Daily Travels - Visiting home

As some of you may have picked up on, I originally hail from England.  My brother and I live in California, but my parents are still holding down the fort on the other side of the pond.  Admittedly, I'm a terrible daughter and haven't been back home to visit in a long time (think 4-ish years) and after husband lost his job, it didn't seem like we were going to be able to make it back home this year either.  Then, mom calls me to say that they are officially knocking down and rebuilding the house at home, so it's now or never in terms of going back to my childhood home one last time.  This led to a bit of a dilemma though seeing as there's no way that we could afford 2 airfares home and, if he's travelling with me, husband also won't be around to claim his unemployment.  On the other hand, if by some miracle he finds a job in the next few weeks, he also can't take off for 10 days nor would he want to delay a start date.  It's going to be weird, but we decided the best thing for me to do is go without him.  I seriously don't recall the last time we spent that much time apart - certainly not since we got married.  I just hope Deuce keeps him in check while I'm gone and that he remembers to attempt to not let the dishes pile up.  :)

I would like to give a little shout out, however, to Expedia's bargain fares for making the airfare vaguely reasonable at least.  I remember the days when a flight to Heathrow was $500 (on the high end) with Virgin Atlantic, you could drink all you want on the plane for free, and the food was pretty decent.  This time though, my search for flights were coming up in the $800+ range.  While I was busy lamenting the price, an Expedia bargain fare popped up for $710.  The problem is that it doesn't tell you what time of day the flight is, or the airline, until after you've booked.  Seeing as neither factor was of particular importance to me (although I'll admit I had my fingers crossed that the airline wouldn't be AA or United), I went for it.  Turns out, I'm flying with Virgin with flight times around what I would have picked anyway.  Dear Expedia, thank you for being awesome.  Now I can relax knowing that I'm with an airline that has good in-flight entertainment and (hopefully) better food on offer than a stale bagel or soggy sandwich.  Plus, that $100-something I saved means I have more funds to spend on stuffing my suitcase with Cadbury's chocolate.  Can't wait for some good Indian food either.  Just delightful!