Our farewell walk through the canal area and breakfast at Gail's cafe. Mei Mei had one more tomato sandwich and Ma had some last croissants. Then check out of hotel, quick walk to Paddington to hop on Heathrow Express.
Heathrow Express is super easy to use and indeed just 15 minutes to airport, which is amazing. The check in, passport check, security at LHR took a bit of time but there were no surprises and everything was easy to navigate. We sat for awhile waiting for gate assignment, which gave Mei Mei one last opportunity for an orange juice! We then went to our gate, where things went slowly but orderly and so Mei Mei gave two thumbs up. So far, so good. She watched The Whale on the trip home... this was an afternoon trip so we were awake for more of it.
Mei Mei had a special veg meal and it was a veg/vegan/gf breakfast option that she simply couldn't eat. But otherwise, the food was again pretty good for airplane food. For the second time in a week, we landed in ATL in a storm... really interesting landing. A bit of hassle after an easy passport and customs was getting our suitcases... after customs, we could have checked them to RDU but opted to keep them just in case we could switch flights. But, once we were near the departure gates we saw masses of people because all flights were grounded for the storm. They managed to get these flights out a bit before our scheduled flight, but no option for an earlier flight to RDU. So, we left ATL right before 10p and arrived RDU right before midnight. It was so busy, Mei Mei had to have her dinner on the floor next to a garbage can.
Hoping for no surprises for our last flight!
We made it back, got our suitcases and then had to find Elliott in the parking deck. D sent just two photos so we could find the car! (He flew out three days earlier to Alaska cruise trip and left the car for us.) The most difficult part of the trip (other than the day that didn't happen) was getting the RDU parking machine to eat the ticket and accept my credit card. Everyone was taking a long time to exit because of this, but we managed. We drove home and had a lovely welcome from the puppy. The dog sitter (Jie Jie) was either asleep or ignoring our arrival! We fell into our beds. Ma had to get up early to drive Jie Jie back to campus for work/class. And that was the end of an amazing trip. Can't wait to go back.
