Adventures of a soccer mom: Update from cruising altitude

Leg one:

The boys gathered at Logan Airport in Boston.  They were so coordinated and excited.  Wearing their khaki's and team practice shirts.  Each with the Bolts soccer backpack in hand.  They congregated together until everyone was present.  Check in at US Airways terminal B was surprisingly quick and easy.  The gate agent helped us, especially when small boy came up as an 'unaccompanied minor' due to our names being different.  In other news, my suitcase was 49 pounds, 1 pound shy of the extra baggage weight fee! 

Once everyone was checked in, we went through security.  There was no one in line!  We moved quickly through security and on to  lunch.  Pizza, of course!  It was only a short and relaxing wait until our group was called to board.  The boys were so excited, shuffling seats so they could sit with their friends instead of their parents!  My son sat with his best buddy Toby.  They giggled and laughed and played Mad Libs most of the short fight.  If I can figure out how to insert photos on my tablet, you'll see a few.  :-)

Upon arrival at Philadelphia the coach did a head count, gave a short address and then we walked a looooong way to our next gate in another terminal.  Once everyone knew where our gate was we scattered to eat an early dinner.  We were successful in finding pasta!  The boys and their parents wandered about for a bit and then we ended up back at the gate with the boys playing hackey sack and having a blast hanging out together.  Parents took advantage of the opportunity to charge their electronics, only to find out you could on the plane!

Leg 2:

Boarding went smoothly on our second leg.  We're on an A 330.  2-4-2 set up.  We are in row 7.  Second row of the economy cabin!  Score!  We're in the middle section.  Small boy sat next to his friend Ty and myself and Ty's dad had the aisle seats.  They thought they were in first class!  The seat back TV's were a hit and after dinner half of the team chose to watch Frozen!  There was a rather amusing and quietly dramatic singing of "Let it go".   I wish I had videotaped it!  I watched a Discovery show narrated by Morgan Freeman and a few episodes of the Big Bang Theory.  Then I blew up my airplane pillow (the big one like you see in Sky Mall, thanks, Jeremy!) and attempted to sleep.

We might have gotten 3 hours of frequently interrupted sleep.  Sleeping on planes is so challenging.  It's 1:48 am EST now and we are about an hour from landing. We've had breakfast.  About 4 hours after we had dinner.  Wakey tea on board.  I fear more may be needed!  Everyone is awake now, the kids having juice and the parents some caffeine.  A cinnamon chip muffin was our breakfast fare.  Several of the kids did not sleep at all. 

Of interest, my GPS screen tells me we have thus far been in fight 6hr 9 min and we've travelled 3604 miles and are currently travelling at 41,000 feet at a speed of 535 mph.  We've got about 50 min left in flight.  It's -79 degrees outside the plane.  Holy cold atmosphere!

We will be on the ground in Barcelona in about 45 minutes.  It's currently 8 am in Barcelona.  That's 2 am for those of you playing at home.  :-)  We have a long, exciting day ahead of us.  We're looking forward to meeting up with our 'exploratory committee', a group of moms and siblings that arrived on Friday am and seeing some of the sights.  Right now the boys are gathered around a window amazed that they see snow covered mountains!  This is the longest flight most if not all of them have been on and the first time out of the country for most of them, too. 

*yawn* 

Welcome to Barcelona!