Up and out bright and early, our scheduled Uber driver picks us up on the corner by the apartment and whisks us off to the airport without a hitch.  Checking in is a little glitchy, as we can’t use the automatic bag drop (thinking it is because we are flying to the States and they need to check our passports).  Wouldn’t normally be a problem, but the St. John’s Canada games are starting today and there are easily 300 teenage athletes here checking in for their flights.  The line is crazy!  Us regular passengers are put into another line, but we only have 3 agents – and are mixed with the Priority/First Class folks.  So it takes a little time to check in, and then the security line! Ay yi yi! Surprisingly though, it moves fairly rapidly (nothing like the B*tch security in Dublin) and we are in the lounge with plenty of time for breakfast.  Oh the lounge! One of the best ever.  We are literally escorted to a table, there are only 4 other people there, we order from a QR code menu and have some excellent scrambled eggs with feta (creamy and delicious) as well as pastries and excellent coffee.  Lovely way to prepare for our first flight – of 50 minutes.  Whoopie.

And our first flight is just that, whoopie – quick and easy. Although deplaning is a bit delayed as the flight next to us has come from the States and needs to go through their immigration. But we are finally released, and head to our immigration (love we can do this here and not at our final destination – and bonus – we don’t even need to pick up our bags and recheck them here, they are checked straight through to Charlotte), walking right through Global Entry, barely needing to stop to say hello to the CBP guy.  Global Entry is THE BEST! Then through security where we both have our bags double checked (for what, we don’t know) then finally onto the next lounge – where we barely make it in.  Different story from this morning, this is a little lounge that is packed. Fortunately there are 2 seats at the bar, which is fine for us – so we grab them and help ourselves to some really good Asian food (noodles and gyoza – yum) as well as snack on little pretzels while we drink our beer and wine.  Perfect.  Our next flight is running about 20 minutes late which gives us time to just relax and hang out. 

Once at the gate, the flight is delayed further – something about fixing a tire (eek) – but apparently they do, because we all board and take off without a hitch.  And our flight attendant – oh my – Andrew (who is in our section) is a hoot – total comedian.  He made the other FA laugh hysterically when he (the other FA) was making his announcement – so much so that he had to stop to collect himself before going on.  Andrew kept the jokes coming during the safety briefing – and talked to us about the screaming hell that was the back of the plane (2 screaming babies) and how luck we were to be sitting where we were.  Hysterical.

A very smooth flight – with complimentary beer and wine no less – and great views over Lake Erie as we make our way south to Charlotte.  Landing only about 30 minutes late, we figured we’d be home in time enough to unload the car, then head to the Hound for dinner before too late.  Um.  Figure again.  We stood and waited for our luggage for over an hour.  Luggage from a flight that arrived 30 minutes after us came out on the carousel before ours!  WTF?  It was so annoying.  By the time we were in the car, it was pushing 5pm; we were so steamed!

After that debacle, all went fairly smoothly, with an easy, if not traffick-y, drive home – and even though we went directly to The Hound – instead of stopping at the house first – it was a no go.  Holy Cow! The place was packed – they even had tables on the side of the building on the road.  Crazy!  So, home it was – where we easily cobbled together a quick pasta meal and hung out the rest of the night, sorting out our haul from our little Northern Atlantic crossing.  Ok – you can see I succumbed to a couple little babies who didn’t quite fit the “wear it or eat it” criteria. What can I say?  Except thank God we each had a 50 lb limit on our bags with all the beer! Ed is stocked and ready for the rest of the summer here at home.  Trip done.