Travelling (part 2)
So anyways..... we recently went to Mexico for a family vacation. I should have known it was a bad omen when we actually left the house on time!!
The problems started at Security. It's 5am. We're there with 3 kids, their backpacks, our laptops, and a carseat. The guy behind me in line takes his shoes off and drops them in the grey basket that I am about to put mine into... then keeps shoving it along. I'm not sure if he just wasn't awake yet or what, but he was irritating the snot out of me!!
S completely endeared himself to the security guard - she had him walk through the metal detector and he went straight to her and wrapped his arms around her legs in the biggest hug I've seen in a while. I thought this could be a problem - let's face it, most don't have a sense of humor - but she seemed quite pleased by it!
Unfortunately, another MrHappy had pulled my bag aside and informed me he was going to look in it. Not a problem, but I didn't understand why as I'd only packed swimsuits and the likes in case our luggage got lost en route. MrHappy tells me NOT TO TOUCH THE BAG and to STEP BACK as he opens it up... uhhhhh, all righty then, I wasn't going to touch it and I'm at least 3 feet away, but whatever. Turns out I had unthinkingly thrown in a bottle of sunscreen. Genius. I can't believe I did that. We had 40 minutes til our flight was scheduled to depart and chose to chuck it rather than try and get it in our baggage. Case closed.
HOWEVER, Mr. Murphy and his Law were already at work, and our flight was delayed.... because someone didn't power the aircraft down the night before, and the battery was essentially drained. The way I understand it, they more or less needed a jumpstart to get it going.
Things finally got rolling, and we boarded. As we walked to the jetway, the super-pleasant lady told us we would likely miss our connecting flight, but not to worry, they would rebook us on another airline. JUST what I need.
The flight was bumpy. Denver, as always, was experiencing less than perfect weather and this necessitated seatbelts for the latter half of the flight. Which normally wouldn't be a problem, but 5yo A needed to pee. And she needed to go BADLY. You'd think a 5yo crying "I NEED TO PEE!!!" would cause some people to be courteous and let us off the plane, but no...... and (of course) we were at the very back......
A and I got off the plane and RAN to the closest bathroom, not even bothering to agree on a meeting place with Daddy. She made it - barely. Once out, I checked the departing flights and was surprised to see that our flight to Cabo was delayed by 10 minutes and we actually stood a chance of making it.... if we could find Daddy.
A quick look around with no sign of him, and I decided we'd head for the gate. It was 30 gates away and we needed to boogie if we had any hope of making it. We ran into R, H, & S at the next set of bathrooms and all ran together.
Let me set the scene for you. S was sitting in his carseat, which was strapped to a rolling luggage cart ($14 at WalMart -forget that fancy $250 airplace carseat with wheels, this works just as well!). I'm carrying my laptop, his backpack, and A's backpack. R and H are ahead, running for the gate. I'm pushing S in the carseat contraption - which, by the way - is nowhere near as well designed as a jogging stroller - carrying the backpacks, and literally dragging 5yo A along.
We do this for 30 gates, passing a couple of people from our previous flight.
We catch up to H and I add cheerleading to the list of things I am doing..... cheering both girls on while we run.
Get to our gate... and they tell us they have JUST closed the aircraft doors and we are too late. Naturally. Because, after all, I'm running on 90 minutes of sleep, no food, and we've just run 30 gates. Damn Murphy.
We get rebooked on another flight... in a different terminal. I try to make the situation positive and say we can get some breakfast (cuz God knows none of the airlines would ever serve you any food) and the Customer Service rep smiles and tells us to check in at the other airline first.
I should have known something was up.
The other airline takes the better part of the hour to get things straightened out... I think my favorite part of the whole thing was when we went to board and were told no.... the supervisor came over VERY quickly at that point and said we WERE getting on the plane and that we had not just spent all that time trying to get things straightened out to be denied boarding, and that they could work out the paperwork on their own once we left. I think I told her I loved her.
They also had all five of us sitting all over the plane. And this was actually okay with me. I was done. Shut down. Did not want to sit with my kids and had no problem with them sitting with other people. The other passengers, however, were not only happy to be moved out of the very last row in the plane, but also happy to be moved away from the children, so once again we sat in the last two rows. Naturally. Cuz there's that unwritten rule....
In the end, the resort was worth all the annoyances of the travel to get there. Going home was a different story, one that I will touch on another day. But when you get up in the morning, walk down to get coffee, and look out to see three grey whales in the ocean, you just can't complain.
At least not too much.
The problems started at Security. It's 5am. We're there with 3 kids, their backpacks, our laptops, and a carseat. The guy behind me in line takes his shoes off and drops them in the grey basket that I am about to put mine into... then keeps shoving it along. I'm not sure if he just wasn't awake yet or what, but he was irritating the snot out of me!!
S completely endeared himself to the security guard - she had him walk through the metal detector and he went straight to her and wrapped his arms around her legs in the biggest hug I've seen in a while. I thought this could be a problem - let's face it, most don't have a sense of humor - but she seemed quite pleased by it!
Unfortunately, another MrHappy had pulled my bag aside and informed me he was going to look in it. Not a problem, but I didn't understand why as I'd only packed swimsuits and the likes in case our luggage got lost en route. MrHappy tells me NOT TO TOUCH THE BAG and to STEP BACK as he opens it up... uhhhhh, all righty then, I wasn't going to touch it and I'm at least 3 feet away, but whatever. Turns out I had unthinkingly thrown in a bottle of sunscreen. Genius. I can't believe I did that. We had 40 minutes til our flight was scheduled to depart and chose to chuck it rather than try and get it in our baggage. Case closed.
HOWEVER, Mr. Murphy and his Law were already at work, and our flight was delayed.... because someone didn't power the aircraft down the night before, and the battery was essentially drained. The way I understand it, they more or less needed a jumpstart to get it going.
Things finally got rolling, and we boarded. As we walked to the jetway, the super-pleasant lady told us we would likely miss our connecting flight, but not to worry, they would rebook us on another airline. JUST what I need.
The flight was bumpy. Denver, as always, was experiencing less than perfect weather and this necessitated seatbelts for the latter half of the flight. Which normally wouldn't be a problem, but 5yo A needed to pee. And she needed to go BADLY. You'd think a 5yo crying "I NEED TO PEE!!!" would cause some people to be courteous and let us off the plane, but no...... and (of course) we were at the very back......
A and I got off the plane and RAN to the closest bathroom, not even bothering to agree on a meeting place with Daddy. She made it - barely. Once out, I checked the departing flights and was surprised to see that our flight to Cabo was delayed by 10 minutes and we actually stood a chance of making it.... if we could find Daddy.
A quick look around with no sign of him, and I decided we'd head for the gate. It was 30 gates away and we needed to boogie if we had any hope of making it. We ran into R, H, & S at the next set of bathrooms and all ran together.
Let me set the scene for you. S was sitting in his carseat, which was strapped to a rolling luggage cart ($14 at WalMart -forget that fancy $250 airplace carseat with wheels, this works just as well!). I'm carrying my laptop, his backpack, and A's backpack. R and H are ahead, running for the gate. I'm pushing S in the carseat contraption - which, by the way - is nowhere near as well designed as a jogging stroller - carrying the backpacks, and literally dragging 5yo A along.
We do this for 30 gates, passing a couple of people from our previous flight.
We catch up to H and I add cheerleading to the list of things I am doing..... cheering both girls on while we run.
Get to our gate... and they tell us they have JUST closed the aircraft doors and we are too late. Naturally. Because, after all, I'm running on 90 minutes of sleep, no food, and we've just run 30 gates. Damn Murphy.
We get rebooked on another flight... in a different terminal. I try to make the situation positive and say we can get some breakfast (cuz God knows none of the airlines would ever serve you any food) and the Customer Service rep smiles and tells us to check in at the other airline first.
I should have known something was up.
The other airline takes the better part of the hour to get things straightened out... I think my favorite part of the whole thing was when we went to board and were told no.... the supervisor came over VERY quickly at that point and said we WERE getting on the plane and that we had not just spent all that time trying to get things straightened out to be denied boarding, and that they could work out the paperwork on their own once we left. I think I told her I loved her.
They also had all five of us sitting all over the plane. And this was actually okay with me. I was done. Shut down. Did not want to sit with my kids and had no problem with them sitting with other people. The other passengers, however, were not only happy to be moved out of the very last row in the plane, but also happy to be moved away from the children, so once again we sat in the last two rows. Naturally. Cuz there's that unwritten rule....
In the end, the resort was worth all the annoyances of the travel to get there. Going home was a different story, one that I will touch on another day. But when you get up in the morning, walk down to get coffee, and look out to see three grey whales in the ocean, you just can't complain.
At least not too much.
posted by KB at 8:38 AM
2 Comments:
You know what? Prior to having children I would have read your description of travel with them and thought that it was a total nightmare and, even in the midst of infertility struggle, thought that maybe I didn't want them so much after all. Post having Finn, I'm thinking that that sounds totally terrible, but somehow it all seems worth it. Well, from where I'm sitting it does anyway. Happy that you had a lovely time there!!!!
I'm happy that the actual vacation part was wonderful.
Travelling to the destination...yeah, that sucks. I've been there too. Granted it was only with one child, but still. I'm glad you got the supervisor that was willing to help.
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