England/Scotland 2024 Pilgrimage – Day 20: Travel to USA

Friday, September 20, 2024

This morning, we were up at 5am, left the dorm at 5:30, walked to the Underground station, and were at the airport by 6:30am.

Correction on Imperial College Dorm Housing: When we thought we might need to stay in London one more night, I asked if we could extend our stay. I had incorrectly assumed that Imperial College had converted some of their dorm space into “hotels.” Yes, they have, but ONLY when school is not in session. The students return in a week or two. As a result, they would not extend our stay another night. They will begin to reconvert the rooms back into dorm spaces. What a win-win for travelers and the College!

We are traveling with carry-ons only, so check-in was quick and by machine. We had “breakfast” from Costa. Gregg had a flat white. I had tea and a cheese and tomato sandwich which was like pizza sauce and cheese between two slices of bread with more cheese on the top.

Our flight from London Heathrow to CDG Paris was on time. In Paris, we had to go through security again before going to our next gate.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly until… Gregg had another passport scare at security. They made us put our passports and tickets into a bin to be scanned. When the bins came out the other end, Gregg was missing his! Not again! This happened on our way over to London.

After what seemed like 15 minutes, someone admitted they had inadvertently collected his bin with passport and liquid baggie. I think it was an airport employee who was taking a lady through security in a wheelchair. Yikes!

We found a table and bought some airport snacks and drinks before getting onto our next plane.

The flight was on time leaving Paris. Though the plane was fairly full, we had a seat between me and another person in the 4-seat middle row.

We were checking into our Dulles Airport hotel by 5pm. Our car is in the parking lot and looks fine.

Embassy Suites has a manager’s reception so we had veggies, dip, chips & salsa, and trail mix for supper.

I’m fading quickly. It is 7pm in DC but midnight in London.

Tomorrow we plan to sleep in, have a cooked to order breakfast here at Embassy Suites, then head to our summer home in SW Pennsylvania.

Monday it is back to work for Gregg, and I’ll resume illustrating my next Aunt Kitten picture book.

Thank you so much for traveling with us! We enjoyed sharing our trip with you!

Where would you like to go on vacation? Do you have any suggestions for our future trips?

Until next time, Kristin for Gregg, too