Well, we're back. And as usual, things could have gone smoothly, you know, if the stars were aligned. Somehow they never are where I'm concerned. I was lucky enough to be bringing my dad home with me for the return flight, so at least I had a one-to-one ratio with the kids. With a departure after 11 pm, I figured we'd have a short-ish wait at security. I suppose we "might" have if they'd had more than one line open. Thank you, Dulles, for continuing to NOT live up to my expectations. And I would like to take a moment to mention that all of the people working there were wearing what appeared to be tuxedos. It was a cross between movie theater attire, and ... I don't really know what. It was just strange. Anyone else seen this recently?
Okay, so more on the trip. We waited for almost 30 minutes at security, and naturally when we were about halfway through the line, not one, but both of my children decided they really needed to use the restroom. Too bad we couldn't go back, and we couldn't go forward. In the one moment we really need to breeze through security, I get pulled aside for a pat-down. And strangely enough, they did just about everything they could to talk me out of it. Would I like to take down my hair and put all of my hair clips through the X-ray machine? Would I like to take off my waist pack (that contains no metal) and put that through the X-ray machine? Would I like to just come back another day and try again? Surely I would like a privacy screen. No, no, no. Just get on with it already. And, oh by the way, they also needed to do an additional security screen on my purse (because of all those forbidden items I was trying to sneak through). And since I couldn't leave, neither could my children to use the restroom. Amazingly, neither had an accident and we were on our way. Did I mention they found nothing remotely dangerous on me or in my purse? Yeah, figures.
So we're sitting on the plane, getting ready to take off, and lo and behold we had a passenger who refused to board the aircraft. First time for me with this one, but they had to have each and every passenger on the plane locate and identify all of their items in the overhead bins. Nothing like a little last minute drama. Oh yeah, and I'm not really a skittish flyer, but please tell me I'm not the only one who rethinks their travel plans (at least a little bit) when someone else doesn't want to fly on their plane?
The flight was great - 10 hours nonstop into Istanbul. The kids slept for almost the entire flight and didn't even get up to eat. Our gate-checked stroller failed to make an appearance however, so that required waiting in line at the transfer desk and having the stroller forwarded to Dhaka. I was fairly confident the stroller would appear several days later (if at all). I have to admit to being happily surprised to see it come out with our luggage upon arrival in Dhaka. Naturally that flight was slightly delayed, late getting in, and baggage took just shy of an hour to appear. But how nice did it feel to come home and take a nap in MY bed with MY pillow? It's the little things.
The kids took Grandpa to the club this morning and a good time was had by all. Looking forward to overcoming jet lag and getting back into the swing of things.
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