3..2..1..Liftoff!

We're having some temporary photo issues, but we're soldiering on...

Left Portland early Tuesday, laying over in Chicago. Had a most disappointing last American meal (not that surprising in an airport, but really, is turkey meat really supposed to look like that??), and then got on the big plane. I have to admit, we were not overwhelmed by American Airlines' international service. The individual overhead lights didn't work (not just for me or us, for at least everybody in our section), the flight attendants were not the friendliest I've encountered (and yes, they could just have been having a bad day...lord knows I wouldn't want to do that job), the food was fairly inedible (which to me is unusual on international flights) and the alcohol is now $5 in coach. Ah well....they got us there safe and on time, so I guess I can't really complain.

Yves Rahir, our close family friend (and next door neighbor in 1978-79) picked us up at the airport and gave us a car tour of Brussels and Louvain-la-Neuve on the way home. After a yummy lunch we headed out to take a walk arond town, as I've always found fresh air and exercise one of the bet ways to beat jet lag and stay up until night on that first day in Europe. However, not surprisingly, being totally stressed and exhausted and sleep deprived for a week-plus prior to an trans-Atlantic flight is not the best recipe for an easy transition. We were so tired (we also weren't able to sleep on the flight for more than an hour because it was so hot (and there aren't any little individual blowers on that kind of plane)) that we actually literally were falling asleep as we were standing up and each dozed off once or twice in between steps and tripped. After 30 min or so of this, we gave up and returned to the Rahirs for a 2 hour nap. We got up and struggled through a fun family dinner (With Yves and his wife Anne-Marie, their daughter (and Becca's sister for a year in high school in Oregon) Maud, and her sons Oscar, Igor, and Eliot) and then crashed into bed at 9 o'clock, sleeping dead to the world for the next 13 hours. Let's just say we do NOT recommend our method of preparation before this trip to anyone else looking for an easy transition across 9 time zones.

More of the actual stuff we did and saw soon...

Okay... got the photo stuff figured out. Here we are about to embark on our adventure!