Date of trip: August 2009
Age of children: 3, 6, almost 8
We flew Continental direct to London and could not have asked for a better airport or flight experience.
First of all, I was sooooo giddy at not traveling with a stroller and car seats. I was literally skipping through the airport and couldn’t stop telling my husband how excited I was to travel with so little. (Okay, comparatively little.)
We were ushered through to the front of the security line and the kids pretty much knew the drill: “Shoes off, backpacks off, everything in the bins, wait. Okay walk through one at a time and QUICK! Get those shoes and backpacks and move out of the way! Okay now put them on and we’re off.”
I feel as though I’ve said those words a million times. I just don’t want our family to be the ones holding anyone up in line. And, fortunately, we typically do make it through smoothly without any irritated glares.
We stopped by a restaurant to celebrate the beginning of our trip with rootbeer floats and then headed to the gate in perfect time.
On board, the boys were overwhelmed by their entertainment choices. I have to admit that I was also pretty excited about the more than 300 movie options… all of which can be paused, re-wound and fast-forwarded. (How cool is THAT?!)
With all those choices, the activities in the backpacks went virtually untouched. And that is okay with me!
I sat with our daughter and my husband sat across the aisle and next to the boys.
We allowed an entertainment free-for-all (within reason) until after dinner and then we did our best to bore the kids so they would go to sleep. I coaxed our daughter to sleep, but the boys took a little more work. Eventually, they drifted off and I stole a few winks of sleep myself. My husband has never had trouble sleeping… anywhere.
The kids woke just before breakfast, we all watched some more television, ate and prepared to land in London.
Upon arrival my husband and I were pleasantly surprised at how easy our trip through Heathrow was, as well. All of our luggage was there. We were whisked through the lines, once again, and it wasn’t long before we were loaded into a taxi and headed to our hotel.
It has been so nice to see how often we have been sent to a shorter line through security this summer simply because we are traveling with small children!
My giddiness over our lack of gear continued, as I was delighted that we all fit into one taxi with all of our luggage. And the kids were amazed at the built-in booster seat in the taxicab… And the fact that Mom and Dad were riding backwards.
Soon we pulled up to our hotel, 51 Buckingham Gate, and the London adventure began…
More later on the very pleasant hotel surprise, lots of sight-seeing, an incredible show to round out our first day and the rest of our adventure day-by-day.
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