Safe Trip Home

Going home . . . its been a loooooong time on the road and we definitely want to see our family and friends.

We were up at 5:00 a.m. to get ready to take that last flight of the journey.

Walking to Paddington Station

We were out the door of the Caring Hotel by 5:45 a.m. to catch the Heathrow Express. It was a short, mostly flat, ten minute walk to Paddington and from there the Express would speed us to the airport in about 15 minutes.

It's ALWAYS about Dubai!

Now it was time to mentally gear up for the 10 1/2 British Airways flight to Los Angeles

Since Laurie and I booked our flights separately last fall, we had separate booking numbers. We had checked in on-line and both had been assigned aisle seats in different parts of the plane. We had also tried to move our seats to be together, but it wasn't possible. We smoothly and stress freely checked in THREE pieces of luggage (take THAT Ryanair!), sailed through security and boarded.

After about ten minutes in the air, the steward informed me that in the last row of the plane, which is only a two seat row, both seats were empty and that I could move there for more space and comfort. I jumped on the opportunity and had a very comfortable flight.

In the meantime, unbeknownst to me, when Laurie boarded she had been upgraded to business class for no apparent reason which meant that she essentially got a BED to sleep in!

Laurie says: I did ask if I could trade seats with George, knowing how uncomfortable he is on airplanes, but was told that I could not. (It was fantastic!!!)

Flying over spectacular Greenland

Someone radio the Titanic!

Cronies Welcome Home

Brian and Koreen FitzGerald were at LAX to greet us and they said that our son Michael and our soon to be daughter-in-law Vanessa called to say they wanted to meet us at Cronies on our way home.

We walked into Cronies and were surprised to find all of the usual suspects assembled.

What a great surprise. We had such a great time! Thank you to Vanessa for sending the e-invites and thanks to everyone for coming.

Mike Contreras, Calcio Catania Fan

It is GREAT to be home again!

But I miss the beauty and our friends in Europe already!!!