First class family

We left Pat's house Saturday morning to catch our flight back to the states.

Hubby flies so much he gets upgraded on most flights. When the girls and I are flying with him it happens much less, of course, but we have been upgraded a couple of times. Well, we hit the jackpot on the way back from London, and got upgraded to Business Class. It was incredible. A completely different world on the other side of that magic blue curtain. Three appetizers before dinner, four choices for dinner, none of them were incredible, but all were something I'd have expected from a restaurant, which is of course quite a bit different than what you'd expect from a plane. The headsets that cover your ears are complimentary so you can actually hear the dialogue in the movie. All the games and movies are free. There was an outlet to plug in the charger for the girls' DS games, so the batteries never died. And the seats reclined in every position on their way to a full horizontal bed. There is a nice quilted comforter and a full sized pillow. Not to mention a cheese plate and/or ice creams sundaes for dessert, and warm chocolate chip cookies as a snack. The flight attendant personnel are ultra nice and accommodating.
We didn't even open the travel games we'd bought in the airport to keep the girls occupied. We also didn't really sleep, despite the windows being closed and the cabin being darkened and having the ability to fully recline. It was just the wrong time to tell your body to sleep, besides it was too exciting having access to all that comparative luxury on the plane.
I took photos. I was a little embarrassed to be so freaked out about being upgraded so I didn't really get any good shots. It's hard to describe how different this is from coach. These pictures just don't show how much room there is... I didn't get any pictures of anyone laying out flat. It was just amazing.



I remember looking at the map and thinking "Oh, four more hours. That gives me time to try and doze a little, maybe read my book a little, and maybe watch another movie. How nice." Normally seeing you have four more hours is the time the real internal groaning sets in.

We had a three and a half hour layover in Atlanta, and then had to jostle for seats on the next flight, as we only had two together, and the plane was completely full. There were lots of other families returning from a Disneyworld Cruise trying to get seats together too, It turned out the lady next to me (who I knew, ironically, she is the secretary at the kid's preschool) was willing to trade so I could get Thing 1 and 2 by me, as both of the seats next to our other two seats were couples and didn't want to trade. Then in a wild multiple swap, a bunch of people agreed to juggle and all the other families ended up next to each other, and the preschool secretary ended up in 1st class. She was thrilled, and everyone else was happy. So I sat in between Thing 1 and 2, and Hubby was back a few rows. The girls both slept most of the way home.

We landed just before midnight, got home around 1:00 am, got the girls to bed at 1:30, and Hubby and I made it to bed around 2:00. Of course Thing 1 woke up at 5:30, raring to go. Sigh.

Today we're just resting up, grocery shopping, and doing laundry. Hubby left about an hour ago for North Carolina. It was a good trip, but it's awfully nice to be back home.

I have gone back and added a few photos in the previous posts now that I'm home and don't have to bargain for laptop use.