July 1st- 37,000 feet, southeast of Ireland.

So far the plane rides have been relatively uneventful and as expected, with about an hour and a half left of the flight.

The plane from Buffalo to Dulles was a little late, so we spent a while waiting in Buffalo. A guy wrote a poem for Anna and Emma while we were waiting (and yeah, that seemed a little creepy). It was a short flight to Dulles, and we just had time to get a quick bite to eat and then we boarded.

Here’s the math. The plane took off at roughly 6:00 PM, Eastern time. We’re expected to arrive in Zurich at about 8:00 AM. There’s a 6 hour time difference, so that means it’ll feel like 2:00 AM for us. We’ve got a full day of driving and touring in Switzerland to get us started. That should help us adjust to Swiss time. If we can finally settle down about 8 or 9:00 PM, then it’ll be like the adults were up until about 2 or 3:00 PM Eastern time. That’s rough, but not undoable.

The real trick, of course, is getting the girls through the “day.” When we first got on the plane, Anna, Emma and Daddy all made puppets using markers and the “barf bags” from the seats. We watched a little TV, and then the sun was going down, so Julie and Anna tried to nap. Scott says it’s hopeless for him to sleep on the plane, and, although he tried, it didn’t seem like it was going to happen. Emma said she was a bat, and didn’t sleep for the first four hours of the flight. She did nap a little though. We’ll see how this plays out as the day goes on.

We saw the islands of the southwest corner of Ireland as we passed a short while ago. Britain and the Channel are approaching soon. The little maps on the screens take much of the mystery out of the time element and make the claustrophobia somewhat more tolerable.

So much for now.