
• We waited for another 45 minutes in the security line. There were two reasons for this, as well. First, that's just Dulles. Everyone has to pass through a single terminal before scattering, so that makes for long lines. No problem there, it's just an architectural thing. Second, the family ahead of us did this: try to pass through with baby food, including liquids. When the folks working the machines said no, they sent their adolescent son back through the lines, past security, without his passport or boarding pass, running with a bag of stuff. You can imagine that the result of this was not pretty. So we stood there for 15 solid minutes, 10 feet from the X-ray machine, unable to move forward. On the plus side, these folks were really nice and just obviously clueless.
  
• So, if you're keeping track, we got to Dulles at 6pm and walked up to our gate at 8:15 for an 8:45 departure. That became 9:30. By that time Iain had missed his supper, missed his bedtime, and was freaking out.
  
• People tried hard to be nice. I wish they hadn't. What I mean is, Iain kept crying, almost asleep, his eyes closing. At the moment when he was just about asleep, but still crying, someone (another mother, a flight attendant) would pop by with something to "help." Iain, of course, woke up. So that prolonged the agony. He only finally fell asleep at about midnight, then slept in our laps from then until landing (at 4am EST). We bought him a ticket, but he slept in his carseat for about 30 minutes of the entire flight. It proved an awesome place to scream his head off, though.
• Last but not least, there was the final challenge to be overcome. We got off the plane last. The sweet flight attendant who'd brought Iain a Paddington Bear Emergency Freakout Kit chatted us up as we packed his stuff and woke him up. She didn't mention, though, the twenty metal steps waiting at the door. Yes, that's right. We had to carry Iain and his stroller (30 lbs) down 20 steps while also carrying our luggage. After a sleepless night. Joy.
• Really, really last: Heathrow was, yet again, one of the nicest places we've ever arrived. Logical signs, an outstanding family restroom with a baby changing station, and a customs process that was friendly, professional, helpful and efficient. We felt welcome. Thank you, England.
  

A Warm Welcome

Nothing like a cup of sweet, strong tea to get your day started correctly. One thing I love about Miriam's house is that you can always count on finding good tea there.

So far today, we enjoyed breakfast with Maddalena and Brian, then a period of play and organization, then Iain napped (!) in his little room, and then we had an outing. First to Kavanaugh's for pizza and salad (Iain ordered spaghetti marinara, but preferred to play with it and wait for Dad to give him some pizza crust), then to CVS for diaper wipes, then to Whole Foods for animal crackers (cinnamon flavor! 75% organic!) and dinner for Mommy, then home again in the rain.

Yes, in the rain. Miriam was quite concerned this morning that her garden should get enough water. So, in order to ensure rain, we went out without rain jackets and with only one small umbrella. Obviously, the rain started coming down hard, just as we planned. One moist BOB later, the garden should be just fine. That's the kind of devotion you get from us.

Thanks, Grandad

Iain would like to thank his Grandad for watching his house and his dogs while he's away in the UK and DC. Iain appreciates how hard it is to find good staff, so he's especially grateful to Grandad, who not only made time to come hang out this summer but who also taught Iain 3-Card Monte using coffee cups and keys. See above.

Day 1: 9.5 Hours of Bliss

Iain did not sleep the whole way. Let's just get that on the table right off.

However, he was a Very Good Boy. He spent a substantial portion of his waking time giggling and making spitty noises with his tongue. He only cried a little.

One reason he was sooo happy is that we plied him with delicious vittles from side-of-the-road dining establishments such as Tudor's Biscuit World of Hurricane, West Virginia. There, Iain enjoyed an apple biscuit, which is truly a thing of wonder. It consists of sauteed apples (extremely sweet and dusted with cinnamon), sandwiched into a buttermilk biscuit. Yum. And perfect for a baby who has no interest in meat. I think this is a major contribution to our culture from West Virginia.


Later, Iain learned to love ketchup and donated 82 cents to Wendy's adoption charity. He's learning and growing, y'all.

He also listened as we snorted with derision at places like Polish Mountain (1246 feet high). We do not feel that anything short of 10,000 feet is a mountain.

In other news, toes taste good.

So we're at Miriam's house, happily ensconced, fed, watered and made welcome by Maddalena, Kelly and Brian. Tomorrow we relax and perhaps do a bit of shopping before heading down to the airport for our international adventure. Fingers crossed that it goes as well as today.

Travel, Step 1

I'm happy to announce that last night was definitely one of the Top 5 Worst Nights Ever with Iain.

• He woke at 10, screaming.
• He was awake until 12.
• We got him up and tried to cuddle him. Screaming.
• At 12:37, we put him back to bed and he slept.
• At 2:21 he woke, screaming.
• I went in to his room and got on the floor with him, and he promptly flopped down and went to sleep.
  
• That was cute.
• Then I put him in his bed. Screaming.
• So I unfolded the futon chair (only 2/3 length of a real bed), and tried to sleep where he could see me.
• In that manner I slept from 2:45 until 6:40, fitfully. Every time I turned over-ish, he woke.
• He woke this morning screaming.

Can't wait to drive to DC!

Travel

Ok, my little toodles. Don't cry.

Tomorrow morning we depart for DC. We'll spend the night there, then fly over the pond to see our favorite residents of beautiful Milton Keynes, followed by various festivities and then the nuptials of Miriam and Will.

After that, we'll be driving around visiting (our new niece, our old friends, the Pink Baby and her little sister, Nora and Charlotte...) and in DC for my Intensive Immigration History Smackdown.

So we'll be blogging (my camera is loaded and ready, sir!), but our hours will be odd. Bear with us, and send us good thoughts tomorrow as we try to convince Iain that an 8-hour drive is a Great Idea!

Flashback

Remember when David came for a visit (with his awesome seersucker suit)? The gents took some photos on their hike, and we're just now getting them up for your delectation.

So here is Charles at the natural bridge, and below one of the features built to help people get a look at it.


And here's David, posing with these neat little steps.


Pretty beautiful, huh? Kentucky has some wonderful scenery, particularly in terms of cliffs, gorges, and other formations related to erosion. Miriam tells me we're the wettest state in the nation, in terms of rivers, creeks, streams and lakes.