Last morning in New Orleans. So sad!

I really enjoyed my time here . I went out for breakfast this morning, as far as Cafe Du Monde, and had my last beignets. Bittersweet.

Back at the hotel, I had my taxi to the airport booked for 10, and at two minutes past ten there was still no taxi. All of us got in a fluster, and then a nice taxi guy just appeared out of the blue, and off we went.

Louis Armstrong airport is pretty small, and actually quite old fashioned. Going through security, the x-ray machine ate my ticket. It actually disappeared. I had my shoes on and my liquids and electronics back in their bag, but no ticket. Again, I was freaked out, but this time, nobody else was concerned. That was all fine in New Orleans, but I had to transfer in Washington Dulles and I NEEDED that ticket!!! Eventually the security guard got concerned that I would actually climb into the machine myself, so he stopped everything and was able to peel my flimsy paper ticket out from underneath the conveyor belt.

Next was a big long queue for immigration. The men around me started laughing at some people in a different queue, who were moving much faster, and it turned out that I had accidentally gone into the "TSA Express" queue, which was much slower than the non-express queue. Happy day! I left and joined my two fellow cheapos, and breezed through immigration.

This plane was very small and had only two rows of two . I imagine it was sort of like the Concorde. There was one sleepy businessman on my left, and I had a great view of lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi delta out my window on the right.

Washington Dulles airport is in Virgina, so I got another state visited by accident. Heh heh heh... I spruced up in the bathroom and decided to go to Irish time there and then, since I had to drive home in the morning and go straight to work. It wasn't that long since my beignets, and I hated to go back to non-NOLA food - because it is THE BEST food, ever - but I felt like some stir fry. First I queued for some Dunkin Donuts, because I hadn't had them at all this trip. Bad move. A mother with three kids spread all over the airport was two ahead of me, and took forrrr-evvvvv-arrrrr. Then it turned out I was in Terminal C, and I wasn't allowed see a map to any other terminals until I left it, because Terminal C was only for Commercial Airline 1, and they don't share with other airlines.

Basically, I had to run a marathon, tunnel into the underground, find a train and catch it past Terminals D, B, and Z (like, seriously) and get to terminal A . I think. I was very confused. I finally found an information screen that said I was in the right geographical location, and my plane hadn't left yet. And what's more, I had time for that stir-fry! The girl at the counter gave me a massive portion and complimented my perfume. I couldn't eat it all, so I decided to keep it for lunch at school tomorrow, and this is America so plastic bags are literally handed out free.

I had actually wasted all my wait time by being lost, and when I got to the plane there was no queue because everyone was already on. GASP. Unexpected. Thanks a lot, Dulles. That didn't matter either though, because two families "with young children" had been split up and they were trying to reshuffle them. I had ended up in a window seat - WITH NO WINDOW. There was no-one in the two seats to my left, and no one in the first two seats across the aisle. The man on the inside over there made eye-contact with me, and we both knew we were doomed to be sat beside the split up families.

Of course we were. A mother and father, a girl of about 10, and a boy of about 4 came down the aisle. The father sat beside the man, the mother went beside him... AND THEY SHOVED THEIR TWO KIDS IN BESIDE ME, ON THEIR OWN.

Oh. My. God.

We were on the tarmac for long enough that I got most of Zootopia watched (and it's called Zootropolis in America). I didn't want any food or meal, just sleep, so I put on my eye mask and earphones and pointedly made sleeping gestures to the four year old.

It didn't stop him yelling at his screen because he didn't read or understand English. His sister spoke loudly, but even she was fed up of him. His parents put in their earphones and totally blanked out. This gave me enough confidence to shake my head solemnly at him and say "SHHHHH." That helped, for a while, though I did have to say it a few more times with my eye mask on.

I slept a bit on the plane, but we were back in Ireland in no time at all. Then it was off out to the car park, shouting at the machine not to eat my prepaid ticket, whizz home in the 5am mist along the motorway, quick shower, stuff the plastic bag of stir-fry into my school bag, and off to school!

It's amazing I made it through the day, but my kids are great, and I had a wonderful sleep after I unpacked.

This was a great short trip, and I love love LOVED New Orleans. <3