We had a super early morning flight out of Athens with a layover in Paris, but we were thrilled to finally be on our way home & we all had visions of our comfy beds, cool air-conditioned house, & ice water in our minds! Unfortunately, Abby's start to the day wasn't so great, as she was still vomiting from her heat stroke the day before.
We arrived for our layover in France, and once again, our passport saga continued to follow us. Apparently, France is one of the only countries that does not recognize emergency passports, but when we had done our research, we understood that as long as we were there on a layover and did not leave the airport, we would be granted entry. The security officers in Paris didn't feel quite the same way, and it took a lot of explaining and a lot more answering of questions before we got the approval to wait in their airport before heading back to the states.
Waiting wasn't terrible in the beginning, especially with this adorable French-babbling toddler playing with us!
Waiting got harder as the time ticked by, and the area to wait for our plane looked like a place designed for 100 people with 10,000 people stuffed in... It was INSANE!
We finally made it to the gate, which was only a gate to get on a bus, to get to the plane out in the middle of a field. But before we got to the front of the line, Abby & I were randomly pulled for a full security check, and we waited even longer while they went through our bags, our shoes, and wiped our hands and feet to detect bomb-making residue. We passed the tests, and we could only laugh at this point, while continuing to dream of our beds waiting for us when we got back home...
After a 2 1/2 hour flight delay and a 7 1/2 hour layover in Paris, where we were not allowed to leave the airport, we were FINALLY on our last leg of the trip... a simple, 9 hour flight home. It was almost going to be wonderful, as Brian & I had a seat empty between us (we honestly felt like it was our turn for an awesome break in our luck)... Until a last minute, very sweaty & super stinky passenger boarded late and went to sit right there. I was about to pass out until someone across the plane (who had been seated next this passenger's equally stinky partner), yelled across the plane that she would give her seat up so they could sit together. I was so thankful when she walked over smelling of perfume & pulled out her Lysol wipes to disinfect everything around us and give us a lemony fresh scent to fly home with. An empty middle seat would have been nicer, but we really dodged a bullet with that one!!!
We finally touched down in Raleigh, and I've never been happier to be on American soil! We were so ready to be picked up by our neighbor, but even that process wasn't smooth, as they only had ONE immigration officer checking each person on our plane, and we waited in line for over an hour to be asked a million questions, yet again, about our emergency passports and why they weren't stamped in Paris. I was ready to throw the blasted things in the garbage myself at this point!
We DID finally get picked up in one piece, with all of our stuff, and were brought home to reunite with the puppies. It never felt so good to be home, but we all came back with some amazing stories, and I am SO proud of each and every one in my family for keeping their spirits up and enjoying the amazing (and sometimes not so amazing) adventures together. We will truly NEVER forget this trip of a lifetime!
To top everything off, we caught up on all the news that happened while we were gone, and this is what we found:
Trump was shot 😮
Biden dropped out of the presidential race for 2024:
Microsoft had an outage that caused nearly all planes to be grounded (we were still dealing with the delays of that one on our way home)...
Kamala Harris was named as the replacement for Joe Biden in the presidential race:
The heat wave soared through Europe and shut down major sites (we didn't need a news story to tell US that it was HOT...)
"Hellishly hot" just about sums that up!
And apparently, it wasn't just Europe suffering from this crazy heat wave!
Even with all the crazy things that happened to us, and in the world around us, I am so thankful we had this sweet and memorable time as a family, and I wouldn't change it for the world!
Emily and I also finished off this epic trip with a bang... You guessed it!...
Is there really any other ending to this crazy story, other than finding out we had Covid!?!?!?!?
... And I still wouldn't change a thing. 💗
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