this trip's overview

(about the Islands)

SFO to LHR

stranded!

LHR to LHR

spending Iberia's money

baggage arrives

along the beachfront

visiting el Medico

Isaac's first haircut

R & R

Faro Maspalomas

cockroaches!

San Fernando

All over...

Puerto de Rico & Puerto de Mogán

el penultimo

on to London

Tuesday 07 January 2003

As we packed the bags into the car we were thinking of islands on [almost] the other side of the world. We were ready for a long trip.

Here we are in the baggage check-in at San Francisco (SFO). We're taking Virgin from SFO to London Heathrow (LHR). Having kids is wonderful, but getting into short lines because of them is just an added bonus. We wound up with three fully-packed duffel bags and a child-carrier backpack. I check the bags all the way through to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (LPA), so we're spared dealing with their extreme bulk for a good while.

Our next step is to the food court, to the Ebisu sushiya. Double hamachi roll, unagi and avocado roll, and tamago and edamame for the kids. I always budget a good deal of time before boarding just so we can have some quality airport time, something Isaac especially loves.

Finally aboard the 747-400, and after what passes for dinner, I finally get Isaac to sleep. Here you see him snoozing against the bulkhead while Lila plays with the empty half-and-half containers. Isaac got the most sleep of us, Lila second, I the third, and Rose barely anything at all. She did put her waking hours to good use, though, watching some recent movies, waking me in-between to fetch them via the Virgin entertainment system.

Sunrise as our east-bound jet meets the [relatively] west-bound sun.

Tired, and rather late from Virgin's tardy departure from SFO, we're worried that we'll miss our connecting flight to Madrid-Barajas (MAD). Buoyed by the flight staff, who assure us that Virgin ground staff will rebook our flight legs and put us up in a hotel should we actually miss that flight, we're able to smile wanly.

Then we're told we'll be even further delayed by the snowstorm pounding London, thereby guaranteeing that we'll miss our flight. As we cross the countryside we see a fresh blanket of snow with nary a plowed road to be seen.

After circling the airport for a long time, we descend and land. Snow is everywhere. The runways have small areas brushed clean of snow. I've never seen anything like it. (Such a snowed-in airport, not snow :-)

Isaac shows his weary exhaustion after a ten-hour flight turned into twelve hours, plus a missed connection. He's quite a trooper. Lila is still asleep, thank goodness. We're all used up.

As we deplane and beginning strolling around the airport we see the plane which brought us here. 747s are such pretty planes.

We don't yet realize that we're stranded in Heathrow.

previous

next