Home Sweet Home

We woke at 7:00 and got ready for our flight.  By the time we dragged our luggage down to the lobby, it was nearly 8:00 and the shuttle to the airport was just pulling up.  The shuttle was a van that could seat 7 passengers, and fortunately there were exactly 7 of us. So, it was crowded, but nobody got left behind.

We tried to check in at the self-service kiosks, but the kiosk didn't recognize our reservation number.  While we were doing that a huge tour group passed by and got in line at the regular check-in desks.  We got in line behind them and waited nearly an hour for our turn.

Once our checked bags were dropped off, we got through security quickly and easily, but then discovered that a gate hadn't yet been assigned for our flight.  We found a seat in an airport cafe where we could keep an eye on a flight information screen, and I went to a few airport shops for some last minute shopping.

At 9:30 the display updated indicating that passengers on our flight could head to U.S. Customs (The U.S. has set up Customs in Dublin Airport so those flying into the U.S. from Ireland can pass through customs before their flight instead of after).  We were surprised that our luggage needed to go through yet another x-ray, and we had to pass through yet another metal detector, but once we got through that, the rest of customs was a breeze.

For once we were fortunate enough to have our gate be the first gate of the concourse, so we grabbed some seats and waited more than an hour to board our flight. It was a nearly full flight, but there was enough overhead space above our seats for our luggage.  We settled in to our seats, and mostly spent the next 9 hours watching movies. Due to heavy winds, our flight was delayed a bit taking off.

When we arrived at O'Hare, we sent a txt to my parents to let them know that the plane had landed.  Then we found somewhere for Lisa to sit while I went to collect our luggage. I was astonished yet again seeing someone that seemed not to know what their own luggage looked like beyond its color. They removed every piece of gray or silver luggage from the track, looked at the labels, and then put it back on the track when they discovered it wasn't theirs.  After what felt like an eternity (but was probably only 15 or 20 minutes) our luggage showed up.  As I dragged the luggage over to Lisa, I found my mother standing there chatting with her.

After greeting my mother and chatting a bit about how well our labrador behaved (or didn't), she led us to our car in the parking lot. My father was there, and we greeted him. Then we got the luggage loaded into our car, and greeted our dog Louie (riding in the back seat).  My parents got into their car and we followed them out of the lot. The tickets didn't seem to work properly in the reader at the exit, so we gave ours to an attendant.  They couldn't get the ticket to read either, so they just charged us the minimum cost of $2 (for up to 1 hour of parking).

The rest of the drive home was uneventful.  Louie seemed thrilled to be back in his own house and yard, and we were exhausted from a very long day.  We had some dinner and went to sleep early.