Well that didn't go to plan...

It was meant to be the trip of a lifetime. My friend Brenda had never traveled to Europe and since I've been traveling so much over the last 6 years, we planned a trip to Scotland, Portugal and England. So much thought and effort - not to mention money - went into the planning. And yet. The big day arrived and we caught the Link rail to SeaTac airport. Because Brenda has some mobility issues, we reserved a wheelchair to take her to the Delta lounge then to the gate. The brand new DeltaOne lounge was fabulous!

We got the requisite glass of bubbly and ordered what turned out to be some wonderful food. It was so much nicer than the lounge we used to visit, and included table service.

Our servers were fabulous - I really hope to see Angel and all the fabulous folks we met there next time.

Things started well, but the wheelchair providers are not affiliated with the airlines and the service is not very good. Brenda's wheelchair arrived almost 30 minutes late and we should have raced to the gate, but the fellow pushing the wheelchair was tiny and not very strong so we went very slowly. We got to the lift that usually leads to the train and found it closed so we had to race to a further gate. I stopped at a Delta help desk to explain what was happening and to ask if they could could call the gate to say that we were on our way. The "customer service" person said, "We don't do that. And, you're going to miss your flight." Gee, thanks. We got to the train to the international terminal, got to the elevator to take us to the gate and made it at the last call for boarding. We were all so stressed by the tine we got aboard. We settled in for the flight

but after take-off Brenda seemed really disoriented. She said she didn't feel well and skipped food service. She uses a CPAP machine but the battery pack she brought had somehow run down so she couldn't use it. Poor Brenda - she ended up having to sit up instead of luxuriating in the fully reclining seat. We got to Heathrow, made it to the Elizabeth Line and got on the train to St. Pancras station. From there it was on the train to Edinburgh. (Gorgeous train station in Edinburgh.)

We got to our flat and Brenda headed straight to bed, poor thing.

The next day we saw a bit of Edinburgh on the hop-on hop off bus,

had a pub lunch

and visited beautiful St. Giles Cathedral. On the way home we stopped at Boots to pick up cold medicine and cough syrup for Brenda. She took to her bed and stayed there the next day. I don't know what prompted me to think of it, but I went to Boots and bought a Covid test. Yep, Brenda tested positive. In hindsight, it was pretty clear that she had it from the start of the trip. A couple of days later, Bruce and I tested positive as well. No tea at the Balmoral, no trip to Lisbon. We still managed to have 6 days in London, but with lasting effects of Covid and limited energy, we scaled back our plans.

To her great credit, Brenda still enjoyed what things we were able to do, but this trip of a lifetime wasn't all it was cracked up to be.