Back to the USA

We were up early (again) for breakfast in order to catch the bus to the airport. The sad part was we had to say goodbye to Steve and Kathy who were planning an extended detour up Norway's coast for another five days.

We arrived at the airport and checked our luggage. We had a little time to kill so we visited with Dawn and Bob since they would be taking a different flight to Oslo, through Reykjavik, Iceland, and then on to Baltimore. We said our goodbyes and our plane left Trondheim for Copenhagen. Dawn had made me promise to watch out for Mom and Dad. Funny how things get reversed as you get older.

From the air it is amazing how flat Denmark is compared to Norway. We had to go through passport control and then we made our way to the gate. If we had had more time it would have been fun to try to meet up with Rasmus, a foreign exchange student who had visited Tahoe and done some shows with us there.

The flight from Copenhagen to O'Hare was delayed about 45 minutes. Since Mom and Dad didn't have a lot of time at O'Hare to go through customs and then catch their plane to Cedar Rapids I think they were getting a little concerned.

During the flight I watched V for Vendetta, and Cheaper by the Dozen 2. I had seen V before, but I liked the Matrix movies and this one also was written by the Machowski brothers. We both dozed off a while, but finally reached Chicago.

We all got through customs fairly uneventfully, but we were trying to hurry to catch our connecting flights. We said our goodbyes to Mom and Dad and thanked them for the opportunity to spend some time with them visiting the home of our ancestors. I found out later their flight had been delayed, so they made it easily enough.

Our flight, on the other hand, got cancelled and we had to get booked on a later flight to Minneapolis that didn't leave until 10:20 Central time. If I remember right it was delayed too. (WARNING: Don't fly through O'Hare if you don't have to.) Having got up at 7:00 am in Trondheim you can imagine how tired we were by then. We decided to get a little dinner at Chili's in the meantime.

Our flight left Chicago and got into Minneapolis 11:30. By the time we picked up our baggage, got a shuttle, and arrived at the Hampton Inn it was after midnight. We both fell asleep slightly before our heads hit the pillow, I think. What a day.