- Had lunch at one of my favorite restaurants in Detroit
- Celebrated Independence Day
- Celebrated Alexa's 6th birthday
- Seen a few movies
- Done some shoe shopping at my favorite shoe store
The trip back to MI was exhaustingly long; 26 hours from the time I woke up in Al Ain until the time I went to bed in South Lyon. Linda picked me up at 6:30 and we began the 1 1/2 hour drive to the Abu Dhabi International Airport. The journey was quick and painless. Once at the airport I breezed through check in, where I was told that my bags would be checked straight through to Detroit. While I was checking in I asked if they had any seats available with extra leg room. I was told that they were all taken, but she could give me an aisle seat. Thinking that was the best I was going to get, I gladly accepted and made my way to the gate. Once at the gate I realized that I was only given a boarding pass to Toronto and not from Toronto to Detroit. Oh well, I could figure that out when I got to Toronto, not a big deal (or so I thought). The flight was late leaving, but it wasn't a full flight and I was approached by a stewardess who asked me how tall I was and if I had gotten a seat with extra leg room. I replied that I was 6'4" and that I asked when I checked in but was told they didn't have any available. She said that there were 2 seats across from where she was sitting in the bulk head that were currently available and she would let me know if they remained available after everyone had boarded. Turns out no one ended up sitting in those 2 seats so she asked me if I wanted to move. Absolutely! I would trade more leg room over an aisle seat any day; especially on a 14 hour flight. So I had a nice comfortable ride to Toronto on which I did some reading, did some word searches, and watched "Les Miserables." Notice I did not say sleep. I found it very weird traveling for 14 hours in the daylight and that prevented me from getting any sleep. That's what happens when you leave at 10am, even though I was going back in time it wasn't ever back far enough to get fly into darkness. Oh well, that fact made it much easier to sleep when I finally made it to South Lyon. Despite the late start we arrived in Toronto on time, if not a bit early.
Since I was under the impression that my bags were going to Detroit I flew through customs without any issues. It's hard to have issues when you don't have any luggage for them to check!! This is when not having a boarding pass came into play. I needed to check in for my flight to Detroit, but I didn't know which airline to check in with. Unfortunately I didn't have my itinerary either since I totally forgot to print it out at work on Wednesday and my Internet had been shut off I couldn't do it at home. I figured that should be easy enough to get to since I was a registered guest, so I made my way to American Airlines to check there. I figured that would be a good place to start since they are partnered with Etihad (the airline I flew in on). Well, I wasn't there and the agent kindly pointed me to United. No luck there either, but he suggested that I go back to Etihad to find out where I was supposed to be. Easy enough. Once there the guy printed off my itinerary, which was for Delta, and asked about my bags. My bags? Well, they're checked to Detroit so I don't have to worry about them. Wrong. I needed to get them and recheck them. Well, how was I supposed to know that. He said that as a rule of thumb whenever you make it to one international airport, even if it isn't your final destination, you have to get your bags. That doesn't hold true because I didn't have to get my bags when I had a lay over in Amman Jordan, or in Singapore. All my experience has shown me is that my bags end up at my final destination unless I arrive in the States, but not in MI. That being said, I still didn't have my bags and needed to collect them. The Etihad ticket agent kindly called a security guard who escorted me back to baggage claim and then through customs again. This time there was a much longer wait; I wasn't stressed about time though since my flight wasn't until 7:30 and it was only 5; I had plenty of time. When I finally got to the customs agent who was literally unpacking and checking the other passengers suitcases, he just asked me a few questions and sent me on my way. Nice! I thought I was going to have to repack my suitcase like everyone else. I guess that's the benefit of being escorted by a security agent or simply because I didn't look Muslim or Arabic. I could tell there was quite a bit of profiling going on there since everyone else who was in front of me and having their bags searched were quite obviously Muslim/Arabic. That's too bad and I was a bit surprised that they were making it quite obvious. Nothing I could do about it though so I thanked the kind security agent and headed to board the bus that would take me to terminal 3 so I could check in with Delta.
I checked in for my flight to Detroit and headed to the gate only to find out that they had moved the gate and that the flight was delayed. It was scheduled to leave at 7:30 and it was delayed an hour. Not a huge problem, but the gate was located in a tiny corner with what seemed to be every other delayed flight to Detroit or Boston. There were 3 flights leaving from that tiny gate and there were no places to sit so I sat on the floor and did a few word searches while I waited. I'm not sure when we finally boarded the plane, but when we did we ended up sitting there 1 1/2 hours waiting for paperwork and fuel. Ridiculous in my opinion. They could have refueled while we were waiting for the paperwork instead of waiting to get the paperwork and then refueling. I guess the good thing about the delay meant that I got to get a lot of reading done. I nearly finished my book by the time I got to Detroit, a whole 45 minutes after the plane finally was in the air.
Having gone through US customs in Toronto I was a bit worried if my parents would be able to find me since they would probably be at the International Terminal and I wasn't flying into the International Terminal. I told my mom that I would call her from Toronto and let her know about the customs procedures, but my phone wasn't working so I just had to wait. I had no need to worry because my parents are geniuses and my mom was waiting for me right where she always is, at the baggage claim area! I was so exhausted and happy to see her I fell into her arms as my luggage went by on the carousel. After the warm welcome from my mom I grabbed my luggage and went to wait for my dad who had to drive from the cell phone lot to get us. Having thrown my luggage I greeted my dad with a hug and a kiss. Once in the van, it was another 40ish minutes till we arrived home where I could greet Amy and then fall into bed! What a long journey, but it was well worth it!
My first full day home started off with an amazing lunch at Slow's, my favorite BBQ restaurant. I had baby back ribs, pulled pork, coleslaw, and mac-n-cheese. What a great first meal!! I'm so glad mom and dad were up to making the drive to downtown Detroit, although I knew they would be because they love the BBQ just as much as I do. After lunch we headed to Mark's so I could see the kids. As soon as Alexa saw me she shouted "Aunt Sara!" and ran out of the house into my arms! I couldn't ask for a better welcome than that. Mason's welcome was quite different. Mason found out I was there by Alexa's greeting and he shouted "Aunt Sara!" as well. When I told him to come outside he said he couldn't because he was naked! So I went in to see him. He wasn't in a great mood, despite his cheery sounding tone a few minutes earlier. I went into his room and found him crying as he was trying to get dressed. He pushed me away as I tried to help him; I'm not quite sure if that's because he didn't seem to recognize me or because he wasn't all too happy. Eventually he stopped crying and I asked him if he needed help. He couldn't reach his clothes that were at the bottom of his hamper, so I got them out for him and he got dressed and allowed me to pick him and take him outside. Outside I managed to get a hug from Mark in between playing with the kids. We hung out for a bit before I was getting too tired to do much of anything, so we headed back home so I could have an early bedtime to try to beat this jet-lag.
Saturday we went to Ann's to check on the progress of the garage sale and for some more pulled pork. I guess you could say I love my pork!! Not sure when I became such a huge fan; it could have been my first year in a pork free country - I know that's when my obsession started! It was good to see Ann and the pulled pork was amazing, and I found out that my stuff was actually selling in her garage sale! Amy and I stayed for a bit after dinner and then it was time to head home so I could sleep.
Sunday morning mom, dad, Amy, and I took Alexa and Mason to see "Monsters' University," which was definitely not as good as the first one. Alexa did a great job at the movie, but Mason kept walking between the 4 of us and having to go to the bathroom; I think we took him 3 times. He was quiet enough, but he just couldn't sit still. After the movie mom and I took Alexa shopping for her birthday while Amy and dad returned home with Mason. Mark and Nancy came over for dinner and we all hung out for the evening. The perfect end to the perfect first weekend home!
While everyone else was at work on Monday I did some shoe shopping at the Walking Co., where I typically spend a fortune every year. I bought 3 pairs of sandals and insoles for our trip to Las Vegas. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, but I had fully recovered from jet-lag by this time so I was able to stay up much later than 8pm. Mark was having fireworks on Wednesday night so after dad came home from work I made my way to Pinckney and spent the late afternoon, evening, and night with my brother and his family. The fireworks were the best in the state of MI!! Probably not, but the company was great! Mason didn't like the fireworks - they were too loud - so I ended up taking him inside and watching from their living room window; which was a good thing as I felt like I was getting eaten up by the mosquitoes. On Thursday July 4th we went back over to Mark's to celebrate Alexa's 6th birthday. I can't believe she's 6! I told her that she had to stay 3 forever and that didn't work so I told her that she couldn't have anymore birthdays after 5. By golly, she went and turned 6! They grow up so fast!!! I'm so thankful that I was there to celebrate with her.
That's been my week. How good it is to be home! Amy, Nancy, the kids, and I are headed to Battle Creek tomorrow to go to the Binder Park Zoo. 82 at 4:30pm in South Lyon and 90 at 12:30am in Al Ain.
