Oh, the weather outside is frightful...

So off we go.  We piled into our dependable Dodge Caravan and headed down to LAX to meet up with the Klassen family.  With the back of the van full and 6 bags strapped on top the kids got to feel every bump along I-5.

Good thing we planned to arrive a bit early.  I, for some reason, had a fascination with driving around and around all the terminals until I found the right one.  BTW, if you do make a wrong turn don't think that the airport planners with give you and easy way to fix it - just head towards San Diego and when you see the Mexican border, turn around and try entering the airport again.

81/2 hours inside a metal tube.  Good thing I had my iPod... for about an hour.  British Airways have these wonderful 747's which have several different classifications of seats.  There's the sleeping "cocoons" for those who could have just bought the plane themselves - they got the entire upper deck and front of the plane.  Then there's first class - it was like walking through a room of private cubicles, with very nice staplers.  For "budget" minded travelers, British offers World Travelers' Plus - sponsored by LazyBoy.  Oh wait, there's one more section in the far back.  It's the "we charged you more for your luggage than your seat" section.  I do think my luggage probably was more comfortable.

We arrived in London to.... snow.

So pretty.  Unfortunately, someone forgot to instruct the British about snow tires and snow plows.  I guess these are luxuries for us spoiled Americans.  Funny thing about Europe... small cars, small tires, small streets, and small discernment when it comes to driving in the snow.  Our taxi drivers, complaining about how all the "other" drivers didn't know what they were doing, decided to forgo the normal routes of travel.  Of course the streets we ended up on had much less traffic - which meant that there was nothing melting the snow off the roads.  London also isn't the most flat of cities.  Several times our taxi driver would push on the gas and the car would just sit there on the incline - so he'd just press the pedal more.  I guess he thought that with enough friction the snow/ice would melt under the tires.

So originally we had these wonderful plans to explore the sites of London during our 1 day layover.  That plan was scrapped when it took 2 hours to go from the airport to our lodging.  So we dropped our stuff off and headed down the street to a local pub... for some fish-n-chips.  So for the record, our first devotional time was done in a London Pub.

On top of all this, Yvonne and I celebrated 17 years of marriage today.  Not exactly what I thought it was going to be like, but as long as I'm with Yvonne - I'm happy.  Now if I can figure a way to lose these 9 other people...

Off to Kenya in the morning (if we can get back to the airport) and 80 degree weather.