Part 1: The beginning.

I’ve been blessed with a job that offers to take me to England every other year for the Farnborough Air Show. While there, I don’t get to do touristy things or see more than the hotel bar, the shuttle bus and the show venue — but I always tack on a couple days extra to visit family or just wander London. You know, indulging in “being British” — which, more often than not involves a Google search for the local Sainsbury’s and keeping the Cadbury family in business. Needless to say, one of the items on Bill and I’s bucket list was to visit “my hometown” together. And, then Jack was born, and I really wanted my Nana Doris to meet him; thus a plan was born. International travel with a 14 month old. Why not?

The itinerary:

London: 5 days
Newcastle: 4 days
York: 2 days

The carry-on essentials:

One stroller, one stroller rain cover (necessary for the lovely English summer we were entering into), one car seat, one very large carabiner, 5 lbs of children’s books, 2 laptops, 1 iPad, 1 camera bag, 1 suitcase and 1 diaper bag.

What was not packed was a change of clothes for Bill. Poor guy took one for the team in dealing with a dinner-time (pre-boarding, thank God!) blowout that managed to strip us of 95% of our Lysol wipe supply and render 4 articles of clothing to the bathroom garbage can. Thankfully, at the moment we discovered this indiscretion, David — my boss, and owner of the company, who we were traveling with — was away from the table checking to see if we could all enter the Delta SkyLounge. 15 minutes later Bill had a beer, I had a beer, and Jack had the iPhone. Disaster contained.

We have always been blessed with Jack going to sleep without much fuss — if he has his pacifier. So with pajamas on, a pacifier in his mouth and the lull of the airplane, he slept in his car seat like nothing was amiss. Thank goodness, as we had decided not to fly with baby Tylenol or other medication to knock him out. Next thing he knew we were in London. Between bad movies that we had to watch and the ridiculous drink and food service schedule, Bill and I didn’t fare quite as well.

Let the good times begin.