Thursday, January 05, 2006

First Flight

When we arrived at the Dallas airport, we were a bit nervous about our baggage weights. The rules changed due to the high price of fuel and instead of being able to put 70 lbs of goods in each checked bag, we could only take 50 lbs each. So we spent a lot of time tweaking our bags to be as close to 50 pounds as possible, without going over the limit. Of course, we were using a bathroom scale, so accuracy was an issue. As it turns out, the scale was off by three pounds (the bad way) but the lady who checked our bags told us that they allow for up to three pounds overweight without charging extra, so we were able to get all of our bags on the plane without any problems at all.
It was wierd to see the screen at our gate for Sao Paulo. Even though the process of leaving as missionaries for a foreign country had only taken seven months, it seemed as if it was never going to happen. Seeing this screen made everything seem like it was really happening.
As you can see from this picture, the girls were pretty excited to be on the plane. This was Summer and Sydney's first flight. We were able to arrange it so that we had two window seats so that the girls could get a view of takeoff and see the city lights as we left Dallas.
None of us had ever had a meal on board a plane before. You hear lots of complaints about the meals they serve on the plane, but I couldn't say how they were myself. This is what they look like, and actually it was better than it looked. However, I'm not a very fussy eater.