Leaving California

Well, the time has come. After finally going to bed last night, or should I say in the early morning, I didn’t have much to do this morning. Jane and I left around 11:00 am after saying good bye to my children, my mom and Jane’s parents. Ryan brought home a pound of Starbucks coffee for me to take to Africa so of course Jane and I had to stop at Starbucks so they could grind that for me. I couldn’t just go in there and ask them to grind my coffee without buying something. That would have been rude. And, I may never see another one until I return. (Really, I am not an addict!)

Our trip to San Francisco was flawless. It has been difficult for Jane to talk since she has had a serious head cold and sore throat but we had some much needed and desired conversation. It seems like amidst all the preparations for this trip and the normal things of life we haven’t had much quiet time together. However, quality time like that doesn’t make you want to get on a plane and be gone for 18 days.
At the airport the word flawless would not describe the experience at the check in counter. We got there in plenty of time and the man ahead of us had to take out a lot of his suitcases to make them pass the weight limit. I hear the attendant say something about 47 and I thought she was talking in pounds. We were told that our suitcases could not weigh more that 50 lbs. That is true, but 50 lbs is 23 kilograms. His two totaled 47 so he was over the limit.

So, I put the first suitcase on the scale and it was 22 kgs. Perfect. The second one was 21.5. Phew, the large luggage passed. Then, the attendant wanted to weigh my carry on. The combination of my small carry on and my back pack could not be over 12 kg. My carry on alone was 12.8. My back pack was 9 something. So, extra costs. I had no choice though because I needed everything I had. So we had to unload the back pack and the carry on and put a few more pounds in one of the big bags. We took out a lot. The carry on was still 14+ kg. So out went more. And then more. I finally got rid of everything in the back pack and got the carry on down to 13.4 kgs. The attendant said, “A kilogram won’t hurt anything.” Oh yeah, I was now carrying my windbreaker and a folder so we could meet the limit. I suppose in the scheme of things that is minor.

Jane and I had lunch and then I had to say good bye. In about 15 minutes from now I will be getting on the plane. By the time you read this I will have already been in Paris since I won’t be able to upload this until I get there.

I will talk to you soon.