The Trip Part 1

Whoa, those last few days were intense. To be honest, I can barely remember them. They involved lots of selling and lots of cleaning. In the end, we sold absolutely everything that wasn't in our suitcases or in those 18 boxes, with the exception of a few stuffed animals and some DVDs that M forgot to pack.

Things were going great packing-wise until I looked up Air Berlin's luggage policy. Only one checked piece per person, up to 50lbs, and one carry-on piece that could weigh up to 13lbs. THIRTEEN. 17lbs if there was a laptop inside. Schnikeys. That really threw a wrench in the plans. It's my fault. I should have checked before I left all this stuff to pack. We had to buy an additional suitcase (for a total of 5 checked, because the additional bag fee was only $40). Even still, we weighed in at roughly 44lbs, 47lbs, 47lbs, 55lbs and 61lbs. Not terrible, but two of those would have been subjected to $25 per piece fees for being overweight. So we shifted things around a little bit, and everything was under except the 61lb. bag. Our carry-ons were 10lbs, 16lbs. and 24lbs. I was freaking out over those, but decided to cross that bridge when we came to it.

Our aunts drove us to the airport. I stayed up all night before repacking our suitcases, so I was DONE. I was sort of in and out of consciousness for most of the trip. The As behave well, and in fact, Mr. A was so quiet, we joked that we had forgotten him at home.

Our aunts had to leave as soon as our stuff was out of the car, so we made our way inside with 5 suitcases, a stroller, three carry-ons, a laptop bag, a huge purse (filled with books because of our weight restrictions), and two backpacks. M had the brilliant idea of checking our weights at an unused counter so we could sort ourselves out before checking in. We actually managed to redistribute the weight enough so that everything was right at the limit. We weren't charged extra at all, except for our additional bag.

We had to board our flight pretty quickly after getting to the gate. Mini-Minion was out before the plane even took off, and I had high hopes for her sleeping most of the flight. She slept for 3 hours, which isn't bad at all. . .except when you've got another 8 hours ahead of you. Air Berlin isn't the worst airline, I'm sure, but this plane was not designed for transatlantic flights. There are much better options out there. We sweated through most of the flight.

Mr. A was basically silent through most of the flight. He did sleep a little, but only for a few hours. Mini-Minion slept off and on, and generally did ok, but she did have a few brief freak outs. I've got to cut her some slack, though, because this all has to be so disorienting for her. At one point, though, I told her to sit down, and she told me, "I am NOT a child!" Thank you, The Little Mermaid!