Author: Robin Chartier

Finally, the long awaited end of our evacuation story. When we last left our heroes they had endured a a long day of airports and lines, and were on a plane to Athens . . .

We were told that when we arrived in Greece there would be someone there to help us make our flight arrangements for the next legs of our trip, but we didn’t know what else to expect. What I didn’t expect when we made our way down the airstairs (that’s really what they’re called) was the US Ambassador to Greece welcoming us with, “Congratulations! I know it’s been a long day, but you made it. Welcome to Athens!” He was accompanied by several photographers and videographers who were taking pictures of everyone.

 Right past the ambassador, there were several volunteers waiting to escort people into the terminal. We were greeted with a cheerful, “We’ve been waiting for you! Inside you’ll find food and drinks and let us know if you need anything.” After only having part of an MRE and a small snack on the plane, food was exactly what we wanted.

I’m not ashamed to tell you we were the first people to hit the food table. Big surprise, huh? Yes, Calvin was that excited. We felt kind of like movie stars — all these people excited to see us, free food and personal escorts.

After we had a few bites (grabbing some extra Pringles for the road), and filled out our evacuation paperwork, it was time to figure out when and where we’d be going. They had volunteers stationed all over the airport terminal (which was open only to the evacuees) and they helped collect our luggage, walked us across the street to our hotel and then headed back to help other families. We were treated like royalty.

Our hotel was fit for royalty too. It was so beautiful, but I was too tired to take any pictures other than this one of Calvin with naked David. Once we got to the room I threw myself on the wonderful bed thinking, “I should take a picture of the bathroom” because it was A-mazing, but I couldn’t move. Josh headed back to the airport to book our next flights and when he came home and told me we had to be back at the airport at 4:30 am (about 4 hours later) I was not very pleasant, but in hindsight it was the best move possible. Yes, I wanted to stay and sleep in the following morning, but it was better to push through the pain and get home instead of delaying for an extra 24 hours. Josh’s plan seemed extra brilliant once everyone started throwing up after we got home. I was so thankful that we didn’t have to deal with puking on the plane!

Us at the crack of night, making our way back to the airport. It was freezing!

Saying a very early good morning to our friends who were evacuated with us. We’ve been looking forward to spending the year in Egypt together since we met back in Monterey. They had only been there for 3 weeks when we had to leave. Now it looks like they are going to Morocco and we’ll be going to Oman.*sigh* We were all booked together on the 6 am flight from Athens to Franfurt.

 

On our way to Franfurt. We realized that we never saw the sun while in Greece. We landed after sunset and left before sunrise. Maybe someday we’ll get back there to see the country in the daytime.

 

Landing in Frankfurt. Exactly two months before we were in Franfurt on our way to Egypt.

We said goodbye to our friends and boarded the long flight to SF. Since we were booked only the night before, we were spread out in 2s in the back 1/2 of the plane, all in the center seats. Yep, 11 hours trapped between 2 dudes, me and the baby. Josh sat with Caleb and Carter and Calvin sat together. All the kids did such a great job. The baby nursed and slept, I only saw Calvin and Carter once when they got up to go to the bathroom and Josh handled Caleb. The boys ordered their own food and drinks and entertained themselves like experienced travelers.

Even though we didn’t want to come home, it was so nice to see my mom and dad at the airport when we landed. 

We all made it out of Egypt in one piece with our sanity (mostly) intact.

Happy reunion for a boy and his cat. My mom brought her to the airport because she knew how much Caleb had been missing her.

The End.
Or more accurately, The Beginning.

Josh stole the Kindle and is tearing through books 2 and 3 of The Hunger Games trilogy, so I have plenty of time to post. I started reading book 1 and loved it so I decided to share the joy and read it aloud to him during our L O N G drive back to northern CA yesterday. We made it about 1/2 way through the book by the time we got home and then he read ahead and finished it last night and has already downloaded the other 2 books – I’m guessing I won’t be able to find out what happens to Katniss Everdeen for a few days. *sigh* Back in the real world, while Josh and I were absorbed in a fictional reality show where kids fight to the death to determine a winner (yes, I know it sounds weird, but it’s a great read), our youngest son was creating his own bloodshed in the back seat of our minivan. I guess he was bored by the many hours of driving so he decided to pull out his Swiss Army knife and started carving a stick into a spear. He managed to significantly cut his finger and bleed all over himself and a towel that he found back there, but never told us. It was only once we stopped to get gas and his brothers noticed that his finger was still bleeding that we knew anything about it. I don’t know how Calvin, sitting next to him, managed to miss the huge bloodstain on the white towel, but whatever. One $6 box of Band Aids later and we were back on the road. This time, to help keep the baby from screaming bloody murder the entire time I sat next to her and continued reading. Until she started projectile vomiting all over herself, her carseat and even managed to spray it out of the carseat and onto my seat. Another stop, a change of clothes and 1/2 a pack of wipes later we were once again heading north. Just as the baby finally stopped screaming and fell asleep, youngest son had to pee. Since stopping always wakes the sleeping giant and we still had several hours on the road that we didn’t want marred by baby yelling, we told him he could  either hold it or pee in a cup. He chose to pee in a cup, but then spilled it on himself, dad’s suit, and the car, but didn’t tell us. It was only once we made it to the next stop (yes, we had to stop 43 bajillion times yesterday) and saw the huge wet spot all over the leg of his shorts that we put it all together. *sigh* We haven’t decided if Caleb wins the Covert Operator award or if his brothers win for being the Least Observant Car Passengers Ever, but the prize for all of us is cleaning out the car today. Ick.

I haven’t been on the computer in 3 days . . . I think that might be a record for me. I’ve been having a secret rendezvous with our new Kindle. I thought that it would be just like reading on a computer and while I can read message boards, news articles, and blogs all day long on a computer, I can’t do books. It bugs. Maybe because when I read books I like to curl up on the couch or in the bathtub, and you can’t exactly do that with a computer. But this Kindle thing is amazing. It feels like nothing in your hand, but it reads just like a book. And I can still read in the bathtub. Win. Win. Win.

The bigger reason I haven’t been online is because we are traveling again. We are currently in Southern California for my sister’s wedding and while the hotel does have wi fi, there is a little human who has been particularly needy since we left. We were a little worried because our hotel is right on the train tracks (and right on the beach!), but no need to worry about the trains waking us up at night because the baby screaming very nicely covers up any train noise we might possibly hear. She’s so considerate.

Hopefully baby will feel better soon, I will finally get around to charging the battery in my camera, and Josh will pry the Kindle out of my hot little hands so I can get around to posting the last segment of our evacuation story. And maybe a few photos of the boys on the beach. But first I need to go grab breakfast before Josh comes back and unloads the baby on me.

my boys have on their Tae Kwon Do uniforms on and are doing a little butt kicking of their own.

 

These pictures are from our last week in Egypt when they were all practicing for their first belt tests.

 

 

We may no longer have Egypt, but we still have Camille Cairo.