Back in the USA

Let's just say that all of our children are excellent travellers. We left Addis at 10:00pm local time on Thursday eve and arrived Washington DC at 8:30am Friday morning local time. Account for the time change and that is almost 19 hours on one plane. Rebecca and I had bulkhead seats so Max was able to sleep in a crib attached to the bulkhead. He slept for probably 14+ hours of the trip to DC. Once we arrived in DC we cleared immigration (the first time) and then waited for our bags. And waited and waited and waited. There were 5 international flights that landed at once. That's 5 planes from 5 different countries with about 50 different views on the formation of a line. It was pretty much chaos. We got our bags and then proceeded to another immigration office to clear Max in the US. No problems whatsoever. Our layover was supposed to be 5 hours but with the late arrival and long immigration process we only had about 45 minutes once we got to our gate. We then flew to Seattle, another 6 hour flight. We checked into the hotel across from the Seattle airport and ordered Chinese food. It was work keeping everyone awake but we managed and everyone collapsed in their beds about 7:30pm. It is 7:00am local time as I write this post on Saturday morning and Rebecca and Max are still sleeping. Austin and Anna joined me for a hot chocolate at Starbucks in the lobby. Our flight to Anchorage isn't until 6:00pm. We are going to meet my cousin Carina and her family for lunch today. I haven't seen Carina in probably 15+ years so am really looking forward to meeting one anothers spouse and children. I'll certainly posts some more pictures either later today or tomorrow in Anchorage.