Home!

Welcome back! We'll be looking forward to your report - when you recover.

My DH got caught in the shutdown at Heathrow, and had experiences to rival your own - a night on the floor, lost luggage, finding an alternate way home. I'm still dealing with BA over refunds and lost luggage.

My sympathies to your DH, that must have been a very scary experience. I took a huge chance and checked both my large suitcase and my "carry-on" which I had filled with treasured mementos of the trip, as I found so many wonderful gifts and souvenirs I filled a large tote-bag, too. Fortunately both checked bags arrived at PDX safely and on the same flight.

But that eastern weather.....you can have it! I do not know how folks can function. I was taking two or three showers a day, and dripping wet the rest of the time.

Beverly

Welcome home! If you think our summers are bad,you should try a winter, they can be even worse. Us East Coasters are a tough breed.LOL Juno

Awww, come on, it ain't that bad!!

Shoreline gale force winds from offshore storms, beach erosion sometimes so severe as to lose cliffs and houses. Perenial rain in the NW. Nor'easters in the NE. Hurricanes and associated damage in the mid-Atlantic to Mexican gulf. Some of the humidest weather around in the SE. Mid-west to the Alleghenies the typical severe thunderstorms with hail, high winds, possible tornados. Around the Great Lakes lake effect snow. High heat and droughts in the Rockies to the south and west. Avalanches in mountainous areas, upper mid-west severe cold in winter. Earthquakes on the west coast.

Except for the more northern areas of the NE we've got it good!! An occasional heatwave with its associated moisture coming up east of the Alleghenies is nothing.

No place else I'd wanna be, AK in (eastern) PA

Dear Beverly,

Thanks so much for the Poiret pictures. We had several examples of Poiret gowns in our collection at Syracuse University. One was a totally beaded cocoon coat, white pearls with red mums around the perimeter. The donor had worn it once, then put it in a box and never touched it again until she gave it to our gallery.

You're right about Poiret being way ahead of his time! It was a whole new look, never before seen.

Teri

I hear that! I spent my first quarter century in Western Pennsylvania and Miami, but when I've been there to visit, I just about melt into a puddle - in summer. Pennsylvania winters, now, those are memorable. Not happy memories, just memories.

Apparently BA are "working on it...."

Thanks! I hadn't seen that. It's comforting to know that we are not alone, and that they are trying to unsnarl it all.

It is hard to take the 80%+ humidity, but we easterners have lovely skin.

Liz

I agree. And when it gets really ghastly, like this past Monday & Tuesday, we head down to the Jersey shore and set our beach chairs at the water's edge. Ahhhhhh!

Liz

This past Sunday night and Monday we were in Colonial Williamsburg, trying desperately to enjoy all the nifty exhibits, then Tuesday we drove to Norfolk for the flight home. No opportunity to head for the Jersey shore. :-(

Beverly, glad to be back in Portland, where 100° with 32% humidity when we got off the plane Tuesday night felt downright *comfortable*! And it cooled off to 65° overnight.

They say we Oregonians do too, must be all the rain. ;-)

Beverly

Or if your weather is anything like ours, no UV degradation to back up all that natural moisture.

Lizzy

;-) We use sun-block in the summer, but can get away with

Beverly

Well honey, that explains it! You were south of the Mason-Dixon line. Totally different world!! AK in PA

Pat, where did you matriculate for you Master of Understatement degree? ;-þ

We had a fabulous time, it was just a bit difficult to stick to the high-energy itinerary DD and I had planned. I'll start another post with [OT] in the subject describing all the great things we did.

You can be sure that if ever I plan another trip east, I will take the weather into consideration. This trip was planned around DSIL's summer time-off (he's a teacher) as well as the grandchildren's summer vacation time. Unfortunately, if vacations are planned around the school schedules, it always results in either summer travel, or travel at the same time everyone else travels, such as spring or winter break.

However, *I* can travel any time I darn well please, and it pleases me to travel in the late winter, early spring or fall from now on. ;->

Beverly

NOW you tell me?!!!??? Where were you in June?

Beverly