Karen's Journal from Ethiopia

March 24th 2011 Thursday We got off to a rough start, but hopefully things will go better today. Andy picked us up last night around 2:30pm. We made it to the airport at 4pm for our 6:26pm flight. When we got there, we realized that the flight was delayed because of storms. They would give us a time and when we would get closeto the time, they would put us off again. The plane left DC at 7:40pm to come and get us. we feared they could end up cancelling. There were only 12 people on our plane. There was a little turbulence at the beginning, but it smoothed out. The girls did great. Madelyn seemed a little frightened, but she made it. We finally arrived in DC at midnight. We got off our plane with our 5 carry ons and walked down a hallway following our fellow passengers. Went through double doors and ended up in a tram like thing that looked like a building on wheels. This tram took us to the building that had the luggage. After collecting our 9 checked bags, we slowly made our way outside to call the shuttle from our hotel. When we got all of our stuff outside, Aaron called and they let us know that the shuttle stopped running at 11pm. So, we took a cab - a Lincoln Navigator- that barely fit all of us and our bags. The unhappy driver asked which hotel. He said there was more than one Hyatt. I told him the Hyatt Dulles. He dropped us off and by the time I made it down the long hallway to get our rooms, he was gone. Well, we were at the wrong Hyatt. Ours was down The road. So, instead of calling another cab, we took all our bags a long way down the road. It was bad. 1am when we got to our hotel. Poor Aaron had to pull more than his weight. We sent the girls straight to bed and they all fell asleep almost immediately. Aaron and I however were so tired it took a long time to fall asleep. I think I might have gotten 4 hours straight. We got up at 6:45, took showers, ate breakfast, then brought all the luggage to the lobby to the now running shuttle. We got there just in time. We had so much luggage that there wasn't any room in the shuttle for more people. Another couple had to wait for a shuttle from the neighboring hotel to go. Somehow they made it to the airport before us. Now it is 9:30am. Our flight is "on time" so far. A good sign, the airplane is already parked outside. Oh yeah we were going to take sandwiches to eat last night at the airport. Decided against it. Ended up having to break into our snacks for the long trip. I think we will be OK though. Hard to believe we will be in Ethiopia in 15 hours.