Cheers England!

We thought it very fitting it rained on the morning we left England.  We were all excited to get home but sad to leave such a peaceful and wonderful experience.   England isn't really England without the rain right?  The rain is what what makes England so beautiful and green.

We left home early on the morning of 8/8/08 for the airport.  Our friends the Kleins offered to take all our luggage in the back of their truck to the airport.  It took two hired cars to drive the rest of us.  The kids were exhausted because of course they couldn't fall asleep the night before.

 At this point in the trip Sadie and McKay were still awake. 

By the time we arrived at the airport they were all out.

Our piles of luggage again.  Note that most of the bags are behind us!

We arrived at Gatwick in plenty of time.  We checked 13 bags and then having an hour and a half to spare decided to grab some breakfast with the Kleins.

Vern and Dana Klein (and Abe)

Zach and Sadie with Charlie and Alice Klein

So after breakfast we headed up towards security.  As I go to pass through the gate into the line the officer tells me to place my carry-on into the cage to see if it fits.  Mind you we have flown out of Gatwick three times this summer with these exact carry-ons and they have never once asked us to place them in the cage. 

It fit except for the wheels and they guy says we have to take all three of our carry-ons to check them.  I try to explain that we have been in England for 5 1/2 months and we have already checked 13 bags!!  He doesn't care and at this point his senior whatever comes over and gets involved and really ticks us off.  We got a kick out of seeing Vern, a very happy go lucky guy, get completely annoyed with this lady. 

When we saw that we were getting nowhere we headed back to the check-in desk and explained the situation and the lady tells us we'll have to pay 250 pounds ($500) to check these 3 small bags.  Ridiculous!  Abe pleads with her and she calls her senior and we finally get the fee waved and check the bags.  

By this point our hour and a half cushion has disappeared and we headed off through security at practically a run to get to the gate.  

We were sure they were closing the gate by the time we arrived but to our surprise we were fine, in fact we actually got bumped up to first class!  This definitely made up for earlier inconveniences.

Cheers England thanks for having us...HELLO USA!!!