I made it to London!  I was absolutely exhausted and sleep deprived, but I made it. 

Since there are no direct flights to Heathrow from Tampa, I connected through Chicago.  And let’s just say the whole notion of staying calm came into play on this flight.  I had a one (ish) year old directly behind me, and while I can only imagine how hard it is to travel with young kids, it took a lot out of me to ignore the constant kicking and banging.  But I just let it go and sent the mom positive vibes knowing I’ll probably have to go through it at some point and would want people to do the same for me.

During my four hour layover in Chicago, I finished my latest book, walked around the terminal to build up an appetite, and ate dinner at Tortas Frontera (SO good!). 

Then came an almost 10 hour flight to London.  I’m super fortunate that when I travel overseas for work I have the opportunity to fly premium economy.  With that being said, all the extra space did me absolutely no good this time.  My left leg was throbbing the last half of the flight, my neck was killing me the entire time, and I just couldn’t get comfortable.  Not all was lost though.  The guy sitting next to me was super friendly and interesting.  He shared a lot about his life in Mozambique – from his work and family situation to proposing to his girlfriend soon.  Love making airplane friends!

By the time I got through customs and baggage claim and made it to my hotel, it was a little past noon.  I unpacked a bit, showered, and then fell asleep for FOUR HOURS!  I certainly didn’t intend to sleep that long but am glad I did because I was SO tired.

And then I got ready to meet up with Khushboo!  As I mentioned in my last Three Thing Thursday post, Khushboo and I have been reading each other’s blogs for over four years now.  And over the course of time, we’ve gone from commenting on our blogs to emailing each other every now and to finally meeting up in person. 

 
It’s kind of hard to explain, but as I was getting ready, I thought to myself, “It feels like I’m about to meet an old friend.”  And the funny thing is Khushboo said the same exact thing to me as we were walking around!  Because we regularly read about each other’s lives, our conversation flowed very naturally.  We talked about our recent travels, family, friends, blogging, etc.  And we probably could’ve kept talking all day long if Khushboo didn’t have to be home at a certain time.  It was so much fun, and I’m crossing my fingers that a US meet up is in our future. 🙂

I felt the hunger pangs hit after getting back to my room, so instead of wandering around aimlessly looking for dinner, I decided to go with the room service route. 

 
Soup and salad sounded like the perfect way to end the day after a long almost 24 hours of travel. 

And now let’s hope I make it through the next few days without yawning every few minutes!

Happy Monday and thanks for reading!!

What kind of flyer are you?  Do you like to pass out and not be bothered or do you always find yourself talking to the person next to you?  I usually pass out and don’t wake up until touchdown, but for many reasons, this trip turned out differently!