The Sawyer Stories

The day we’ve been dreading but are all a bit ready for. Today we go home. Filled with a sea of memories and love for our world and for each other. What a deep pleasure this trip has been. One of our favorite chapters in the Sawyer stories, for sure.

Highlights from Day 23:

• We had lofty plans of going to get a yummy breakfast at a place we’d been wanting to try. We soon did the math to realized we probably wouldn’t have time. Our original experience with Icelandic Air in Baltimore was very lengthy and we didn’t want to risk it. So, we hopped in an Uber and headed to Heathrow (1 hour of grumbling tummies).
  
• Of course this time it didn’t take long to get through the line. Ya just never know! The security line was interesting. There was a huge area for disposing of items you can’t have on planes. Good thing Liam’s new Swiss arm knife was in his checked bag!
  

• We got breakfast at the airport and headed to a lounge. This lounge was a bit wild. People and luggage and empty food plates everywhere. We hunted through the maze for seats together and finally found a place to chill.
• With so many flights, ferries, and trains to catch on this trip, we’ve had incredible luck. Well, today was our day for delays. If we had to pick a leg of our trip for issues, though, we’d pick this one! Our flight was delayed an hour and then we sat in the plane for another hour delay. This was only an issue because we had only 1.5 hours in Iceland before our last flight. Everyone on our flight was in the same boat. Those poor flight attendants were constantly answering questions about timing and connections and next steps.
  

• We had our bags all packed and ready to sprint off the plane at the off chance our connector was delayed. We landed at 4:55 and our second flight was set to take off at 4:50. The moment we landed we switched off of airplane mode to find our connecting flight had in fact been cancelled and we were rescheduled to fly out at 7:45! We were happy to not make our McAllister family airport dash. We felt bad for those who did though because we were unfortunately not at our gate. That mad dash was to a shuttle bus with a nonchalant driver.

• We ate a bit and got in that long Iceland Air line to board our plane. Once again we looked up to see someone we know! We saw a hockey family Liam has played with. They are from Finland and were heading home from visiting family.
  
• Our goal was to not sleep on this flight. With each delay this got more and more tricky. We were set to land at 10 at Dulles which was 3 am in London. We each listened to music, watched movies/shows, and read while watching the time left in flight slowly tick down on the screen in front of us. That was until Michael and I both saw it go from 1.5 hours left to 3 hours left. What? Why? My joints were screaming at me to throw a fit. I held back the urge and luckily it ticked back in track eventually.
  

• We hit the ground and we all exhaled that we didn’t get stranded in Iceland and that we’re finally home. We did hold our breath until we saw our luggage also made it home with us.
  
• One Uber ride and we were pulling up to home sweet home. Usually this is where the trip ends, but for us, it’s like a hotel stop before we fly out again in the morning! Start the laundry, brush your teeth and SLEEP. Heading to Indy for the dog, car, and some end of summer family time. The adventures never end!