Jet lagged and tired, happy and hopeful!

It's been an amazing few days. Our journey has both ended and just begun as we recover from the jet-lag, the immenseness of it all leaves me a little tongue tied.

Our arrival into London was a bumpy, gusty, slightly crooked, worst landing ever, never land in the tail end of a huge storm again kind of event. I squeezed Kyle's arm tighter at landing than I did during Jack's arrival into the world and have sworn off flying ever again. We hired a porter for our luggage as there was no way Kyle and I could move it all, our van arrived and was loaded with minimal fuss and a few hours later we found ourselves wiggling down the M4 in a van enjoying that foul tail end of Sandy again. Our driver was a very friendly Bristolian fellow, who chatted endlessly and comfortably about life in general whilst Kyle drifted off and Jack woke bright eyed and bushy tailed. I for one was wiped out, having not slept for about 35 hours at that point I felt nauseous from the stress of the trip and so tired that I'd close me eyes, drift off, wake with a start and realize the driver was still chatting away to me.

A very sketchy drive made so much better by a competent driver, I'm so relieved we didn't do self hire, good investment to hire a driver after such a long trip.  Excuse the stupid date stamp!

When we checked in our luggage and the cargo bikes at Seattle I was preparing to hand over a small fortune for our over-sized bike boxes, but the lady at the counter announced our total with a big smile. Only $56 to fly each bike, I felt like hugging her! In fact the cost of transporting the bikes upon arrival, to Bristol from Heathrow, was more than their actual flight, which is why I would wholeheartedly recommend flying with Iceland Air to anyone thinking of traveling with a bike, not only did their tickets come in cheaper than all other airlines, but the level of service was excellent.

My first impressions after my 20 year absence have left me wondering why my mother ever wanted to leave, I love it here. I find it to be a breath of fresh air after the horribly conservative town we previously called home. I love the diversity, culture and heartbeat of home. I know everyone has their own cup of tea, as they say, I feel like Kyle and I are hesitantly taking our first sip off a new pot that will go down well. I thought my rose tinted glasses would get shattered upon arrival, whereas in reality we are both 100% sure that we did exactly what we needed to do for our family to have the lifestyle we want. So far anyway. We've been here 3 days, so the reality is we have a lot of work ahead of us to establish our roots, but we are both eager to get the ball rolling.

Yesterday we took a few strolls around the village, grabbed some groceries in the afternoon and a Chinese takeout for dinner later in the day. Jack has been asking to "go home" and talking about our beloved Beatrix endlessly. Her absence remains the biggest blight on the whole happy adventure to be honest. Every stray crumb of food on the floor reminds me of her and tears well up within me. Although I hear she has already settled in comfortably and is getting lots of love with her Auntie and Uncle in Portland.

Today we're off to explore a little bit of Bristol and pick up a camera and mic for our laptop so we can start Skyping our loved ones. Our new friends Andy and Sarah (whom we met because Andy read my blog) have been so amazingly welcoming. Sarah has kindly offered to run us about in her car today and Andy said he will help us put one of the bikes together on Sunday so we can be a little more independent. Our living accommodations are so lovely and well situated with the train station being just a block away and the local grocery shop being about 1/4 mile down the road, carfreedom is going well so far. I have so much to share here, but the little one stirs and showers need to be taken, so I will be on my way for now and thank you for following along!