Time to head home! We woke up early for our last breakfast at Le Grand Hotel des Gobelins, which of course we enjoyed. We saw the mom with the little girl for the last time, and once again the guy had trouble understanding my "41 and 42" room numbers. I successfully conducted several transactions each day in France, but for some reason I could NOT get them to understand our room numbers! After we ate, we went back upstairs to finish packing, then took all of our luggage down to start our long journey home.

First, we had on last trek in the rain to our metro stop, Gobelins, where we bought our tickets for the RoissyBus to Charles de Gaulle airport. We took the metro to Opera, where we dragged the luggage up several flights of stairs to find the bus, without much signage. We finally saw a bus, and it wasn't the right one, but the driver directed us to the RoissyBus. We got on, and were on our way. There was a cute little boy about 3 or 4 years old sitting next to us, and I really wondered where they were going.

The bus took us right to the airport door, where we saw huge lines. We got there really early, but Hedge was getting tense fast. Luckily, we spotted the British Airways desk, and there was no line. We checked in, and found we had to check Gabe's suitcase for some reason - she thought it was too big. Whatever - one less to drag along. We did have to wait in line for security, but it wasn't too bad. We didn't have to take our shoes off, but they did search my bag because of my tweezers. Once through security, we had plenty of time to kill, so we took turns wandering in pairs while the other two sat at the gate. We had some euros left over, so the cubs got to buy some treats at the shops, and chose M&Ms (Gabe, even though there were many more novel choices) and KinderBueno (Toria). I spotted a tshirt that said, "London Paris 2012", so of course I had to buy that. I also got some chocolate, some of the Bonne Maman Citron Tartelettes Toria so enjoyed the night before, and something called Michel et Augustin Petits Carres in Chocolat Noir avec Sel. YUM!

There were some really obnoxious young adult Yankee boys with their middle aged parents, who were yelling at each other. When we finally boarded, they continued yelling, so we hoped they wouldn't plague us all the way to Houston. The flight to London wasn't very long, and they gave us a drink and some kind of crackers, but I wasn't hungry. When we landed in London, we went down stairs on the tarmac, and boarded a bus to our Heathrow terminal. We went in and had to go through security again, which was a surprise, but we didn't have to claim our baggage. It took a while to get through, as the officials asked us a few times if someone else could go ahead, as they were rushing to catch a plane. It seemed like everyone was setting off the alarms and being searched by hand, so we figured we would too. They were extremely polite, and would ask us to please wait just a moment while they searched someone, then they would ask for either a lady or a gentleman, depending on who was available for search. None of us set off the alarms, so we were clear.

Off we went for the loos (Where a scantily clad Asian-American girl was jumping up and down and Toria let her go ahead.) and the food court. I was really hoping to find a Costa for one last delicious latte, but we found a Pret a Manger instead, so we stocked up on our favorite sandwiches and a latte. We weren't starving, but weren't sure when they would feed us on the plane. Gabe got a rubber ducky at the souvenir shop, then we had to go get on another bus to get to the plane. When we sat down, in the middle row this time, we were thrilled to see a young mother all by herself with an infant right in front of us! She seemed really nervous, and kept asking for the flight attendant, who finally moved her up a few rows, to the front row of the section, so she could have a baby seat in front of her. Phew! It took a long time to take off, as there was a traffic jam and a rain shower, so Hedge and I both had a short power nap.

We finally took off, for the long haul. They came by with drinks immediately, and Hedge got the last chardonnay. The flight attendant later remembered he liked it and brought him another bottle. I watched the Hunger Games, but Toria gave up on the sketchy audio (even though it resolved pretty quickly), then some Reese Witherspoon dates CIA agents comedy. They fed us chicken with a dark sauce and mashed potatoes that the boys enjoyed more than I did, and Toria got a creamy pasta. The boys also loved their passionfruit posset, though Toria and I didn't care for it. I watched two more movies before we landed, as I couldn't sleep; I saw Wanderlust, which was really odd, and most of a Denzel Washington/Ryan Reynolds CIA flick. Toria and Gabe fell asleep, and when they brought our last meal (roast chicken sandwich for us and chickpea sandwich for VRS) I woke her up, which was a mistake. She was groggy, shaking, and crying; I think her blood sugar was off. My stomach hurt too - too much eating and sitting! I couldn't get her to eat or drink my ginger ale, but said she'd try a Sprite. The flight attendant tried to argue with me that ginger ale would be better, but she wouldn't hear of it. She finally felt a little better by the time we were approaching Houston. We had to circle a few times, then we were back home on US soil!

Boy, did it ever feel good to walk around! We didn't even care when we saw the huge lines for customs. After starting our day at 7 am Paris time, we finally made it out of the airport at about 8:30 pm Houston time, or 3:30 am the next day Paris time. It's funny how tiring travel is, when you're sitting and waiting so much! We hit the Whataburger since the cubs didn't eat their last meals on the plane and were hungry, then the Food Bucket to get some milk and eggs, where PawPaw met us with the dogs. We really missed them a ton! Surprisingly, we did quite a bit of unpacking before we fell into bed!

That first night, we all had some serious sleep disturbances, except Gabe. Toria had a repeat of her wigout on the plane, but she cuddled her dog instead of coming downstairs. Hedge said he kept waking up not knowing where he was. I kept waking up upright, feeling the walls, trying to get out of the metro, where I thought I was trapped. The second night I thought I was stuck in the Louvre! It took us all about 3-4 days to get back on track!

We had an amazing, exhausting adventure, and can't wait for our next journey.