Monday August 31

We left Panama City on the morning of Monday August 31. The entire day basically consisted of two flights to get us from Panama City, to Miami, and to DFW where we would stay for the next few days to settle and catch up with family. We did get a relatively quick workout in at the Gym at the Renaissance, which made for a good start to the day. Uber to Panama City Airport, and we only had 90 minutes to wait for our AA2964 flight from Panama City to Miami. We had 2:36 hours in Miami before our next flight. Went pretty quickly, watched a few shows and got on AA2289 from Miami to DFW. Due to a rainstorm, and some back-up on the runway, we were delayed by an half an hour taking off, and accordingly, we were a little over 30 minuters arriving in DFW. We collected our bags, got a car and headed to my parents house. It was late, and we didn’t have a proper dinner, so we headed to a bar a block away. Unfortunately, they had a very quiet day, and were closing early, plus the kitchen was already closed. We were able to get some freshly made chips and had a few drinks and headed for bed.

Tuesday Sept 1

One of the reasons we headed to DFW early was that my Aunt (who normally lives in South Carolina) was in DFW looking after my Dad’s cat. We came in so we could catch up with her a little on her own, without having my parents around. We also used this day to catch up on some necessary shopping. I had picked up a little sniffle the day before we left Panama City, so we took a quick trip to CVS for some expectorant and decongestant. We also had left a box full of ‘winter clothes’ that we didn’t think we would need in Central America, so we half unpacked, and half pulled out clothes that we thought we would need in Eastern Europe as the temperatures started to cool. Late afternoon, my partner went out to catch up with a couple of old coworkers, but one stopped at the house to pick her up, and we ended up having a 90-minute conversation, the four of us, over wine. It was a great conversation about really nothing in particular. They finally left, I got some Japanese take-away, and called it a relatively early evening. I will say, my partner got home around midnight, my aunt was either still awake or awake again, and they sat up chatting until 3 AM. I had to stick my head out at the top of the stairs asking to ‘keep it down a bit’ sometime after 1 AM.

Wednesday Sept 2

Wednesday started a bit slow due to some of the ‘crew’ staying up until 3 AM. However, we also got a message from my brother, who normally lives in Atlanta, decided to come to DFW for the night to catch up with the family. He was set to arrive around 5:30 PM, and my parents were set to arrive just after 7 PM from Europe. We pottered around the house, took care of some laundry, and then were catching up on tech admin (photos, blogs, normal admin). My partner had a couple of appointments in the afternoon, so it was a quiet day. It all sort of exploded around 5 PM – my brother had gotten an earlier flight and came to the house, my partner returned from her appointments, and my Aunt woke from a nap. We caught up for around an hour, then I had to head to the airport to pick up my parents. I collected them with relative ease (small wait), and we met the rest of our crew at Wildwood Grill in Grapevine. This was a two-fold strategy – keep my parents awake enough that they wouldn’t succumb to jet lag, and to have a nice meal. Both were successes. The food was lovely, I think among us, we tried the Sea Bass, Lobster Ravioli, Fresh Oysters, and a few other things. We got back to the house at 10 PM, let my parents go to bed, and me, my partner and my brother headed for a hotel for the night (the house only had two ‘actual bedrooms’).

Thursday Sept 3

Thursday morning we went back to the house, and mom had prepared fresh blueberry scones. We all had a light breakfast, then Dad took Aunt Nan to the airport. My brother and me and my partner went for a casual lunch at a Mexican Restaurant in Southlake and we did a little shopping for new clothes. He had to catch a flight back to Atlanta and took leave. We had a relatively quite night, and started the repacking process.

Friday Sept 4

Most of Friday was also just admin. My parents had just returned from a 10-day trip to Netherlands and Belgium, and we were focused on laundry and re-packing for our adventure in Europe.

Saturday Sept 5

Travel day arrived. We were on FinnAir AY20 from DFW to Helsinki at 4:50 PM, then connecting to Finnair AY1335 to London the next morning. We got to the airport relatively early, checked in with ease, and sat patiently for our flight.

On-Board| iPhone 16 Pro | 2.7 mm Back Camera | 1.9 mm | f/1.8 | 1/45th | ISO320