May 19 & 20, 2025
SL and I are doing a huge thing… for us. We set off from Atlanta’s Hartfield Jackson at 10:15 pm on 5/19 bound for London Heathrow to visit Adam, SL’s fiancée, and meet his family. This is the first time SL has ever flown and the first time I have flown since my honeymoon in 1999 and that was pre 9/11. This is possibly a too soon, overreaching experience for two overly anxious girls who share a combined loss of a father, grandfather, and husband in the span of a few months. SL went to sleep shortly after take off and slept a few hours of the 8.5 hour trip across the pond. I watched a few movies and she slept and listened to her headphones and read the captions to the movies I was watching. We had some rough turbulence off and on while most of the plane slept until almost time to land. We landed in London at 11:11 AM on 5/20. I may have noted this before but David and I texted each other at 11:11 every day so that landing time was significant. We made it through Heathrow and picked up our luggage. Adam was there waiting, and we hopped in the car. We sped down the motorways on the opposite side of the road with the drivers on the opposite side of the car with little cars seemingly driving in any direction they wished to Adam’s town of Birmingham. We got checked in to the hotel. The area of the hotel and shops in Longbridge was once an Austin car factory. Ever hear of the Austin-Healey? The early models were assembled right here in this square block. Pretty cool piece of history David would have liked.
We left the hotel and went to meet Adam’s parents. This is the first time either of us have met them as Adam as been coming to the States to visit. We got to see what the houses and neighborhoods look like driving there and they are much different than what we have here at home. Most housing structures are adjoined and they have very small gardens if any at all. Most are divided with stone or brick walls and parking is limited. There are no real driveways and parking is just wherever whenever.
Both his mom and dad are so nice and we all exchanged gifts. We even brought toys for their little dogs who were also very sweet. We went to dinner at Nando’s and chatted before heading back to the hotel. We are very excited to have our very own local tour guide. We plan to visit London at the end of our trip. We are getting acclimated to doing non-American things while missing all American things and the jet lag hit sometime around 7 tonight during dinner when I realized it was really 2 at home and I had no idea what day it was or when I slept last. Hasn’t been much time for journaling or figuring out data and eSims and wifi and I didn’t bring my laptop to write, so I am doing it old school making notes and observations as we go in hopes of remembering better later. Had chips (fries) for dinner or breakfast. I am not sure which. I have never taken a trip like this before and especially without David so it is a lot. Cherrio and Pip Pip for now. No one says that here, by the way.
