Monday, June 11, 2012

Let the Adventure Begin!


Easy-E and I took a last minute trip to Maine to hang out with my Dad for a little while.  Naturally, I was more than prepared for the flight, having read everything I could about making air travel with a rambunctious toddler easy.  I had a bag FULL of different food (I'd learned that hungry kids make for pissy kids), trucks, books, coloring books & markers (the magic kind that only work on certain paper), a fully-stocked iPad, and more.  I was ready

Our first flight would take us to Philly.  Miraculously, we ended up getting the whole row to ourselves AND there was a very friendly 12 year old girl behind us who just adored Ezra.  It was amazing.  He was constantly stimulated and had someone to walk up and down the aisle with him!  Happy Ezra :)  He fell asleep just before we landed, after hours of peekaboo, trucks, iPad, books, and playing with his new friend.  It was great.

Our layover was supposed to be 2 hours.  I grabbed Ez a sandwich, both of us water, and we settled down to wait.  1 hour in, we learn that our flight to Portland was cancelled.  Due to "lack of captain."  The hell?  Isn't there an on-call list for pilots?  

Mini-Man required a diaper change before we got to the customer service desk, so we ended up at the very end of the line.  After quite a while of standing in the exact same spot, we were finally escorted over to another area to be rebooked.  5:45 the next evening.  

Well, crap.

So, we got food and hotel vouchers...but ended up back at the airport at 1pm the next day because the hotel couldn't give us a late check-out, despite the circumstances.  (I wanted to punch that woman directly in her pie hole when she told me that.)

I managed to make an adventure out of it and Ez had a great time.  He freaking LOVED taking the shuttle to and from the airport/hotel.  And he got to see a lot of buses and trucks.  And motorcycles.  It was super-exciting :)

After a short delay, again for lack of crew, we boarded our flight.  We had to connect in LaGuardia (again, wtf?) before going on to Portland....which, I'll add, is a short 1 hour hop from Philly.  

Then we waited some more on the tarmac.  

And more.

Turns out, a storm had closed LaGuardia, so we were waiting on them to reopen....and then, when we were finally #2 for take-off, the storm shut us down too.  

Back to the gate we go (2+ hours later).

Once again, we were taken aside after awhile in the customer service line.  That woman was a freakin angel of mercy.  Seriously.  She not only told me that there was no way I was staying there again overnight, she found a direct flight that was delayed due to rain...and had them hold it for me.  AND she picked up Ez and ran with me halfway down the terminal.  Angel.

I had to run from the end of one terminal all the way to a shuttle, then clear down to the end of the next terminal.  Let me just tell you, there is no amount of 36 hour-old deodorant that can cover up that much sweat.  I had a fully packed backpack on my back, Ezra on my hip, and I was dragging a wheeled carry-on.  I imagine I looked like a big, hot mess.

But I didn't give a crap.  We'd made it.  That flight was great.  Ez was great.  Our seat mate was great.  Everything was just great :)

Here's some pics:

EZ with his iPad on the first flight.

He was on his way back to visit his buddy, Olivia.

Ez watched Signing Time in the hotel room while I repacked everything that he'd torn out of our carry-on bags ;-)

And finally, we made it to Grampy's house!  Here's Ez, cleaning out the cabinets....

Bathtime at Grampy's!