We depart from LAX at around 6pm on July 2nd. Christopher and Elena had each been on an airplane only once before and were excited. About halfway through the 11 hour flight to Dusseldorf (which was followed by a 1 hour connecting flight to Munich), the airplane ride lost a lot of its appeal. The kids were great travelers though, with good humor and few complaints. None of us slept more than an hour on the plane; luckily the movies, books and IPods kept us fairly well entertained.