The Longest Trip Ever

Well, maybe not... but it felt like it. Since the flights from Atlanta to St Louis looked full, we decided to not even take our chances this year, but book a hotel in Atlanta, and rent a car the next day to drive up to St Louis.

So we started our day around 5:30 am, getting up and ready to go.

At the airport, we took the train to our terminal.

We had reserved our seats, so we got on without any trouble. But we were glad to have reserved, because the flight was full!

Benjamin took this photo from his window seat.

This was Benjamin's "I'm patiently waiting for the video system to start working" face. He watched FOUR movies on the flight - that is how long it was.

After some confusion as to how to get to the hotel... the Atlanta Airport says to call your hotel, and there is a "shared shuttle service" at "Number 4" just outside the International Terminal to pick you up and take you there... the hotel says, "What?! None of us can pick up at International terminal, only domestic." (Which, by the way, is less than a mile away, according to Google Maps, but which felt like about 10 miles... perhaps we were taken by a ride in more than one way by our non-English speaking, non-road-sign obeying, non-worried-about-red-warning-lights [and why should he be? he covered them with electrical tape so he wouldn't have to see them]-in-his-car cab driver.)

The hotel was also not overly concerned about not being able to take incoming calls due to "work at the airport" having damaged their telephone lines.

Nonetheless, we finally made it to the hotel, and got them to reimburse us for the taxi. Frédéric took the boys for a swim, and then they went and got dinner and brought it back to our room - I wasn't sure I had enough energy to come back if I left the room.

And the next morning, since they were up bright and early, the boys started on their trip journals.

In the car, Benjamin was appalled that we wanted him to drink something this color. It does look a bit like blended up Smurfs, doesn't it?

We drove through Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois before finally making it to Missouri. We saw road construction, mountains, fall colors.

Holey socks. And were relieved to see these in the rental car, and not in an airport security line where we had to take off our shoes. (Though kids under 12 don't have to take off their shoes anymore anyway, so I guess we would have been ok.)

And snow!!

And at last, the skyline we most wanted to see...

Then, finally, after the long, long, long two days of travel, we got to crash. This is what jet-lag sleep looks like.

But in true jet-lag fashion, we awoke in time to see the sunrise every day for a week.