Delay, or Day 31 in London, Vancouver B.C., and home!

My flights were actually scheduled very nicely for today, with a flight straight to Vancouver than a quick hop to Seattle. What wasn't as convenient was the hour layover (that was shortened by a late plane, then further made useless by going through all of the American customs rigamarole).

So the bus went smooth, the strike that threatened earlier this week was resolved, and the first flight was slightly delayed. I enjoyed my nine hours of quality entertainment (Justin Bieber's "Never Say Never" and a comedy called "Cedar Rapids" among them). The trick, so I've heard, is to stay awake going west. The meals, snacks, and drinks all certainly helped.

Our flight was delayed by five minutes, which is usually not an issue, but with an hour of customs proceedings, no one from the London flight made it to the Seattle flight. There were about ten of us, and we all got seats and a lovely additional hour-long layover, plus an another hour due to technical difficulties.  

However, the plane eventually got off the ground with me on it, and in Seattle I was. My parents and littlest sister picked me up in their day-old Nissan Leaf, and we had a Fathers' Day dinner with my old exchange student and her husband. He's a chatty one, and also named Alex, so we commiserated about their similarities.

I was on my fourth or fifth wind at this point, and the final leg of the drive back to our house was a feat of awakeness. I brought down gifts to bestow, and with that, I gave up the sleep fight (it had been 22 hours of sleeplessness at this point).