Tuesday May 7 – Departing Logan

Packing was a challenge, since a) we were going to be in three possibly very different climate zones, and b) we’d be flying on three different airlines who all listed slightly different allowed baggage dimensions.  But we settled on a big suitcase each for the trans-Atlantic flights, bought small cloth suitcases that met the least-common-dimensions, and packed backpacks to switch to for the trip to Scotland.

Dave was going to cat-sit for us and was already in residence that Tuesday but was at work when we left.  Andrew picked us up in the middle of the afternoon and we loaded our luggage into his car.  The kitties thought we were going to scoop them up too, and so were inclined to panic and hide.  But we’d told them what to expect and managed to say a quick goodbye, leaving them wondering WTF was going on.  They’d figure it out.

Pretty routine trip to Logan and Andrew dropped us at Terminal B for the American Airlines international flights.  I’d forgotten a jackknife in my pack and so was screened severely by security (hadn’t flown for 5 years!), but we made it through and relaxed with a couple of drinks in a bar close to the security checkpoint.  Then it was a long walk down to our gate and even after that we had lots more time to wait, so went to another restaurant there and had a leisurely hummus dish.  Then off to the already-crowded gate area, we grabbed a booth across the way from the gate to wait with a good book, but we were close enough to keep tabs on what was going on.  Boarding finally started and the flight was supposed to leave at 8:15PM, but of course didn’t actually hit the runway and take off until much later than that.  We were in the center seats of the center section of the third row from the back of the cabin, but we’re reasonably resigned to long, cramped airplane flights, and this was no worse than we expected.

They served us a chicken stew and then Sarah watched The Barbie Movie and I watched The Holdovers, both of which we were overdue to see.  There was other stuff on and I considered another movie, but I hate trying to listen through earbuds on a loud airplane flight, so instead I turned to my book, and later tried to get a little sleep in.