Final days in Florida and our COVID-tested flight home

There was so much up in the air that it was very difficult to figure out our return plans. While we were in Florida, The Netherlands announced a countrywide lockdown beginning on December 15th. Restaurants and bars had already been closed, but now schools and all non-essential stores were closed as well.  Schools were scheduled to be closed until January 18th so we considered staying longer, not thrilled to return to a lockdown. Then Pete found out that seniors were exempt from the lockdown so he would need to return to teach in person on the 5th (boo), but that ISA was going to stay open for emergency care for teacher's kids (YAY!). I still wasn't mentally prepared to leave Florida yet. The ultimate deciding factor was the ability to transfer my flight with the kids to a new pilot "COVID tested" flight with Delta/KLM. We would get tested 5 days before departure, do a rapid test in Atlanta before boarding, and a final PCR test at Schiphol. If all tests came back negative, we would be exempt from the 10-day quarantine when we returned home. I was not looking forward to being stuck indoors in the dead of winter for 10 days with the kids so I made the decision to come home on the 30th, giving the kids and me 4 more days with my parents. I was already scheduled to work that week, thinking we'd be back home, but it worked out well to work normal US hours while my parents watched the kids. I wasn't looking forward to doing the long travel again on my own, especially with a red-eye, but figured if Pete returned home before us, he could get over jetlag to help me when we got back. 

Having made the decision, the kids and I got enjoy a few more days in the sun. A big highlight was driving to see the manatees, who come into the canals in my parents' neighborhood when it gets cold. I also tracked down rocket popsicles, helped finish a puzzle and made a last minute Amazon Fresh order of my favorite cheese from California, which I brought back to Amsterdam (shh, don't tell the border agents!). Less fun tasks were figuring out how to get everything home on my own (I usually leave the tricky packing up to Pete) and dealing with some drama surrounding my profession certification renewal. 

We had a very memorable travel experience home. First, we checked everything in in Miami after begging the check in man to take my carryons so I wouldn't have too much luggage to deal with. I let the kids run all their crazy out in the very quiet Miami airport. Once in Atlanta, we had to change terminals (fun on the airtrain again) and stopped for dinner in a very busy domestic terminal. The kids were the most civilized of Wendy's dinner consumers. Then we made our way to the deserted international terminal. We had a specific gate to go to for our COVID tested flight program. We were escorted there, a woman checked our negative PCR test results, I filled out a questionaire and then we went in for the rapid antigen testing. Only I needed to do this and the kids loved watching. Then we sat in an empty room that had chairs spaced every 6 feet apart. There were two televisions on the wall. One showing scenes of the Netherlands and the other showing scenes of Italy (their two pilot destinations were Amsterdam and Rome). The kids were given coloring books and we waited the 15 minutes or so for the results. My boarding pass got a special stamp and then we waited in a terminal with the other 10 or so passengers that were on our entire flight home. People had to self select this flight and US citizens are not allowed in Europe without residency.

Hillariously, our seats were right in front of two friends traveling together and caddy corner from another traveler. The rest of the back of the plane was completely empty. Why did they seat us so close together? It was 10pm by that point and I told the kids they could be on their ipads until we were in the air. They didn't protest one bit when I took them away and settled them in for bed. Maeve got the entire 4 seat middle row, I moved Jude to the 3 seats to the right and I took the 3 seats to the left. Dinner, a movie, and a glass of wine and then I was out like the kids. When we arrived in Amsterdam, we were ushered off the plane to a special testing area, where I had a nasal PCR test administered. I would receive my results later that evening. Unfortunely, Pete wasn't allowed into the airport or train terminal. He had to wait behind guards at the entrance to the parking area and we were all very happy to see him! 

It is easy to say in retrospect that we were so glad we made the trip, given that no one got sick. Of course it could have gone another way. It doesn't look like borders are opening up anytime soon and this was the only way we were going to get to see the grandparents. So we are glad that we seized the opportunity and had a safe, memorable trip. Now we wait to see how things look for our hopeful summer trip home...