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Shortly after Steve and I returned from California in March, our friend Harriet came to visit us in Lincoln. We both agreed to keep a daily journal of her visit – her first to England – and then combine it into one, and then share with all of you. This is my first guest-authored blog. I’m hoping it gives you an idea of the fun we all had.

Wednesday, April 16, 2014 – Leaving Los Angeles

Harriet Leaving for LAX
Harriet Leaving for LAX

After going through security at LAX, which went well, I proceeded to gate 45. Around 5:50 pm we were taken to another terminal (about a 20 minute ride). Due to all the construction at LAX we were leaving from a different area than the usual departure gate. After boarding the plane, the pilot announced that there was a delay due to some maintenance issues. Every 10 or 15 minutes he announced that they were still working on the maintenance, and in his words, had to scrounge for the part. Finally the pilot made an announcement that the maintenance issue had been corrected and as soon as all the paperwork was completed we would be taking off. He repeated this announcement two more times and by 9:15 (1 hour and 45 minutes late) we finally took off.

The flight went well. At times there was quite a bit of turbulence. It was a long flight, approximately 10 hours. We were due to arrive at Heathrow Airport at 2:20pm (BST) and arrived at 2:45pm. The pilots made up the time that we were delayed resulting with only 15-minute delay.

Almost There!
Almost There!

The best part of my arrival was passing duty free shop and through the doors that led to the area where I saw Maxine and Steve. What a greeting I received. There was Maxine with her camera, taking photos of my arrival at Heathrow Terminal 3.

Harriet & Maxine
Harriet & Maxine

We then proceeded to their car and began our drive to Lincoln. It is 150 miles and took about 2 1/2 hours. We stopped at Peterborough rest stop and I had a wonderful chicken sandwich. I even took a photo of it.

My Chicken Sandwich
My Chicken Sandwich

We had a relaxing time while drinking our cups of coffee and latte. It is similar to Starbuck’s. We also purchased some groceries at M&S (Marks & Spencer): milk, bread, cheese, etc.

Back in the car and we continued our drive to Lincoln. What a beautiful drive! The landscape is unbelievable. There were huge areas of beautiful yellow blossoms. The flowers are rapeseed. Before landing,  I could see the large patches of yellow.

Yellow Everywhere
Yellow Everywhere

We finally arrived at my temporary home, the apartment of Maxine and Steve. After bringing in my luggage, we went to their neighbor to retrieve their keys and then to the mailbox area to gather two weeks of mail.

We returned to the apartment and relaxed with a cup of tea and talked until 11:30 pm. It was time to get ready to say goodnight. I decided to do my unpacking and then begin to document my experience before the details slip out of my mind.

It is now April 17, 2014 at 12:26 am and I’m going to sleep.

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