Thanks to the Oatleymobile, we and all of our luggage made it intact to Washington Dulles airport and onto the plane. It was very hard to say goodbye; even harder to say it to the children earlier in the day as they left for school.
Sarah, Eloïse and I had the most fantastic time in Tall Timbers, in the cosy and easy-going Oatley household. There’s nothing quite like being amongst like-minded people, people of whom you have no expectations, people who expect nothing of you. You just relax, hang out together, talk, eat, love each other’s children and then — as if by magic — all is right with the world. I don’t think the three McKenna-Macdonalds have been that relaxed since, well, perhaps our visit to the Oatleys in San Diego back in January of 2005.
Eloïse behaved quite well on the plane. She slept for at least half of the flight, requiring just intermittent breast-feeding and the occasional walk around the aisles and the galleys. She was asleep for the landing, then remained asleep during taxiing.
Rather astonishingly, she remained asleep after we got off the plane and went through passport control, then still at baggage reclamation. Finally, we headed outside into the fresh morning air (it was about 07:00 by now) and got into a taxi. We were stunned that she made it all the way off the plane and to the front door without stirring even once.
Back home, Sarah and Eloïse went to bed. After a shower, I joined them. We slept till noon (about four hours) and then got up and started running through the mountain of post that had accumulated in our absence.
Apart from that, we didn’t do much else today. I connected our digital TV set-top box to the television; we’ll be playing with that this evening. Sarah did some unpacking in the kitchen. Now it’s time to grab some dinner.
Oh, and will wonders never cease? As I came in the door, I tried to pick up my e-mail over the WLAN and it just worked. In other words, DSL is finally working in the new house. Thank you, KPN.