J and K Adventures: July 13/14 Portland to London

July 12, 2014
Max drove us up to Portland on the afternoon of the 12th to save us stress and strain on the morning of "D Day" otherwise referred to as departure, or deep sixing normalcy, dropping out or de-stressing. Whatever, we be gone but it wasn't so easy to say so long to Max, Freddy and the kitties.

We made it to Portland and had a nice dinner with Max and friends and turned in early for the big day ahead. Up early, packed and ready for whatever the gods of travel could shovel our way. We were at the airport 2 hours early, (an hour would have sufficed) and Horizon got us up to Seattle with time to spare - actually 4 hours, 5 minutes to spare.

Icelandic Air 680 left on time. We had been truly blessed to ask and receive exit row seats – you are damn right, yippy skippy, that we are more than willing to perform the duties required should a air emergency arise!! Amazing what a person might agree to for the love of 5 ½ extra inches of legroom.

It was a nice flight overall sitting next to my sweetie on my right and Tony C., a former Buckeye from Warren, Ohio now living in Kirkland Washington on my left. It’s always nice to meet a homeboy who is a liberal who likes to flaunt his colors. Movies were free so I watched “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” which I really enjoyed. It was kismet as part of it was filmed in Iceland. A mere 7 hours later, we touched down in Reykjavik – a place of vast prairies dotted with the occasional farm house.

Everyone limped off the plane, most of the folks with some serious wedgies, mussed makeup and bed hair – no beauty queens spotted within miles. A mere 2-hour layover and we were airborne – a planeload of folks auditioning for a part in the upcoming blockbuster, “Sardines” produced by Starkist. A 2 ½ hour flight to London turned into a 3 ¼ hr. flight as we circled Heathrow with other frustrated travelers like an angry hive of yellow jackets. Only 14 ¼ hours start to finish – the Dr.s think my backbone may straighten out sometime next week.

We retrieved our bags, got through customs, made our way to the Pickadilly line and spent an hour hurtling through the underground getting off at Russell Square and making our way to The President Hotel. I have to say what a great way of traveling – my suitcase weighs in at 28 pounds while Kat is at 25 – wow! So much easier getting around!!!!!!!!!

We got our room, took long showers and had a brief ceremony burning our traveling clothes and scattering the ashes. We were concerned about being ticketed for dumping toxic waste.

We had decided early on to let our bodies adjust by taking things easy the first day or two and that is just what we did, pub food and a stroll around the neighborhood with a ice cream cone as the highlight of our day.