Coming home

The day starts with packing and emptying the refrigerator.  Then we head downstairs to the street to wait for the ride I scheduled.

On the sidewalk in front of our apartment, with our stuff, waiting for our ride.

Since it's not a weekend and I didn't book it in advance, taking Heathrow Express out to the airport is not as economical as it was coming into London.  I did some comparison shopping and booked a door-to-door van through Taxicode to take us to the airport for about the same price as it would have cost us to schlep our stuff over to an Underground station, ride the tube, then schlep across Paddington Station to the train.  It seems like a good trade of money for time/effort. 

In the van on the way to Heathrow

One thing I could have done better is selecting the pick-up point.  I picked the address right in front of our building, but that required the van to go around the "block" in heavy London morning traffic.  It literally took us 15 full minutes.  I could have saved that time by walking 200 yards and having the van pick us up around the corner.  No matter, I had allowed for plenty of time to get to the airport.

The ride to the airport was through the heart of London and past many of the sights we'd seen or visited the past few days, so the drive was sort of like a "farewell tour".  That part was nice.

We arrived at the airport 3 hours ahead of flight departure.  Outside the departures area at Terminal 3 there's a DJ and it's full-on party time!

That would have been adequate time even without status.  But, I have to say, being AAdvantage Gold and having access to the Admirals Club makes the airport experience so much more pleasant.  A separate, super short check-in line (we waited behind two people) and then a spacious, clean, quiet lounge with complimentary food and wine made the time pass pleasantly.

Nice spread.  Free food and drinks in the Heathrow Admirals Club (Terminal 3, Lounge H)

The flight to Philadelphia was smooth.  I sat next to Charlie who powered through three avengers movies.  I caught up on some Outlander episodes.  None us were able to doze much.

Going through customs and rechecking bags in Philadelphia was smooth.  Here we were able to leverage our TSA PreCheck status and clear the security screening quickly without waiting in another long line.

Philadelphia also has a fine Admirals Club where we passed a couple hours in relative comfort with peace, quiet and complimentary drinks and snacks.

Access to premium lounges comes at a price, but I think those that eschew them to "save" money underestimate the cost of toll that the alternatives take on you (...buying snacks on the concourse, finding a place to wait a few hours in crowded lounges, hunting for power outlets, not being able to relax... it all adds up).   If you can afford it and you'll make use of them, premium lounge access is worth it! (Some offer day passes... consider those if you have a particular need...)

Our flight to San Francisco was smooth as well... except for the 30-40 minutes when the toddler in the row in front of us woke up with night terrors.  For a solid 30 minutes, this poor little girl was in absolute terror and screaming at the top of her lungs.  Her frazzled parents were doing whatever they could to calm her.  While I was missing the sound sleep that I'd been awoken from, I felt bad for this young family.  The girl finally calmed and we kept flying west.

As we came over California, I could see the orange glow of several wildfires burning in the mountains before we reached the SF Bay.  It's been a dry, hot summer.

Landing in San Francisco, we collected our bags and met the shared van I'd arranged.

Always better to arrange these things in advance.  Our van showed up and we piled in.  Two other people who were trying to get a ride but hadn't booked ahead were literally left standing on the curb, at the airport at 1am.  Honestly, in the age of portable computers we all walk around carrying 24/7, there's no reason to leave these things to chance.  I'd chose a shared van for the ride home because since there were five of us, we fill up most of a van anyway and given the late hour, I thought the chances were good that no one would be sharing the ride with us.  I was wrong about that... we had two other passengers in our van that brought us to two separate stops in Cupertino before we got home.  Oh well, the shared van was less than half the cost of booking a private ride and most of our group was dozing anyway, so the extra 30 minutes didn't matter that much.

Finally, at 2:11am, we stumbled out of the van and into our driveway.  Home was how we'd left it.  It was good to be home.  It'd been a long trip, but we all were happy to be in our own place again.  I think that's when you know a good vacation was long enough -- when you want to be back home again at the end of it.

As we all struggle up the driveway into the house, you can see we're tired, but happy to be home! (video sped up 4x!)