Our European Adventure from Start to Finish

How it went down

Thursday and Friday morning went relatively smooth. We traveled uneventfully, watched many movies in-flight, and discussed how the clouds made it impossible to see anything. When we landed in Iceland, we were excited to discover we didn't have to go through customs there since it was a short layover, and grew more and more excited.

When we landed in Gatwick, we got in line for a stamp and filled out our "Landing card" which asked questions like "where are you staying?", "how long are you staying?", "why are you here?". Which was stupid because when we got up to the front of the line, we heard everyone being asked these questions. So we get up to the counter and the lady starts seriously interrogating us.

her: "How long are you staying?"
us: "3 months"
her? "That's a long time, how are you managing that? Don't you have to work?"
us: "We own our own business"
her: "Well you can't just take money out of the business, can you? That's not how it works" [this is where the serious breakdown happened and she started not trusting anything we said]
us: "Well that's how it works for us because the business is for tax purposes"
her: "That doesn't make any sense"

So after this, she confiscated our passports and told us to go sit in the "there's something wrong with you" area. At this point we were still feeling pretty confident. We figured they would realize we had enough money to support ourselves and let us move on.

Then we got our luggage examined.

Then they took us to the holding room, where we spent the next 20 hours of our lives. The questioned us separately, each for an hour in more detail about our financial situation and about how long we were staying and the big one "how can we know that you'll leave since you don't have return ticket?" At this point they were very stuck on this (making me think they had satisfactorily proved that we had enough money to support ourselves). My answer: we don't want to be banned from the country, and we did a lot of research on how long we're allowed to be here, etc. Jeff's answer: we're law abiding citizens who don't want to cause trouble. They also were very suspicious of our answer that after the UK, we were heading to the continent so that's why we didn't have a leaving ticket. (At this point I really wanted to ask "what if we were independently wealthy and had no obligations. What would you be saying to us then?" but I wasn't going to push it)

So they took our answers away and left us to stew for about 3 hours. At this point our bodies had been up for about 24 straight hours and we were exhausted, so we were trying to nap while being super stressed out. This wasn't really working.

By the time the guy came back and told us the answer, I didn't give a shit anymore. I just wanted something to happen. So he came back and told us we had been denied entry because "we couldn't prove that you are going to leave when you say you are." And when we asked "well what if we go to the counter and buy a ticket out of here right now for 3 months from now?" that was a no go. They had already decided and gotten us a flight back to Seattle. We couldn't even change where we were flying too (for 10 seconds Jeff really wanted to change it to New York and go watch some US Open). We had to go back to Seattle. But the flight wasn't for the next day and he said they would find us a place to stay that night.

We learned about 6 hours later that because of Jeff's disease and because we were considered a "family unit" we were ineligible for the house they have at the airport for people like us, so we stayed in the holding room for the night. We both tried to sleep but I think we only got about three hours each. At some point, I spent £5 and called and left a message with Jeff's dad telling him what happened so he knew we hadn't died and to let my mom know too.

So in the morning, they packed us into a van and drove us to Heathrow. We had to change vans three times and saw lots of the back side of airports. We even got to drive under the tarmac at Heathrow, which was kind of cool. But at this point I wanted to go home. I was tired and wanted to be alone to cry. This is also the point where I saw what we would miss out on. If we had just stayed in the airport, it wouldn't have seemed as real of a place, but driving down the M-whatever or A-whatever and just seeing in person how different their cars were (SUVs - nada. Hatchbacks - everywhere!) made it hit home just how over the trip was.

So we get to the Heathrow (you'll notice that we changed airports for seriously no apparent reason) and sat in their holding room for a couple hours and then were taken to our plane. Our passports were given to the stewardesses on the plane with the instructions that we could get them back in Iceland.

So we fly back to Iceland. At this point Jeff's body was not doing awesome. I was running on pure adrenaline and stress at this point, but Jeff was just shutting down due to the lack of both of those things. So I forced him to sleep on the plane and he got a few more hours.

So we get to Iceland, get our passports back, and figure all is fine. But as we get off the plane, we're stopped and told to come with another person. And we're really confused. We were out of the UK, what did the Iceland people care? So we walk with this lady and go over to customer services (by the way, the Iceland airport is the tiniest-most-busy airport EVAR), where we're told we owe £2500 for the return flight. Now were really confused because back in London, they told us we didn't have to pay. Luckily Jeff knows how to haggle, because where I would have just sighed and paid, he asked why and he and the lady started talking and I honestly think she took serious pity on us because she called someone, had a thirty second conversation with them, hung up, and told us to get on the plane no charge. We both broke down at this point, hugging the bewildered customer service lady in turn. It was the only good thing that had happened to us in the last 24 hours and we were incredibly grateful.

While waiting for the next flight, we quickly got on the internet (no matter what Icelandair says, they don't have wifi in all of their planes, just the brand new ones and in the 4 Icelandair flights we were on, we only had one fancy new plane) and booked a hotel in Seattle. We knew we didn't want to mess around with finding another flight to Spokane (they only got us flights back to Seattle) and we were tired. And in all honesty, we wanted to be alone to grief for what had happened.

So we get on the plane, fly, and land in Seattle. We navigate public transportation and a taxi to our hotel in Everett and the first thing we do is take a shower and brush our teeth. Next thing we do is call and check in with everyone. Then we fall asleep for 12 hours in a horizontal position, which was glorious.

Commentary on the whole thing 

What I have witnessed in this whole experience is the difference between bureaucracy and common sense. While in London we dealt with two kinds of people: the border patrol people and the security company people who are hired to do the security for this kind of thing at the airports. And each one was either super nice and knew we were getting screwed and told us that (the common sense people), or had decided we were somehow devious and were treating us with slight distain (the bureaucratic people). Most of the distain came from the first lady we talked to. Everyone with the security company that we spent long periods of time with were really nice and got us whatever we wanted and were really concerned about Jeff getting his meds. They got us many sandwiches (I ate a lot of "egg mayonnaise" sandwiches, ie egg salad) and talked and joked with us throughout the day.

That was the other area of the bureaucracy vs common sense. Like I said before, the reason we stayed in the holding room all night was because of Jeff's "disease," which all the people who interacted with us could tell was not something that Jeff was going to flop on the floor and die from at any point, but no matter how many times they told that to the people who ran the house, they wouldn't take him because of the "liability." The border patrol guy who was checking on us throughout the night had some awesome British swear words to say about the guy running the house. We also decided that if that border patrol guy had been the one running the counter when we got there, we would have been let through because he was one of the most vocal about us getting shafted.

Another area was the fact that we couldn't buy a ticket flying out of the country and be fine. Once they made the decision, we had no choice but to be put back on the plane to where we came from. There was literally no way for us to stay in the country.

What next

So that is the question of the hour. We are for sure not going back anytime soon. European Grand Adventure is pretty much canceled. Luckily the only thing we're out serious money from is the Star Trek convention tickets (this is actually a really big bummer because we were both really looking forward to it).

So we're spending a few days in Seattle to just chill and decompress and we'll move on from there. We know that we really don't want to move back to Spokane because to us that feels like going backwards, so we will probably start apartment searching soon. But for now we're going to grief and put it behind us.

Sean Connerys Accent Farewell

So if you follow me on facebook, you know every Tuesday night I post something about "Sean Connerys Accent." What a lot of people don't know is that is the name of a trivia team. We go to trivia at The Fieldhouse, a local sports bar, which we long decided was a silly idea because we're all nerds and know nothing about sports and at least four questions are about sports every week, but continue to go there because we love the trivia guy.

So this summer Sean Connerys Accent has taken a beating in the way to teammates. Three of us regulars (out of five) left this summer, me being the last one. And every time someone has left we give them a grand farewell, which usually involved more shots than usual. Now when Andrew left, we did it up right. I might have had to sit on the bathroom floor with Andrew for a few hours after driving him home. But since Andrew is 23, eight hours after puking his guts out, he was up and raring to go with not residual side effects.

Now since I am no longer 23, I knew that I would not have this similar experience. In fact I know that now that I'm 27, if I drink so much that I puke, I have a hangover for the next two days. And since trivia is Tuesday night and we're leaving Thursday morning, I decided that I should stick to my usual two beers and one shot for the evening.

So we did the goodbye night up right by winning, which is always glorious. And ate many many cupcakes. But it will be sad to not head up to trivia next Tuesday and we already determined Trivia Guy (aka Alex) won't let us skype people in (we asked because we're nerds).

I'm ready now

How I felt yesterday at this time and how I feel at this time today are two totally different things. Yesterday I was still super stressed about the apartment and the cleaning involved and getting the last of everything out. Today I am excited to get going on our grand adventure. So excited to the point where I did a lot of goodbyes today and only cried once.

I started the day with having coffee with Alexis, who is just as excited to be starting her own adventure on Thursday. She is also leaving Spokane and heading to Cali to move back with her family and stretch her career chops in the Valley. But Alexis will be joining us at some point in Europe for a quick tour of Spain and wherever else we decide to go, so we got to talk about that and get all excited for that.

Then I went and did the apartment walk-through and let me tell you, if I had known the walk-through was going to be that easy, I wouldn't have worked so hard cleaning the place. She literally glanced around and said everything was good. And I think the golden moment was when I mentioned I had swapped out the burner trays on the stove. Also I canceled Avista and closed my account and got a "utility letter of credit" for my next utility company. I had no idea that was thing, but apparently it is and "it's important!"

After that it was time for my last Slickrock burrito. Slickrock has become an integral part of my South Hill living and I have no idea what I'm going to do with not only awesome burritos but the company of "Slickrock Jeff" (I know too many Jeffs) while we each work away at our own tasks. I have been going to Slickrock on a weekly basis for many years now and since I started working and schooling from home, bumped it up to twice a week and I'm usually there all afternoon just working away while Jeff works away at burrito tasks, and gossiping about life and the universe. I knew this was going to be a big "Goodbye Spokane" moment and it was. I cried. A lot.

I spent the evening hanging out with Thomas and Morah drinking wine and eating cheese and crackers, chatting about everything under the sun since I don't see Thomas and Morah that often but they are definitely close friends and I couldn't leave town without seeing them one last time.

So now I'm ready. So ready to the point that all the last minute crap in the back of my car from cleaning the apartment in the back seat of the car still could all be chucked in the trash and I wouldn't care because it would mean there was room for the suitcases. So ready that I want to fast forward time.

Sidenote: in true "that's how the world works" fashion, Jeff has a major deadline for work this week and I'm starting a new project the day before we get on the plane...so nice non-stressful times on that front :]

Bowling farewell

Saturday night we did our last bowling tournament with all of our bowling buddies. It was one of the milestones that I knew I was going to cry and be sad about. And after a round of tequila shots dedicated to me and Jeff having an amazing time, I did just that. I also lost very badly at darts.

But Richelle said an amazing thing to me as we were all leaving. I had started to really cry (Larry hugs will do that to a person) and Richelle said "Heather, you're going to have so much fun and when you come back and you'll have all these great stories and memories and we'll all still be here." Now her saying these specific words is nothing new because a ton of people have said them to me, but in that moment when I was so sad to be leaving our friends that we'd seen every week for two years now she was making me remember the awesomeness that will happen. It was great way to end the evening and I am completely grateful that she said it.

Apartment = clean

So I spent six hours cleaning the apartment today for our walk-through. And here are few things I learned:

• the top 40 radio station really does play the same 20 songs every hour
• there is a special level of hell for the man who created bumpy linoleum
• a man had to have created said bumpy linoleum because no woman would be that impractical
• buying a tube of clorox wipes makes things go a whole lot faster
• I prefer getting down on my hands and knees to wash a floor Cinderella style rather than using a mop

I'm not going to lie. It was an exhausting task, both physically and emotionally and I'm glad it's over.

I'm an Emotional Wreck

I've hit the point where everything makes me cry. I'm an emotional wreck. At any moment this is what I'm feeling:

• Stress - getting everything done while still working and doing the last week of the school term (I literally took my final today in the middle of our crazy apartment. This is the biggest one at the moment.
• Sadness - things are changing. People who I see on a regular basis are no longer going to be in my life on that level. It will be a lot harder to just pick up the phone/drive across town to see family.
• Loved - everyone wants to spend time with us before we go and there just isn't enough time to properly say goodbye.
• Freak out - we are headed into a serious unknown, with no support system other than each other. This is especially scary for me because my family has always been a 20 minute drive away.
• Excitement - we are going to see and do so much stuff that we would never otherwise see or do. At this moment in time, this the smallest emotion being felt right now, but I know in 3 weeks it'll be the biggest one

Jeff is at the point where he's not even that phased anymore when I walk in a room and burst into tears. He's being awesome and holding my hand until it passes, but I have a feeling he's going to be doing it a lot in the coming weeks.

The Story of Packing While Not Packing at the Same Time

So our road of packing has been interesting. Most people when they move pack up everything, room to room. It takes awhile, but it's methodical. We, on the other hand, like to live a little bit more dangerously. This is the list of piles our stuff was being divided into:

• stuff to take with us (mostly consisting of clothes, jackets, shoes, and electronic devices)
• stuff to store (our bedroom furniture, sentimental stuff, the little bookshelf (only little relative to the big bookshelf and in fact quite a large piece of furniture in its own right), all of my books!)
• stuff my mom is "storing" for us while we're gone (cookbooks, leftover booze)
• stuff Jeff's dad is "storing" for us while we're gone (the tv, the PS3, the piano keyboard, Jeff's hot sauce collection)
• stuff Kenny and Andrea are using (basically our entire kitchen except a few choice items, the couch, the desk, the big bookshelf, all of our food)
• stuff going to Sue's house (the bed)

This division of things led to pure chaos. Packing up the books and sentimental stuff was easy, but after that it became a pure shit show. Our apartment looked like a bomb went off in it for a solid three weeks. The main thing that was slowing us down was that Kenny and Andrea weren't moving into their new place until the Monday after we got back from Oregon, so the big stuff couldn't be moved until then. 

But to get the show on the road, and because we knew that trying to do everything after we got back from Oregon was insane, the weekend before Oregon we rented a UHaul and did most of our moving then. Good wrench in the plan: that was the weekend of the first of three windstorms that went through Spokane in the past few weeks, so on the second day we couldn't get into the storage unit due to a large chunk of the Wandermere area and north of it being without power, and had to put a bunch of stuff in Ken and Julie's garage for a few days). This left us with an apartment that had just a bed, tv, desk (still doing school stuff), kitchen stuff, random, and clothes. 

Then on Monday, I spent the day helping Kenny and Andrea move into their new place, and took a car loaded down with stuff for them. So now our apartment only had a bed, tv, desk, random, and clothes. 

So yesterday morning I woke up with a plan. There was still all this stuff laying around and I needed a system. So I moved everything into the middle of the living room and put post-its on the wall 3 feet apart, each labeled differently: trash, Goodwill, Mom, Ken, Store, Kenny/Andrea. And slowly but surely I made piles and was able to go through the rest of the stuff methodically and quickly. So now there are piles to distributed.

Today Jeff and I "move out" of our apartment and "move in" with Nani and Poppy for a week. I'm borrowing Ken's truck on Friday and coming back here and by the end of the day there will be nothing left in the apartment (that's my goal anyway). The piles will be dispersed. That'll give me two days to clean for our walk through on Monday.

Seven days.

Oregon Coast

Prepare yourself and get a cookie: this post should be about four different post but since we leave in 8 days, it's one big jumble.

So in true "we're moving far far away and instead of packing, we'll go on a vaca" fashion that my family is known for (we went to Disneyland the day before the movers came to pick up our stuff from CA to WA - and we weren't ready at all), Jeff and I spent last week in Lincoln City on the Oregon Coast with Jeff's family.

In preparation for the trip, Andrea and I went out on a girls day on Saturday and went and got all the food at Costco and Fred Meyer and then packed it all in our car, since it was the one without any kids in it. I had a very stressful two days trying to keep everything cold because instead of picking out the brand new 5-day cooler from the pile of coolers in Ken's garage, we picked up the old ratty one which we didn't even bring back but threw away in Lincoln City.

Jeff and I headed down to Portland on Sunday and stayed the night just across the river in Vancouver. Funny story about Portland: we have accidentally started a tradition that Jeff gets a new pair of flip flops every time we go. Last time we went to Portland for our honeymoon, Jeff left them at the wedding venue so we didnt have them; and this time Jeff blew out one as we were loading the car. So accidental tradition started :]

When we got to Vancouver, I was pulling out my computer to do the one computer related thing I needed to do the entire week, only to discover I left my computer cord at home. This sent me into total panic. “What am I going to do with myself?!?!” panic.

In the midst of this panic, my brain kept saying to me “Dude, you have no obligations this week. You took the week off from work, you prepared and are far enough ahead in school work that you don’t absolutely need your computer until you get back, and one of your goals of this week was to be as unplugged as possible. Relax!” But even with this logic ringing in my ears I couldn’t stop the feeling of dread coming over me. Disregarding the fact that Jeff still had his computer and I still had my phone, the fact that I didn’t have my computer ready and available 24/7 was like someone had chopped off my foot. 

This made me feel totally pathetic. I in no way need it. I literally only brought for a “just in case,” yet it’s apparently become so integrated into who I am that being without it even for a week of vaca time is making me freak out. So I spent the week in total unplugged mode (helped along by the lack of wifi at the beach house), which ended being an awesome experience and I'm now looking forward to being as unplugged as possible when we go on our adventure. 

On Monday Jeff and I putzed around Portland for a few hours, getting delicious Pearl District sushi and going into what I've decided is my most favorite store ever, West Elm. I bought a "train blanket," which is the perfect size and not too bulky to keep in my carryon for when I inevitably get cold (and no, they didnt have Orange in the store so I didn't even know that was a thing and got Slate instead, which I actually think will hold up better for its purpose). Then we got in the car and drove the two more hours to Lincoln City. 

My shrimp tempura sushi and our favorite Salmon and Scallop roll from this place (theres a full scallop in each piece!)

You can't really tell in this picture, but this sushi is ON FIRE. Also, Jeff couldn't decide if he liked warm sushi or not after. I thought it was amazing.

The beach house that I rented was perfect. When I was looking I specifically wanted one with four bedrooms because Jeff and I are on the bottom of the adult-bed-totem-pole and I really didnt want to sleep in a pullout in the living room. So I found this place and it was a great place for all of us to hang out and still have our own space. But the best part of the place hands down was the table. We all could sit down and eat together which is something we've never done before because Ken and Julie's house can't accommodate that many people in one room. Jeff and I took the room on the main floor with the handicap bathroom and it reinforced my love for huge walk-in showers. Ken and Julie had the loft all to themselves; and Craig and Jess and Kenny and Andrea and the six kids took over the basement.

The beach was only a block away and we took many walks along edge of the water, playing the classic "can you run faster than the water?" game with the kids. It was Oregon, so it was foggy and and only about 64 degrees the entire time we were there, but we did manage to get in one epic sand castle, complete with stomping on it at the end like we were giants.

One day we all piled in the car and drove down to Newport to the aquarium (famous for being the home of Free Willy for a long time).  It's not a very big aquarium so we were able to explore at our own pace while still staying in a group.

Jeff and Ken checking out some jelly fish (and even though you can't see Jeff's face in this picture, he's making the same exact face as Ken. I guarantee it.

Me and Noah touching some things while Kenny makes sure Noah doesn't face plant into the pool (because if anyone would do that, it would be Noah)

Then Jeff and I had to pretend to be crabs (btw, that is a life-size painting of a Japanese spider crab, which there was a tank of "juvenile" ones just to the right of the painting)

Jeff's technique: focus on the pinchers

My technique: focus on the wingspan (the sign said 12 feet!)

Us surrounded by sharks!

The rest of the week was spent relaxing, reading, playing games, and spending time with each other. It was an excellent way for all of us to get together before Jeff and I head off on our grand adventure.

Oh and of course on the way home, we had to stop at Tillamook.