Day 1: Tuesday, July 2 ~ Taking off from Lincoln

On Tuesday, we left Lincoln for this summer’s trip to see friends and family in Germany (and some neighboring countries). It was the “take one more deep breath and–go!) end to an intense week of looking on with not much we could do to help as Kai and Christine moved across the country from Florida to Lincoln, with Kai’s dad Bruce’s help (driving the 26-foot U-Haul!). We caught everyone at the end of their long drives on June 30 and July 1, respectively, tried to feed and connect everyone as best we could, and then had to deal with an emergency of our own as the severe rain storms that moved through the area the night before our departure flooded our intersection, the basement of the apartment building, and dumped rain down our ceiling into the hallway! And yet, at 9 am we were on the road to Omaha (our friend Mark D. had kindly offered to take us) and took off in the rain, but with minimal storm-related delays for Minneapolis, and then without any sort of hitch for Amsterdam! We actually landed an hour early on Wednesday morning–and I was so exhausted that I actually slept on the plane for at least a couple of hours, which is a first! (For the record, the kids got all moved in, thanks to supportive family and friends, and got the U-Haul returned on time, but there are many boxes to unpack, and Bruce, who is staying at our apartment, has been punished for his heroic labor by having no hot water because the flooding damaged the boilers in the basement.)