May. 14, 2008 - Anniversary Trip: Installment 3 - Tuesday, Going Home
Tuesday morning came too early for both of these tired musicians! Even with our relaxing Monday evening, 4:00 is still too early to rise in the morning! At least we were able to get to sleep earlier the night before our early departure than the band had been able to do before theirs!
As we packed up I couldn't resist taking a few last shots of the night-time view from our balcony. Ahhh…I would miss this gorgeous retreat!
We were ready and waiting when the airport shuttle arrived, right on time, at 5:05. I had made a cup of tea in the hotel room, and enjoyed it on the forty-minute shuttle ride to the airport. We were there in plenty of time for our flight, and I bought another cup of tea before boarding. We had a long day ahead.
I think he's tired of me taking so many pictures of him...or he's just tired!
To finish our chicken story for the band members already at home, we took pictures of the chicken watching the plane from the airport, as well as enjoying the view from the window of the plane. There had been some scuttlebutt about our chicken not arriving safely home, so we sent pictures to prove the chicken’s safe trip.
The flight was pleasantly uneventful. I always enjoy the scenery from so high above the earth, but with my trumpet player beside me I didn’t contemplate the trip as I had on the way down. We arrived at our destination airport in good time, but not early enough to put our luggage on the bus that would take us home as it arrived.
To explain, there is a bus that travels each day from our local air base to this airport. It arrives at approximately 9:50 am, early enough for people flying out, and leaves at about 1:30, late enough for those flying in. We had hoped to put our luggage on the bus when it first arrived to avoid having to lug it around the airport until we left at 1:30, but we were too late to do this. So with luggage in tow, we went upstairs to the lounge to wait.
My trumpet player and chicken slept. I worked on some school planning for the fall. We had taken some time during one of our dips in the hot tub to discuss some possibilities for fitting everything into our fall schedule. Some things that had been bothering me – things I want to include but just couldn’t see how we could do it – needed the input of our principal. He was just the sounding board I needed, and while our bodies refreshed in the hot, churning water, we were able to formulate some ideas of how we could make the fall schedule work, without dropping some of the things that, although not essential academics, are important to us. Namely band. It had been tearing me apart because I just didn’t see how I could manage running two kids to two different band classes in the fall. The one class had nearly driven me crazy this year! But the logical thinking of my engineer (aka trumpet player, aka principal of our home school) was just what we needed. So while he slept, chicken on shoulder, I got out my laptop and began putting those ideas into my fall schedule form (aka the excel file).
By noon we were hungry and so we, again with luggage in tow, went down to the
This was no ordinary bus. This was the brand new bus very recently purchased by our base. We had ridden on it on the way out on Thursday, but had taken a seat about half way back. On this trip we were told that we would be the only passengers on the bus, so we wandered to the back to see if there would be more leg room for my tall trumpet player there.
We were thrilled to discover that not only was there more leg room – there was a row with a table! One row of seats had been turned backwards, and a table placed between it and the row behind, similar to the seating on a train. What luxury!
We sat there and while he read the paper that had been delivered to our hotel that morning, I did word puzzles, while looking out the window frequently to avoid car-sickness. I haven’t been able to read in a moving vehicle in years, but while doing puzzles one can look about enough that I’m able to do that in a bus, though not so much in a car.
The last leg of our journey was as pleasant as the first, although the day was long. We arrived at our home base at 5:30, as scheduled. We had a 15 minute drive home, and then I had to drive back to the base with our oldest to take her to cadets and myself to a cadet parent meeting. Fortunately it was a quick meeting, and I was finally on my way home for good. The kids were all glad to see us, and talked constantly while we unpacked. They though our chickens were neat, and enjoyed hearing the stories of his adventures.
And now life is back to normal. At least, as normal as life ever is in May.
