Day 3: First Class and Awesome Waitress

The alarm clock went off at 4:44am this morning. It was already light out. This time of year in Iceland, the sun sets at midnight and comes up again at 3am.  The kids weren't ready to get up, but we had a 7:40 flight that we needed to catch. We managed to get out of the hotel (well, really hostel....looks like I fat-fingered a letter when searching for places to stay. But, the bunk beds were a nice touch...) at 5:40 and returned our rental car. 

The Iceland airport is an absolute zoo. Even at 5:40 in the morning; absolute pandemonium. We got in line to check our bags (Icelandair's overhead bins are too small for our bigger roller bags) and get our boarding passes. After waiting for some time, we were told that if we were checking in through the kiosks (which I was doing while the girls were in line) we should go to another line. Sherri and the girls went to the other line while the kiosk told me that, yes, your are flying today, yes I have all of your and your family's information for your next 3 flights, and yes, I am not letting you check in through the kiosk for reasons unknown. So, we moved back to the first line. No sweat, though, as we had an hour and forty minutes until our flight. We got to the front of the line and the attendant, after typing for 5 minutes, tells us that our flight has been overbooked and they are offering €400 for us to take a later flight. I say, "no thanks" and they say, "well, then we will have to upgrade two of you to first class." Now, I only got my minor in math, so my calculations may be incorrect here, but I immediately calculated 2 = mom and dad; 3 = kids. Have fun in coach, kids! 

We headed to security with our newfound firstclassedness (well, 40% of us, at least). Three of our bags were pulled off the security conveyor. We seem to have a gift for this....on our flight from Phoenix to Seattle, they pulled 8 of our 9 bags for further checking, even though none of them had items that we weren't allowed to take on the plane. After our three bags were rifled through and put back through the scanners, it was 7:00. We looked up and saw that our terminal (the furthest one away, of course) was 20 mins away by foot. We started running through the airport (not our first time) and arrived at the gate with just minutes to spare for our 7:10am boarding. 

Here we are on the plane, which sat at the gate for a full 40 mins before taking off. But hey, at least we were comfortable! (well, 40% of us, at least)

Enjoying what looks like the world's smallest glass of orange juice, but is really some 'mango power breakfast juice shot' or something like that.

A picture of our beautiful children....somewhere down there.

We arrived at Heathrow, grabbed our bags, and headed to the train. Public transit in London is so easy, and it has been fun showing the kids how to get around to pretty much anywhere you want to go. We found our apartment, which is in an awesome location just steps away from Trafalgar Square, and settled in. 

While doing the (extensive) research for this trip, Sherri read that you can sometimes get discounted tickets for shows that are running that day and have not sold out. So, we went to a local ticket stand and we were able to land five tickets to the musical "Waitress" - three a little towards the back and two that were more towards the front. Sounds familiar, huh? We were happy! (well, 40% of us, at least).  

Having missed lunch, we searched out a place to have some yummy food and a beverage before the show. It was really, really good (the beverage, of course...I think the food was pretty good, too).  We also did some touristy poses for pictures. No shame here. They probably just love Americans and their touristy ways. 

Just....mmmmm.....

One who has never used a telephone booth in her life...

Another who has never used a telephone booth in her life...

"Dad, what was it like in the olden days?"

We dropped our backpacks off at our place (the restaurant and the theatre (see my British spelling of 'theatre'? I'm almost a native!) are walking distance from our apartment) and headed to the show. We absolutely loved it....it was fantastic! We found out during intermission that we were watching the last show with the original cast, so it was an extra-special one for the performers. With an awesome day behind us (and a significantly more productive one than Day 2....ish), we headed back to the apartment to get some sleep before another exciting day - Harry Potter!