This date was continuously described as “The shortest birthday ever” for Shannon since we were going to be losing hours during the international flights.
I was up and with coffee brewed by 3:30, and we were out the door at 4 to drop off Greta, who had refused to eat her breakfast at that unseemly hour, and pick up Shannon’s parents who were going to drive our car back home after we got to the airport.
Shannon joked that they should go to Waffle House after dropping us off at the airport since it was open 24 hours, and ultimately they did. Hopefully they didn’t get into a brawl!
We were in the airport probably by 4:45, a bit later than the 4:30 we had been planning for. We got our bags checked, and walked back and forth repeatedly to get through the security line at MCI. I somehow triggered the machine as I always do, and got the most intimate pat down of my life. That didn’t hold us up for long though, and we were to our gate a bit after 5, for a flight to Philadelphia that wasn’t scheduled to board until 7 and depart at 7:35.
A while later, our friends arrived at the gate as well. We had a good spot out front of gate A5 from which our plane would depart. Lisa began the morning giving Shannon some birthday gifts, a trend that would continue throughout the day.
Ultimately, she gave Shannon several bags of gummy nerds candies, and a couple sets of earrings. Very nice presents, what a wonderful treat!
The flight from Kansas City to Philadelphia was relatively uneventful. When we landed, we moved from our arrival gate closer to our next departure gate, but ultimately everyone determined that they were hungry. We found a food court area, and Shannon and I split a Philly cheese steak from Geno’s, as well as an order of cheese fries. We got the provolone cheese Philly, but I think the cheeze whiz version would have been better. The cheese fries were definitely superior to the philly itself. I think I actually got a philly from Geno’s back when I visited Philadelphia for a SIFE convention in college. The branding seemed very familiar, although it was 20 years ago.
The Philadelphia airport was hot, especially the food court area. Even over by our gate it was rather warm. Our flight from Philadelphia to Athens was set to depart at 4:35, but after boarding the plane, we were delayed nearly an hour for a weather hold. Also at some point someone had forgotten to bring some “catering” aboard, but that turned out to just be that there was no wine on the plane. Can’t take off without wine!
The flight was longer than our flight to Germany, but perhaps was somewhat less uncomfortable. I definitely appreciated the compression socks I got for this trip, I think those really made my experience more tolerable on the long flight. However, I think I’d rather not have a super long flight like this in the future.