John Denver sang a song, “Leaving on a Jet Plane” that starts out, “All my bags are packed, I’m ready to go.”  Those lyrics pretty much say it all for the four of us as our trip to Italy and Greece comes near.  The excitement is building the closer our departure date approaches.  Only 14 days remain until we grab our carry-on suitcases and head out the door.  We are flying to Italy by way of Emirates Airlines requiring a stop in Dubai in the Middle East thanks to our use of 75,000 Alaska Airline miles to acquire tickets to fly business class to Milan from Seattle.  It’s a 14 hour, 15 minute flight from Seattle to Dubai.  After a 4 plus hour layover in Dubai, we board another Emirates flight to make it to Milan after a 6 hour and 45-minute flight, arriving there a little over 25 hours after leaving Seattle.  In a quirk of fate (read that as a limited number of award flights available) although the Wagnerson’s are traveling on identical Emirates flights, Emirates Airlines had only 2 business class award seats available for our designated departure date, Saturday May 7^th.  Undaunted by the absence of sufficient seating for the 4 of us, the Wagnerson’s opted to send Lynda and Dale ahead, one day early on identical flights where two more Alaska Airlines mileage plan award seats were available.

This reminds me of a story.  Lynda looks forward every spring to the return of the hummingbirds to Elger Bay.  She is convinced that you must have your hummingbird feeders full and ready in very early spring because they always send out “scout” hummingbirds to search for food and then report back to the group so that the rest will come knowing there is good food available at the destination.  We have not been to Milan Italy before.  Apparently although they are pretty sure it is there, Barb and Doug wanted to make absolutely sure there was good food available in Milan.  So, they’re ushering Lynda and me out to Milan first to act as the scout hummingbirds and report back to the group.  Hmmmm, one additional day of fresh Italian pasta?  Mission accepted!

Only 14 days, 1 hour, 4 minutes and 22 seconds until our plane is pushed back from the terminal and we are on our way!