Not that I really want to go back to the States, but I am expected to put in an appearance at my dad’s memorial over the Thanksgiving holiday…  It’s been four years since we last had Thanksgiving with my family and we’re overdue, I guess.

I used to really love Thanksgiving with my big, southern, fun loving family.  Now that I’m older, I think I like our quieter, less involved celebrations more.  And really, going back to the States from Germany is a pain, especially since this will be the fourth transatlantic trip we’ve done this year.

Some folks on Stuttgart Friends turned me on to ABC Travel Service, a German travel agency that offers discounted flights to American military and government employees.  I ended up scoring two round trip tickets from Stuttgart to Washington, DC by way of Paris for $1436.  Unfortunately, we ended up with a really long layover in Paris on the way back.  If we can’t get that flight changed (it’s only about an hour), I guess we’ll just go into the city for a long lunch and some shopping.

Of course, I will probably not be in the best of moods when we land. I don’t sleep on planes and I imagine I’ll be tired, cranky, and emotional.  But there are worse places to be stuck.  As long as we can get out of the airport, it’ll probably be okay.

We could also take a train or drive back to Stuttgart, but I don’t know how many bags we’ll have.  I doubt we’ll want to drive and deal with Paris traffic or crowded trains.

So far, I’m kind of impressed by ABC Travel Service.  I made the reservations yesterday evening and within an hour, they came back to me asking for a proper billing address (their Web site only offered one for home addresses).  I got back to them and within another hour, we were confirmed.

I expect to have a full review of the travel service and the airline once this is all done.  I’m thinking we’ll be on Air France, but I won’t be surprised if we end up on a code share flight, too.

I will be glad to be done with this trip home, so I can focus on European travel!