Bonus day!

Yea. We landed in Dallas, made it through customs, got our checked bags, and Mr. Witt went to work trying to get us on a later flight to Portland while the rest of us sat just inside the baggage check, waiting for a shuttle to arrive to take us to a hotel. For the students, it was an exercise in patience. For me, it was an exercise in humility, because every time a student asked an entirely reasonable and timely question, fully deserving an unambiguous answer, I got to say, "I'm not sure. I don't know. We'll see. It could be. I just can't answer that yet." As we waited, questions evolved from "Will we get on a flight tonight?" and "Shouldn't we be waiting here to see if they can get us on a flight?" to "Who is going to get to get on a flight tonight?" to "Will there be a pool at the hotel?" and "Where is the bus?" and "Why is it taking so long? Why can't we just go to the hotel?" earlier in the trip I'd promised to get Amanda Laister a button that says, "I never know what is going on." I wanted one that quoted Socrates: "The only thing I know is that I know nothing."

Mr. Witt dd manage to get a handful of people off on the last flight to Portland, then got us all arranged onto flight for the next day. Unfortunately, those flight were not all together, so even when he arrived and we loaded the shuttle to the hotel, he couldn't tell the group when we would be leaving or arriving in Portland. We got to the comfort in, dropped our bags in our spacious suites, came back down to gwt our individual flight info, and then ordered pizza for dinner using the food vouchers provided by the airlines. After some hemming and hawing on my part about the necessity to do so, we decided we would need to call the parents of ten of the students who would be making one leg of their journey wiithout an adult unless I could get myself switched onto their flight. The parents were very understanding, offering to help in any way they could. After a couple pieces of pizza in a student's room I threw in the towel and settled in for a night of strange and harrowing dreams about losing students at airports in various cities around the world.

I woke up early (thanks to another nightmare), took my time packing, and went down to the lobby, expecting to have to call rooms to wake up kids who'd slept through alarms. For the first time, everybody was ready to go exactly when we told them to be ready.

We got our boarding passes easily and I even got switched to the flight that previously had no adult, though my checked bags will arrive on the other flight and the Hasbrooks will have to bring them to me later. That's okay, because I packed all the gifts for Paige and Noah in a carry-on. I can wait on washing my dirty laundry, but I'm excited about the gift giving.

We landed in Portland, everyone met with their parents, and we went our separate ways. Ikaika's mom generously offered rides to both Eric Brown and I, and we took her up on the offer. She drove us home, and I got to see Paige and Noah and give them their gift. The Hasbrooks brought my checked bag over later on. Now all that's left is adding the pictures, doing my laundry, and mowing the over-grown lawn. But first, some much needed sleep. Welcome home everyone, and thanks to all our travelers and chaperons for an entertaining, memorable, educational, successful trip!

And now, the gift giving!