Day 1…Hiccups

Yesterday was a roller coaster of a day.  I woke up knowing that I would be boarding three planes in the next 24 hours and at the end of it all, I would be in Africa.  Definitely a little scary.  Not only would I be traveling further than I’ve ever been before, but there was a lot of uncertainty as well.  I’m always anxious about flying…throw an ocean in there and I was pretty much a hot mess.  I literally cried at least three times before we ever got on the plane.

Ready to go…

Upon arriving at the airport we were notified that our flight out of Omaha was delayed by an hour.  Not a huge delay, but we only had a 53 minute layover in-between flights.  Panic quickly settled in as our group tried to figure out how to reschedule our flights or what we needed to do.  Our flight was the only one to Brussels for 24 hours.  There was a slight possibility that the flight would wait for us, otherwise United Airlines would put us up in a hotel in Newark for the night.  That is where the roller coaster began.  In the next few hours, our plans changed more times than I can count.  My blood pressure was probably off the charts (it is just remembering it).

We landed at Newark to find our plane was still there.  We rushed to our gate to find it had just pulled away.  As we talked to customer service we thought the plane was coming back in off the tarmac.  We’re going, we’re not going…up and down.  After all that, it was official.  We were stuck in Newark, New Jersey until Friday at 5:55 p.m.  So, what do you do with less than 24 hours in Newark?  You take advantage and go into the city!  First up we took the train into New York City to see Times Square at night.  It was a quick trip, but worth it. 

Friday morning we got up early to check out some more sights before we needed to be back at the airport.  It was a rainy day in the city as a result of Tropical Storm Andrea, so we skipped out on the Statue of Liberty and went to the 9/11 memorial, the New York Stock Exchange and had a slice of New York pizza.  New York was an incredible delay along the way.  The only thing that would have made the delay better was if I could have hit up the Today Show. :)

The new One World Trade Center Building…

9/11 Memorial…

The most bizarre part of this was that in all of New York City, we ended up on the same train last night and today with a man giving us some tourist pointers.  He helped us find a cheaper way into the city and told us how to get where we needed to go.  Ironically enough, his name was Angel.

Now, we are on our way again.  We are currently enroute to Brussels somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean.  For the second time I can say that in less that 24 hours we will be settled in at the orphanage.

{The Launes}