Saturday, January 10, 2004
Not our best anniversary
First of all, I don't recommend getting married the first week of January. We were married January 5, 1990. It was a great day but it's just to close to the holidays. There are so many things going on that time of year with the kids. One year we both forgot about it until several days after it had past.
Our travel plans this year called for us to fly home on the 4th. Our whole family are night people, even the baby, so we never fly in the morning. We were scheduled to leave on a 5:00 flight from South Bend to Chicago and then on to Seattle. The trouble started with a heavy snowfall that morning. While we were finishing up packing we checked the airline web site and found that the South Bend flight was already cancelled. It's a turbo-prop and they weren't letting any non-jets take off or land. We had the option of a two-hour drive to Chicago to try to make our connection or trying to reschedule. A two hour drive there and back through a blizzard did not seem very wise so my wife called up the airline to reschedule. That went well and we were on the same flights the next day. The only trouble was that we could not get three seats together. My wife was the first to remember that this would mean we'd be flying our anniversary away.
That night we checked the weather and find out that a huge blizzard was expected to hit Seattle Monday night, perhaps as we are arriving. Now we have to worry about snow on both sides of our trip.
We got up on Monday, finished packing and headed for the airport. It was snowing but not as bad as Sunday. We arrived and found that the flight was still listed as on schedule. The two morning flights did leave but both were late. I was sure that there would be a delay so I started worrying about our connection. We had a two-hour layover in Chicago so we should have been OK. After checking our bags we had time to run out and have a snack with my sister-in-law and nephew. We weren't back to the airport and found that our flight was indeed delayed by 1:15. That was cutting it close. We waited and then took off for the 20-minute flight to Chicago. This flight went well and we landed with time to spare.
Unfortunately it did not matter because the Chicago flight was also delayed, this one by 2:30. The gate area was jammed so we got some space on the floor. We took turns letting the baby crawl around and stopping him before he bumped into someone. We met a family with another one-year-old who used to live on Bainbridge, on our street in fact. She sympathized with our need to take a ferry at the end of an already long day. The ferry was turning into the main worry. The last ferry of the night was at 1:35 AM. If the flight took off according to the new schedule, it would work out.
Once the plane arrived they did a good job of getting it ready quickly. We pre-boarded on time and we sat together waiting for the owner of the third seat to come so we could hopefully talk him into switching. In one of the bright spots of the trip, that passenger never showed so we did not have to do any negotiating. The crawling plan also worked well as about an hour into the flight the baby fell asleep and was out for two hours.
We were due to land at 11:45. It should have been plenty of time to make the ferry. But things never go fast at the airport. It was 12:15 when we reached baggage claim and we were waiting...and waiting...and waiting. We heard that the machinery was broken and they were working on it! At this point I started to panic. We left the car at home and our plan was to take a shuttle van to the ferry. These usually take time to set up so I did not think that would be an option. Taking a cab might work but we needed to find one big enough to fit us and our large amount of luggage. They switched to a different baggage machine and we got our bags and headed for the shuttle at 12:50.
As I feared the shuttle van could not get us there on time. We had a maximum load of luggage with us as the three of us that could walk were pulling or pushing something in each hand. We went as fast as we could to the cab stand. There was one party ahead of us. A normal car taxi pulled up and picked them up. There was no way we could fit us in that kind of car. We waited about a minute and the next taxi came - it was a station wagon! We had a chance. We told the driver where we needed to go and crammed ourselves in. We each had something on our laps. We made it to the ferry terminal with 10 whole minutes to spare. It was cutting it way to close.
There was a cab to meet us on the other side. It was a car so I went home alone and brought our van back to pick up the family. We were finally all home at about 2:30 in the morning. Happy anniversary!
Our travel plans this year called for us to fly home on the 4th. Our whole family are night people, even the baby, so we never fly in the morning. We were scheduled to leave on a 5:00 flight from South Bend to Chicago and then on to Seattle. The trouble started with a heavy snowfall that morning. While we were finishing up packing we checked the airline web site and found that the South Bend flight was already cancelled. It's a turbo-prop and they weren't letting any non-jets take off or land. We had the option of a two-hour drive to Chicago to try to make our connection or trying to reschedule. A two hour drive there and back through a blizzard did not seem very wise so my wife called up the airline to reschedule. That went well and we were on the same flights the next day. The only trouble was that we could not get three seats together. My wife was the first to remember that this would mean we'd be flying our anniversary away.
That night we checked the weather and find out that a huge blizzard was expected to hit Seattle Monday night, perhaps as we are arriving. Now we have to worry about snow on both sides of our trip.
We got up on Monday, finished packing and headed for the airport. It was snowing but not as bad as Sunday. We arrived and found that the flight was still listed as on schedule. The two morning flights did leave but both were late. I was sure that there would be a delay so I started worrying about our connection. We had a two-hour layover in Chicago so we should have been OK. After checking our bags we had time to run out and have a snack with my sister-in-law and nephew. We weren't back to the airport and found that our flight was indeed delayed by 1:15. That was cutting it close. We waited and then took off for the 20-minute flight to Chicago. This flight went well and we landed with time to spare.
Unfortunately it did not matter because the Chicago flight was also delayed, this one by 2:30. The gate area was jammed so we got some space on the floor. We took turns letting the baby crawl around and stopping him before he bumped into someone. We met a family with another one-year-old who used to live on Bainbridge, on our street in fact. She sympathized with our need to take a ferry at the end of an already long day. The ferry was turning into the main worry. The last ferry of the night was at 1:35 AM. If the flight took off according to the new schedule, it would work out.
Once the plane arrived they did a good job of getting it ready quickly. We pre-boarded on time and we sat together waiting for the owner of the third seat to come so we could hopefully talk him into switching. In one of the bright spots of the trip, that passenger never showed so we did not have to do any negotiating. The crawling plan also worked well as about an hour into the flight the baby fell asleep and was out for two hours.
We were due to land at 11:45. It should have been plenty of time to make the ferry. But things never go fast at the airport. It was 12:15 when we reached baggage claim and we were waiting...and waiting...and waiting. We heard that the machinery was broken and they were working on it! At this point I started to panic. We left the car at home and our plan was to take a shuttle van to the ferry. These usually take time to set up so I did not think that would be an option. Taking a cab might work but we needed to find one big enough to fit us and our large amount of luggage. They switched to a different baggage machine and we got our bags and headed for the shuttle at 12:50.
As I feared the shuttle van could not get us there on time. We had a maximum load of luggage with us as the three of us that could walk were pulling or pushing something in each hand. We went as fast as we could to the cab stand. There was one party ahead of us. A normal car taxi pulled up and picked them up. There was no way we could fit us in that kind of car. We waited about a minute and the next taxi came - it was a station wagon! We had a chance. We told the driver where we needed to go and crammed ourselves in. We each had something on our laps. We made it to the ferry terminal with 10 whole minutes to spare. It was cutting it way to close.
There was a cab to meet us on the other side. It was a car so I went home alone and brought our van back to pick up the family. We were finally all home at about 2:30 in the morning. Happy anniversary!
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