6 years 10 months 12 days

Day 2507. Randy and I had both gone to bed at midnight, but it took me a while to fall asleep and it was a little bit of a restless night. At 5 am the alarm clock went off, and Randy and the kids got up. I stayed in bed until 5:30 am, then I got up as well and finished getting ready which didn't take me long. The kids were excited that the day of our departure had come. Randy took all our suitcases to the entrance of the building, then the kids and I came as well with the rest of our stuff. The taxi arrived just before 6 am, and it took a few minutes to get our five suitcases, all our carry-ons, the wheelchair and ourselves into the van. Emmy was by himself in the very back, then it was Tammy, Sammy and myself, and Randy sat in the front.

The taxi company had called the night before to say that they were 45 minutes earlier than we ordered because there had been construction work and lots of traffic on Monday morning. However, that was not the case this morning at all. The kids were talking all the way to the airport, and Sammy kept saying how much he's going to miss Vienna and our house. We hadn't even left yet!

It was only 6:30 am by the time we arrived at the airport and our flight was over 3 hours later. There were no carts anywhere, so Emmy and I started walking to find one or two, while Randy and the driver were unloading the car. We were lucky to find an abandoned cart and brought it back. We stacked our suitcases on it, and I rolled the remaining ones with one hand while pushing Sammy with the other. Randy  had the cart and another carry-on. We made our way inside and found our counter. There was no line as it was for people needing personal assistance. There were two nice airport employees there that both interacted with us. They were extremely friendly, talking with the kids, answering their question, and one even offered to take our picture. Once everything was checked in and we had our boarding passes, we left and waited for the wheelchair assistance person. A nice young lady soon joined us.

She then pushed Sammy while we had our carry-ons. Our first stop was security. The airport has brand-new luggage scanners  so that you don't have to get anything out of your bags anymore, plus you can have up to 2 liters of liquids with you as well. It was really nice, and it was quick. We went through the scanner ourself, then picked up our bags. One of our bags was pulled to the side for additional screening. While we were waiting for it, the kids suddenly got loud: A boy from their school class was suddenly standing right beside them! He was also traveling, going on holiday with his grandparents. The kids hugged, said good-bye, and then we already went our separate ways again. We continued walking and reached passport control which was also quick. Then it was on to our gate. It was a long walk, and we got their way early, around 7:30 am. Nobody else was there yet. As we hadn't had anything to eat, we decided to find a breakfast place and get some food. We had some scrambled eggs and bacon, then we returned to our gate. 

We still had 2 hours until leaving. The lack of sleep was catching up with me after a rough 4-hour night so I had no choice but to close my eyes. The kids were on their tablets. Slowly more and more people were arriving, filling up the seats around us. As time went on, Sammy was getting impatient. Boarding was scheduled for 9 am. An assistance guy came to us just before that, saying that he was taking us on board but that he had other people to take care of as well, so he came and left several times. Every time he wasn't there, Sammy was upset as he wanted to get on the plane. I had already done the passport check earlier, so we were standing by the elevator waiting for the guy to get on the plane. He had our boarding passes to get them scanned so we could go on. Boarding was delayed by 15 minutes, which didn't help Sammy. Thankfully the guy saw how upset he was, so Sammy was able to get on the second elevator going down to the boardwalk onto the plane.

We then walked to the entrance of the plane by ourselves. Randy got Sammy out of the wheelchair, as they were then putting the wheelchair into the cargo bay of the plane, and he carried Sammy to his seat while I had all the carry-ons. Tammy, Emmy and I sat in the middle section next to each other, me in the middle, while Randy and Sammy sat across the aisle. They all started looking at movies on their screens right away; we were one of the first ones on the plane so it was a while before the whole plane was full, every seat taken. 

Just after 10 am our 12-hour flight with Austrian Airlines started. After only an hour Sammy was already impatient to arrive. In the course of the 12 hours he had quite a few fits because he was done being on the plane. He wanted internet on his tablet which wasn't possible. Tammy and Emmy were watching movies and especially Emmy was also playing games on the screen. I soon got so tired that I had to pause my movie and close my eyes. I got two short naps in during our flight but they really helped. We also got two meals, once in the beginning and one in the end, and a sandwich in between. The kids ate little on the plane as they didn't like the food.

Our arrival time was 1 pm local time which is 10 pm Austrian time. As they usually go to bed at 8 pm, they started getting tired as our arrival was approaching. Both Tammy and Sammy fell asleep, but not Emmy. Just before we landed, they woke up again. We were only a few minutes late. We had to wait a while before we were able to walk off the plane, and again Sammy was impatient. After we had gotten off, we saw Sammy's wheelchair but we were also supposed to have a person helping us again. After we had waited a while and everyone was gone, we decided to go on without a helper. We got on the elevator up, did a lot of walking, took another elevator down where immigration was. A lady directed us to the lane for the wheelchairs which was nice as there was no wait time. The immigration officer was the friendliest I've ever seen, interacting with the kids. When Emmy said he also wanted to get fingerprinted, she allowed him to also put his fingers on the scanner like I had done. Then she wished us a good time in the US.

We moved on and took the elevator down to the baggage claim area. There was a delay in getting the luggage of our plane, so we had to wait a while. The kids got on their tablets while waiting; Sammy was happy to have the internet again. We waited for quite some time, then the luggage was coming out. We had one missing suitcase for a while, then I spotted it to the side. Its tag was not on it any more which is why they had moved it to the side but I recognized it right away. Thank God!

Now we had two carts full of bags that Randy was pushing while I had the wheelchair and my carry-ons. It was time to go throug customs and make our way to the exit. The hard part was still ahead of us as you have to take a shuttle bus to the rental car area. When we got to the exit and went outside, I couldn't see where the rental buses were leaving from. I asked someone who pointed us in the right direction, and another guy was already talking to Randy. He offered to take us there and even pushed one of the two carts with suitcases. It was quite a walk before we reached the bus stop where all the rental agency buses were stopping to pick up travelers. We didn't have to wait long at all for the bus to arrive. It was quite an undertaking to get all our luggage on there. After everyone was on board, the bus left. And it took a while to get to the rental agency. Two hours had passed since we had arrived.

Finally we pulled up by the curb and had to get everything off the bus again. The bus driver was so nice and found a cart for us. We were able to manage with one cart. We had to walk quite a distance to the elevator, then took it up and walked to the Hertz Gold counter. Our names were on the screen so we did not have to go in but were able to go straight to the car. It was exactly what we needed. Randy got the three car seats out we had brought from Austria and started putting them together and into the car, while I took the kids to the restrooms. It took a while to get everything into the car, then put the kids in, then drive to the exit, finish the paperwork and drive off. It was already 4 pm, and because of L.A. traffic, our 90 minute trip was two hours to get to our friends' house straight north of the airport. 

At first the kids were on their tablets, but it was 1 pm in Austria so Tammy and Emmy soon fell asleep. Not Sammy; he stayed up the whole two hours. He was excited to get to see his friend he made last summer at a conference. He had talked to her regularly throughout the year, and now we were going to stay with her for a few days to get over jetlag before moving on.

At 6 pm we pulled up at their house. We greeted everyone, and Randy brought our suitcases inside. The kids were pretty hungry, as well as tired. Our friends then made us something to eat, and we enjoyed the food and fellowship. Then the kids got ready for bed. It was 8 pm local time - their regular time in Austria - but 5 am Austrian time when they went to bed. Tammy was asleep immediately but the boys needed quite some time. Randy also went to bed but I turned my computer on to start working on the pictures. However, I soon got way too tired to continue and went to bed as well. It was just after 9 pm.