London Bound

The day had finally arrived, barely, it was only 3:30 am. March 20, 2019, the day our family of five plus one golden retriever in tow would leave the comfort and stability of Boise, Idaho for a new adventure in London. We had checked off (most of) our extensive to-do list, placed all our belongings in storage in preparation for renters to move in, and packed everything we would need for the next two years at least. We were finally ready for the early morning flight out to Minneapolis, and eventually to the UK.

We must have been the slowest moving group ever to grace the Boise airport, complete with our 14 duffle and roller bags. We were lucky to have supportive family members in the form of my parents, twin brother John, and cousin Tyler who showed up at 4:30 to see us off as well as manage our substantial load of suitcases.

During that process, we learned something about international baggage weight restrictions. Quietly, I had filled one suitcase entirely with books, hoping this would pass unnoticed until we arrived in London. I was mistaken. As we were checking in our bags, we learned that 70lbs is the international per-bag maximum, and there was no amount of money one could pay, in our income bracket, that would allow you to circumvent that rule. My bag of books clocked in at 87lbs, forcing me to offload 17 and one half pounds of precious cargo under the eyes of Olivia, my family, and a significant number of passengers waiting in line in the pre-5:00 am twilight. Not my finest hour.

Fortunately, I was able to make up for it. I had accumulated a significant number of airline miles over years of business travel, which finally paid off in the form of upgraded first class seats on our maiden transatlantic flight with the kids.

One of the downsides of upgrading with miles is that you usually get stuck on the worst itineraries. For us that meant a 5:30 am departure out of Boise with a 9-hour layover in Minneapolis. There was only one quintessentially-American activity that could possibly sate our excitement over the course of the day. That of course, was visiting a mall. Not just any mall, the Mall of America. You might be thinking, I thought we were in the midst of the biggest decline in physical retailing in our or our parents’ lifetimes. You would be correct.

Undeterred, however, we put on our game faces and took the, surprisingly convenient, Minneapolis Light Rail directly from the airport to the Mall of America. Probably a good thing we got in a dress rehearsal, as less than 24 hours later our kids were about to get a rude awakening in how unforgiving public transportation in big cities can be.

The Mall of America is a testament to American exceptionalism. Ironically, it is also an American wasteland. On one hand, you have a nearly endless array of activities. Indoor rollercoasters, mini golf, escape rooms, a giant LEGO store, the list goes on. On the other, it is an overpriced, sensory explosion that is altogether far too much in nearly every way.

We began the morning at the American Girl store. Our daughters had just been gifted American Girl dolls before we left and were eager to accessorize. Unfortunately, the store, which has been an institution at the Mall for years, was closing its doors for good the very next day. This meant that nearly every accoutrement was sold out, and the only sizes available weren’t close to fitting our girls’ dolls (why doll clothes would be sold in different sizes is a mystery that remains unsolved).

We moved on to the Nickelodeon Universe, located in the giant atrium right outside the American Girl store. Billed as the largest indoor theme park in America, it looked exciting (Shredder’s Mutant Masher sounded particularly enticing for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans young and old). Our kids were too little for most of the attractions so we stuck to the relatively benign Adventure Bay, where the budding hero/heroine can go wild on the “set” of Paw Patrol. Paw Patrol? On the double, we said. That is, after a 20-minute wait in line to ensure the playground doesn’t get too crowded, and a “points pass” purchased at the wholly reasonable price of $21.99. . .

The highlight of the day was the Sea Life Aquarium, in the basement of the Mall. We repurposed the funds we had allocated for American Girl accessories (good thing we did, as this too was exorbitantly priced), and spent a fun-filled afternoon roaming the walk-through aquariums. We saw sharks, turtles, sting rays, jellyfish, the kids thought we had wandered into Finding Nemo. If you’re entertaining young children at the Mall, this would be my go-to recommendation.

We had stashed our carry ons in the day lockers at the airport, and went to get our stuff after getting back through security. Unfortunately, upon our return the lockers proved somewhat too secure. Not only were they completely impenetrable, the entire computer system simply shut down. We phoned the technician, who pushed the reset button several times (literally), and was surprised to see nothing improved. He eventually called in backup and opened our locker via the use of what most closely resembled a crowbar. The irony of an archetypal “brute force” attack prevailing over a set of digital storage lockers was not lost on us.

Now quite late for our boarding, in all the shuffle I left behind my favorite button-up cardigan at the lockers. I often wore the sweater upwards of five days a week, and Olivia thought this was an omen signaling it was time I upped my style game. I still maintain it was a very smart sweater.

The second leg was a delight. The best way I can describe the comparison between coach and first class on international flights is the difference between a day of misery vs. an extra day of vacation. This feeling was only slightly dampened by the presence of our children. The girls slept for the first 90 minutes of the flight, after which they were nearly inexhaustible, while our son went right to bed with Olivia after feasting on the in-flight meal.

One note about transcontinental flights. If you have the option to choose a route that arrives later in the day, always take it. The difference between a 7:30 am vs. 11:30 am arrival is huge. On Boise time, that’s the equivalent to waking up at midnight as opposed to 4:30 am. Whenever I’ve flown to Europe and landed at 11:00 am or later, I’ve always been able to successfully power through the day. Both times I’ve landed between 7:00 – 8:30 am, as we did on this trip, each minute seems like an eternity.

Traveling in first class also means you get an invitation to the priority immigration line, which was great for us as we spent a fair amount of time at passport control reviewing our entry visas and instructions for picking up our long-term visas.

The real challenge was baggage claim. We knew this was going to be tough. We had scheduled a hired car, just for the bags, while we took the Tube into London. But how to get the bags out through customs and across the airport lobby to arrivals? Heathrow conveniently presents such a solution. They have porters with large, carts, for lack of a better word, that can carry significantly more bags than you might expect. See the picture below. There’s no better way to visualize how they’re able to move so much luggage so efficiently.

After that the rest of the journey was smooth sailing. We met our hired car, loaded the bags, and went back through the airport to the Underground station (in hindsight we should have taken the Heathrow Express as kids under 15 travel free). We picked up our eldest daughter’s pre-ordered Oyster car allowing free travel on all Transport For London (TFL) trains and buses, hopped on the Tube, and met the driver at our flat. The Eaton Square Porters (more on them in the post on Our Flat) had kindly already unloaded the baggage for us. We walked into our new home for the next two years, at that point covered in unopened Amazon and Ikea boxes, and luggage, quickly set up the beds, and crashed for a 4-hour nap. The first step of our journey was finally complete.

Many adventures await and we can’t wait to share them. Keep an eye on the Blog for more content.