Saturday, April 30, 2016

It is hard to imagine the trip is coming to an end. Last night we packed up and organized our things for the long journey home. Here is a picture of Mom and Kathy, just chilling out in Linda and Mom’s room on our last night in Rome. I think we were just talking about everything we did and how we couldn’t believe it was coming to an end.

Obviously we hadn’t done enough shopping or spent enough money because you see all four of us were still shopping at the Rome airport duty free shops. We bought jewelry, chocolates and travel bags to transport some carry-on items.

Kathy and Linda were purchasing wine to take home for their kids. I think Linda picked up a bottle for Chad and Mandy and Kathy picked up two, one for Jake and Jenna and one for Derrick and Emily. I was ho-humming around about these “unique” cigars I wanted to purchase for Tod. The problem was, I was not sure if it was legal to transport them into the United States. I was talking to some English guy about which ones he was contemplating purchasing and we were both concerned that U.S. customs would confiscate them and that was just too much money to throw away.

So I’m not saying if I did or did not purchase the cigars and stash them in my carry on, nor am I saying if Tod did or did not bring some of said cigars to North Dakota when we went to visit Keith and Heidi. But, had I purchased them, this is what they would have look like.

I’m just saying, this is what Tod would look like IF I had smuggled in “unusual” cigars.

Thank God we ran out of time so we had to stop shopping (spending money) and get on our plane. Again it was first class, so a very comfortable trip back to Washington.

In Washington we again split up, them heading to Chicago and me to Dallas. My luggage didn’t arrive at the same international terminal as we were in and the girls waited with me as long as they could, but eventually had to rush off to get through U.S. customs and catch their plane. It was a cluster with luggage that’s for sure, but the airline customer service took care of it and eventually my bag showed up and a new ticket issued for my trip to Dallas.

Before they rushed off we took one last photo of all of us. Again Linda holding the camera / phone and me reaching over pressing the button. Don’t judge how we look on this one, remember we had been traveling for a very long day by the time we took this photo.

By the time Mom, Kathy and Linda got to security (you have to go through security again after you get back into the U.S.) they had only minutes to catch their next flight. And guess what you cannot bring through security? Liquids over 3oz! Including wine purchased at a duty free shop in-route! Linda being a more seasoned traveler tried to reason with the security. They were very apologetic and asked how much time they had because they could go to the security manager and try to get it waved, but, they only had about 10 minutes until the doors closed on the plane so unfortunately, they both had to relinquish their wine and rush off to catch a plane.

I think before this trip was over, we were all thinking, “Where next?” Writing this blog all these months later gave me time to look back on everything we did and saw and I came to the realization, “I desperately need a hairstyle! Not a new style, no, because I don’t have one! I need a hair style!” Do you know how hard it was finding any photos of myself that I looked half way decent on? Insane, here I thought I looked good until I saw all these photos! Next week, a haircut for sure. Bet you all thought I was going to say something profound right?

On a more serious note, if you ever have a chance to do something like this with family or close friends, just do it. It was a wonderful trip that all of us will cherish forever! Thanks for tagging along everyone and for letting me relive this trip with you.