Home Sweet Home

Well, we're home.
The Delta group made it home. If they have travel stories, I hope they share them.
Becca and Sydnee went on to further European adventures. I hope they both have wonderful trips.

The United group had a trip home that was almost the complete opposite of the trip to England.
We arrived at Heathrow and sailed through security. All the workers there were wonderful and pleasant. There was a machine after you had passed through security where you could rate your experience. Many of us happily pressed the smiley face button.

We had a long jaunt to our gate, it felt a bit like doing a transfer on the tube. We settled in at our gate, in a quite little wing of Heathrow and waited for our plane. The plane loaded quickly and was only about 70% full, so we had room to stretch out -- Caitie even got a chance to nap across three empty seats. Dinner was served, was hot, and tasted good. We even got a snack just before arriving in Chicago.

There was not a single issue as we moved through customs and rechecked out bags on the other side. We made our way to our gate, some got some coffee, and settled in to wait to load for home.

Phones were turned back on and people were calling and texting. That's when we began to get messages from Duluth that the weather was bad. Freezing Fog advisories, rain, sleet... They announced over the loud speaker that our flight was on time -- phew.

Moments later, they announced they were going to load us early because there was low visibility in Duluth. They would "attempt" to get us to Duluth, but if they couldn't land once they flew to Duluth, they would turn around and come back to Chicago. (I knew this trip had gone too smoothly!) We loaded on the tiny plane and prepared to take off. Then the captain made an announcement that we were 1700 pounds overweight due to the extra fuel (in case of needing a return trip to Chicago). They wanted 9 people to volunteer to take a flight tomorrow.

After a few tense moments, the offer was made of $300, a free hotel, a meal and trip to Duluth the next morning and 9 people very quickly volunteered. We were shortly in the air and on the way home. The captain kept giving us updates on visibility, we were very near the minimum threshold for landing. A wind out of the East apparently pushed enough fog away and we were able to safely land in Duluth!

Success! We traveled to London and back. Caitie's bag however was not on the baggage carousal. A quick search of the area proved futile. We checked with United and her bag was still in Chicago.
Somehow it had missed the plane. It arrived safely in Duluth this morning and was delivered to her this afternoon.

Thanks for following our adventure! Happy to be home safe and sound.