Travel to the US

Colin and I have not been back to the US since we left to move to Germany back in 2009. We were excited to take in a lot of sights and visit with family who we hadn't seen in a while. To get to Florida from this little island is a two day event. We left Terceira about 9 AM on a Friday and flew to the larger island of São Miguel. From there we had a long layover of several hours before our flight for the US left. Our next door neighbor, Rosanne, has a very close family friend that is Portuguese and lives on our island. Odilia and her family spent Thanksgiving with us if you remember. Odilia's daughter happens to live on the island of São Miguel and when Odilia heard we had a layover there she asked if we would mind carrying on some things to take to her. Of course we didn't mind, so Catarina met us at the airport to get her stuff and offered to drive us around and show us some of the island. So nice of her! The weather was not cooperating very much at all and it was typical island winter weather of rain and wind. We saw some of the downtown area, some of the port area and then spent a good deal of time in the mall that is there to stay dry. Later that afternoon it was time to board our long flight to Boston. We arrived in Boston and as we expected it was COLD! No snow, but pretty cold for us island dwellers. Since we were spending our whole vacation in Florida we didn't really have any cold weather clothes, so we just had to suck it up for the night there until we could board our plane for Jacksonville the next day. Colin was THRILLED to finally arrive at Grandma & Grandpa's house after two days of travel anticipation. He and his cousins were so cute and funny together. Colin and Dawson met when they were infants, and have Skyped now that they are older, but this was the first time they have met now that they are old enough to understand. It was our first time meeting Brennan too. The first night we were in Keystone we took the kids to the Keystone Christmas parade and grilled oysters out on the grill. Colin tried oysters for the first time and loved them! The kids had a blast and Colin was WIPED OUT by the end of the night, as were Shelby and I. The album has all our pictures from takeoff to the end of our first night in Keystone.

Travel to the States