The trip there

Monday August 17th, 2009.

It is Midnight. We haven't finished packing. We decide to pull an all-nighter. Stuff gets done. At 4:45 AM we lie down for a power-nap and wake up at 6:30 AM. We get dressed, we have breakfast (blutwurst, eggs, and bread-rolls), take out the trash, write the neighbor a note, and off we go.
To the subway station. We realize that it might have been prudent to leave the house a few minutes earlier. Oh well. We reach Nuremberg train station, buy some candy bars and some water, go to our platform and we are right on time! We find our seats and the train ride is uneventful: Alex watches "Lost" and Fritzi falls asleep.
Frankfurt Airport. The people at the counters don't check you in. Instead you check in at a machine and then drop off your bags at the counter where they then make sure the machine didn't mess up. We go through security (we almost forgot we still had the water bottle! It is quickly disposed of). We find our gate. We don't have assigned seats... and the person at the counter can't give us seats next to each other. We wait.
The flight to Washington is delayed. We spend two hours on-board waiting for water. The pilot says he doesn't want to leave without tap water in the taps. The flight is boring. More sleeping. More "Lost". The in-board movie is "Monsters vs. Aliens" which has its moments...
We arrive in Washington at 5PM. Our flight to Tampa is at 5:49PM. We are not sure we will make it. We board a bus. We go to immigration. The immigration officer speaks really good German because he lived in Würzburg for 5 years. We pick up our bags. We go through customs. We re-check our bags. We ask somebody whether we might make our connecting flight and she says yes! So we run to our gate. It is at the other end of the building. We board our flight all sticky and sweaty but happy. This flight is uneventful, too.
We arrive in Tampa. Miraculously all our bags have arrived, too. Our most pressing need right now is food. Abuela asks us where we want to eat (Sara and Abuela have already eaten). I think about where we could eat (take-away is not an option). It needs to be open at 9PM and two sweaty people cannot be out of place. So I propose Hooters. And Hooters it is. Ham and Cheese Sandwich for Fritzi; 10 Chickenwings, Curly-Fries, and coleslaw for Alex. Key Lime Pie for dessert.
We arrive at Belleview Blvd. After hanging out for a while everybody goes to sleep.