Saturday August 29, 2009

 

 

Philadelphia Airport

Wednesday, August 26

 

I looked forward to Wednesday, because it was the day my brother Clair was coming home from Italy.  He will be here for almost two weeks to participate in the wedding of his daughter, Jess.  Cerwin and I offered to pick him up at the airport, and he accepted, since his wife, Anne, (a special-needs teacher) could not get the afternoon off.

He has been in Rome this year as a consultant with FAO (Food & Agriculture Organization) which is part of the United Nations.

 

 

Along the way we had to wait on road construction, so I had fun with my camera.

 

 

 

 

Before long we were on the road again. 

I looked at the car clock at 3:07 p.m. and said to Cerwin, “We should soon hear from Clair, because my Internet check said the plane was landing at 3:07.”  I barely had the words out of my mouth when my cell phone rang, and Clair said they just landed.

We still had a twenty-minute drive, which would get us to the airport in good time, because he had to go through customs, then get his luggage. 

My phone rang again a few minutes later.  Clair said they didn’t have a gate, so we should take our time.

 

 

We arrived in the area of the airport shortly after 3:30 and parked along the road to wait for his call.  It took an hour until they had a gate for the plane. 

 

 

We moved closer to the airport, and before long he called to say he was inside building.

 

 

It seemed to take awhile, so we moved toward the pickup area to make sure we didn’t get in trouble for being in an area where parking was not encouraged.  We drove through the pickup area rather slowly.

 

 

We didn’t hear from him so waited along another airport road.

 

 

At 5:00 my phone rang, and he said he was in the USAirways pick up area.

 

 

 

 

There he is!

It was great to see him again.  We email, talk on the phone, or connect on Facebook, but it has been several months since I was able to give him a hug.

He apologized for making us wait, explaining that his luggage didn’t show up.   Then, just as he was filling out the paperwork to have his luggage delivered to the house, they announced that a few more pieces arrived – and his suitcase was there.

An hour-and-a-half of waiting isn’t that bad.  There are always things to watch, and the weather was nice enough to have the car windows open. 

 

 ~~~

You’ll see more of Clair next week, because Rob and Jess asked me to take candid photos at their wedding.

~~~