Departure for Italy
Our honeymoon began on Wednesday 9/10/2003. It actually began on 9/9 - Tim took the day off work, and I took a half day to prepare, pack, etc. Truth be told, I actually started packing the Sunday before (I was a little excited) and Tim went into his usual "travel mode" the evening of 9/8. Despite, or perhaps because of, his 15 years of constant traveling, airports, and suitcase-living, Tim goes into his "travel-mode" about 24-36 hours before any trip that will last more than 1 day. He needs at least one full day to prepare and pack and sort and file and zip and organize. Me - I just need the night before and morning of. His stress level kicks up a couple of notches around the same time too, and doesn't really settle down until we're settled into our seats of whatever mode of transportation we are taking. I know this, and yet I still manage to push a few buttons every time we travel. But as we were wandering the airport waiting for our flight, Tim did take the time to point out several other couples doing the same, the husband of which would be talking in low sharp whispers and the wife strolling along just rolling her eyes or responding back with a "don't snap at ME... it's not MY fault the flight attendant's computer wasn't working"... and each time Tim saw such a couple he'd say "See? You're not the only wife whose husband is snapping at her for no reason!" :-).
We flew British Airways because they had a direct flight from Seattle to London, and because they are generally a comfortable airline with good service. Our plane was scheduled to depart Seattle at 6:40pm and arrive in Heathrow at noon local time on 9/11. We were then to catch a connecting flight at 1:45pm which would arrive in Milan at 4:50pm.
Tim arranged to have a car pick us up at home and take us to the airport, which was very comfy. We arrived at the airport a little more than the required 2 hours prior to departure. It being a Wednesday afternoon there really weren't any lines and the airport wasn't terribly busy which was nice.
The start of our trip was no less perfect than the rest of the honeymoon would turn out to be. The attendant that was checking us in heard us whispering about our honeymoon to each other while we were waiting and took the liberty of upgrading us to business class! Not a bad way to start :-) We were pretty giddy after that, and on the entire flight over to London (the champagne they served us during takeoff probably helped too ;-)).
We took a few photos at the airport and on the plane. They're a little goofy. We tried hard to amuse ourselves while we waited to embark on our honeymoon adventure :-)