The exploring begins.

City Hall.

Everywhere there was this great architecture.

Everywhere.

This was in a courtyard. City Hall I believe.

More of Brussels.

It was all great.

Dad shoots daughter on Brussels train.

Bob shoots wife and son.

Noah shoots his dad.

Eating-- what else in Belgium-- waffles.

JFK to Brussels-- A Better Second Leg

The delay doomed our itinerary. After a seven hour flight, we missed our connecting flight to Monrovia by about 40 minutes. Actually, we could've boarded the Liberia flight, but our 700 lbs of luggage would be on its own until Sunday-- unacceptable. The possiblity for losing our luggage in transit or at the Monrovia Roberts Field Airport, and the spectre of hassling forever with American Airlines and SN Brussels on poor phone connections was too great.

We told SN Brussels to fly away without us and we stayed with our luggage. The second leg in our journey had suffered a compound fracture.

Fortunately, we happen to know this Physician.

After an attempt to do a slight-of-hand which Renita caught and set straight, American Airlines took responsibility for the coffee maker glitch and offered to put us up in a nice Brussels hotel with new tickets to the next flight to Monrovia, Liberia-- two days hence. Suddenly, I was smelling a blessing. Instead of arriving in Liberia with no luggage, exhausted after being on two planes for twenty solid hours, we would be taking two evenings and a full day to rest, recover, refresh, in Belgium-- free. So, we'll take a couple days in this grand city before we leave for Liberia on Sunday morning. What a nice surprise gift from this Physician Guy. He told us, "What's the rush? You're in a great city. Enjoy! I insist!"

Saturday, we explore Brussels.

Hmmm... a three hour delay, and our lay over in Brussels is three hours. I think we are in for a pleasant weekend in Belgium.

Noah snaps a shot at a tired Hannah from over his seat behind her. At this point, we've been in this plane eight hours with three to go, and only four of those hours were in the air.

GR to NYC

The first leg of our journey was smooth, but navigating NYC was a bit taxing. We landed in LaGuardia, but would fly out of JFK across town. No problem, we had a ten hour layover. We rented a van, loaded up our fourteen pieces of luggage, and headed into NYC to see Ground Zero and the Statue of Liberty. Traffic was normal for NYC, but it was all new to me. After getting lost more than once, we made it into Manhattan and saw the sights, had lunch, and headed to JFK for the second leg of our trip.

After an emotional day that started early, and included major goodbyes, cross country travel, NYC driving and three airports, we were a bit tired by the time we got to JFK. We boarded on time, and waited an hour due to heavy traffic. We were watching the clock, because we had only a three hour layover in Brussels, and really only a two hour layover for our baggage, which needs that time to be checked from one plane to another. As we finally prepared to take off-- I mean we had taxied to our take-off point on the runway--the captain informed us in his Capatainy way, "... Ah folks, ah, we have some bad news for ya there..." They had discovered an ominous leak of water coming from somewhere. So we headed back to the terminal for our second hour in the plane to learn the source of the trouble: a leaky coffee maker (Oh NO!). Of course, this instrument must be repaired, so after hour three, we were again ready for take-off. We suspected that unless God really wanted us in Liberia on Friday, we were not making the connecting flight to Monrovia. What was on His Mind?

4:30am Goodbye neighborhood! Goodbye old house!

TSA really rushed and hassled us at Grand Rapids Intnl. Renita got flagged and everything was searched. Her family could only watch from a distance. She couldn't say her goodbyes!

The journey begins. On the ground in Grand Rapids-- Renita sad especially because in the rush and craziness at Grand Rapids, she did not get to say goodbye to sister Janette, who has been such a pillar for her. The rest of us are oblivious and geeked.

During our ten hour layover bwteen Laguardia and JFK, we hang out in NYC. Lady Liberty has our back.

Waiting for our ill-fated flight to Brussels. We thought the next day would lead to Africa. Little did we know that a leaky coffee pot would lead to eleven hours in the plane and two extra days in Belguim.