Friday, December 31, 2004

The Return Trip

I'm back! I'm back! I wanted to kiss the cold Paris ground when we arrived. I had a great time in the US, but as I said, it was a short trip and the children never adjusted to the jet lag and they both really wanted to come back to Paris. That was a first. Usually, they want to stay in the US. I don't think it has any greater meaning, for those family members reading, I think they were just tired through the whole trip.
But I am thrilled to be back. The trip back was worse than the trip to the US when we had to wait at CDG airport for three hours in the plane while they tried to fix or replace a part of the plane (after that I finally did break down and buy my son a game boy -- I know I'm weak -- but there are times when they make sense). Well, we got to Detroit airport at 1:30pm for our United 3:30pm flight to Chicago followed by our 5:30pm flight to Paris.
After checking in and then getting a seat on the flight, the plane didn't move... after 45 minutes of waiting, we were told that because of cloud coverage in Chicago there would be a THREE HOUR delay. Everyone was invited off the plane, if they'd like. Most people got off quickly to stand on the customer service line to determine what to do.
I rushed off and the customer service woman called Northwest and found four seats on their 9:30pm flight. The woman told me to go to United baggage claim and get our four pieces of luggage. They should be off the plane in 15 minutes. Well, about 90 minutes later we faced the fact that only 3 pieces of luggage made the trip -- a new record for us. Usually we lose a piece of luggage after it or we leave the airport. I mean, that's common courtesy, right?
The baggage claim woman said the fourth piece of luggage supposedly did make a break for it in Detroit (the computer said all four pieces were taken off the Chicago flight) but that she believed that it was put back on the flight, which by this time had taken off (WHAT??). BTW, our Paris flight, in the supposedly fogged-in Chicago, took off on time. Kind of makes you in awe of how things work out sometimes, huh? So we got our three pieces of luggage, found the airport shuttle and went to the Northwest terminal (a 8 minute drive -- is Detroit airport really that big?) to start all over again with one less piece of luggage. We still haven't heard any word about our missing piece of luggage...I really should have kissed that Paris ground, now that I think about it.

-- said Auntie M in Paris
4:35 PM

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