Friday/Saturday - July 7/8

Travel Day – after making last minute preparations for our travels in the morning, and having a nice lunch in Mission Viejo (Cheesecake Factory), we were off to the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). We arrived nearly three hours before our flight’s scheduled departure time. This was none to early as, after having waited in a few lines, we arrived at our gate just moments before pre-boarding began. So, we unfortunately did not have time to allow Abbie to run around and get a lot of her energy out before boarding. This we would come to regret more as the evening unfolded. We can say that the first 2+ hours of our flight were the most miserable flying experience that we have had to date (and hopefully the worst ever!). We were not permitted to take our car seat on the flight, and so Abbie had the freedom to move around a bit … but we were in the middle section of the plane, and there was not much room for her in which she could move around … but there were lots of people to “bother.” And when it was time to sleep, Abbie just couldn’t seem to get comfortable, so she was uncharacteristically irritable, and loud. The last 7-8 hours, mercifully, she slept … I cannot say the same for her parents, however, as she took up at least one and a half seats most of the flight.

We were met in Frankfurt on Saturday afternoon by Scott’s good friends Oleg and Lena. Scott got to know them in Kyiv in the early 90s, but they have since moved to a quaint and picturesque village in Germany, about 45 minutes from Frankfurt by car. We went to their apartment, where we met their three young children (all born since Scott had last visited them), and enjoyed a wonderful visit. We took a hike, visited an Italian Restaurant with an outside seating area with a great view and a playground, and then a fantastic ice cream shoppe … but most of all, we just enjoyed getting to catch up and share a day with them (although in reality, it was much less than 24 hours, as we had to be back at the airport early the next morning). Abbie’s body told her that although it was very dark outside, she wasn’t ready to sleep – her parents who had spent the previous two nights with very little sleep (one night packing until the wee morning hours, the other trying to make sure that their daughter didn’t wake up again on the plane) were! They found themselves, however, sharing a bed with a little girl who did not want to sleep. Sleep finally came, as did the morning, all too quickly.