I'm home!

To say that I am tired or sleepy is an understatement. Yesterday around 2:30p Karen and Dorian and me and Joyce started the trip to Teguc and our flight. I bought a beautiful purple vase around 3 feet tall. Well I had been assured that I could have it wrapped an put it in overhead carryon. I only have one checked bag this way as I was bringing little home. Well we got in line to check in at Taca and Karen asked Dorian to have my vase shrinkwrapped. They did an excellent job and it even had a shrink wrapped handle and fragile stickers everywhere. Well when we got up to check in I was told that I could not take the vase on board. The sized didn't matter, it was that it was "clay" After the supervisor walked off the clerk helping me told me to go put it in a bag where they could not tell that it was a clay vase and take it on. I opted not to, as this was the first of three flights and I did not have the energy to argue everytime. So Karen now has my beautiful vase. She said she would leave it shrink wrapped so if anyone else has luggage some time to bring it on. I think she just doesn't want this purple vase with gold splatters in her apartment. Jen might feel the same when she gets back. I took the news that my new treasure would not accompany me home pretty well but then the clerk said that the weather was really bad and an earlier flight to San Salvador had been cancelled and it was probable that mine would at least be delayed if not cancelled. I walked away from the counter and she had to call me back to give me my boarding pass. Once it was time to come home, I wanted to come home. now.....We paid our exit fees (does anyone understand these?) then went upstairs to screening. Karen and Dorian told us that they would wait to see if the flight left before they headed back to Santa Ana. This worried me because the children were left with some persons that had not had a lot of hands on contact with them. Karen was afraid that if our flight was cancelled that there would not be another until the next am. Well God decided that Honduras was done with us for now, as our plane left on time. We arrived in San Salvador almost as quickly as we took off. As soon as landed the search was on for chocolate and one small bar had three candy bars, well we bought two of them and a bottle of water. We then went to our gate and had to go through a carry on search to get to our gate. We could take the water we bought in the airport but we had to take the lid off, the thinking was that we would have to drink it before we boarded. Well inside this gate area, you could buy bottled water and keep your lid. Does anyone know if there is black market for bottled water lids? Finally we boarded out next flight; from San Salvador to Washington DC. Taca airlines totally impressed me and the planes were newer, cleaner, employees kinder and food better than any American airlines that I have flown. The plane was only partly full and after they gave me a gluten laden dinner, I opted to bed down for the flight. I eventually captured an entire row of three and gathered 5-6 pretend pillows that airlines use. After much tossing and turning I finally found a spot and took probably a 30 minute nap. I have to confess that I had a little fun also. While I was sitting in row with Joyce, with one seat between us; Joyce had headphones in and her pillow between she and I so that she could not see me. As she would reach over armrest and adjust her sound (channel and volume) I would either turn channels or volume and her hand would creep back around to adjust. I was laughing out loud and neighbors were looking suspiciously. Finally after 5-6 minutes, Joyce moved to pillow to try to discover why she could not get her audio adjusted and I was busted. I think that is when I decided to move to another row. Well we made it to Washington DC at around 1 am and I simply do not have the energy to keep typing about the Dulles ordeal.....So stay tuned tomorrow for the continuation of the trip home.