The Long and Winding Road

July 29, 2012

Hmm, what to even say about this trip to Utah? It was crazy. It was frustrating. But it also had some fun thrown in. We started off great, driving to the Baltimore airport Wednesday afternoon for our 4 o'clock flight to Salt Lake. We went through security, got to the gate, and waited . . .

. . . then realized it was a little odd that there was no American Airlines worker at the gate with only 30 minutes before we should've boarded. Well, before too long we got word that the flight was canceled due to incoming thunderstorms. Erik immediately got online and got on the phone with the airline, trying to find us a new flight (an American Airlines employee never did show up). The kids stayed happy wandering around the airport, checking out lots of (newly) grounded planes. Finally, we got a new flight out of Dulles for the next morning. So we drove back home, went to bed, and got up at 5:30am to make our morning flight.

This one took off just fine. As you can see, Anna even napped on the way to our connecting flight in Dallas.

However, as we rushed to our next gate, we learned that THAT flight was canceled! Erik just got right in line at the gate desk to get a new flight. After about 45 minutes of standing in line, one of the employees said over the loud speaker "This line is only for people that had a canceled New York flight. If you have a canceled Salt Lake City flight you need to go to gate 27." Say What?? I was so frustrated, because Erik had been standing there for so long, and people that didn't even bother getting in line booked it over to gate 27 and all got in front of Erik (thus getting the soonest flights to Salt Lake). Seriously bad costumer service.

So we all just waited (and ate apples), until finally they gave us a new flight

So we were scheduled for the next afternoon. We were without luggage or car (obviously), so we waited for about an hour and a half outside for a shuttle from the hotel that the airline found.

Waiting, waiting, and more waiting.

I was so happy that Anna could finally fall asleep on the shuttle to the hotel. It was super hot!

And more waiting to get our room. I think the hotel wasn't quite prepared for the several families that showed up from canceled American Airlnes flights. While we waited, the shuttle bus took us all to Walmart where we could buy diapers and other necessitites for the night.

People kept saying how sorry they were for us getting bumped with the kids. And yes it was very stressfull, however, kids are just so adaptable and can find fun anywhere. That was a big blessing for us, and probably helped me lighten up too!

One way we filled the time was swimming in the hotel pool. It was kind of a funny pool, because the hotel was on the outskirts of the airport, it was just surrounded by cars coming to and from the airport and really noisy planes taking off overhead. The kids were just happy to be in new swimsuits from Walmart (we all got the cheapest ones we could find. I wasn't a fan of the ones the boys picked out and now of course it's their favorite suit!).

hotel beds are the most fun to play in :)

Since we didn't have much to do that day (understatement!), we just went to the airport for the smallest chance that we could board an earlier flight on standby by (didn't happen). Another big blessing was this playground that was close to our gate. This definitely made hours of hanging out at the Dallas airport much easier!!

All three loved it!

One of the funny things about our situation was the food vouchers that the airline gave us. Each meal we had like a $40 voucher to use, however we could only use it at one kiosk- they wouldn't give change back. To fill up our voucher, I was buying anything that was not perishable. I got on the plane with multiple cups of instant oatmeal, many bottles of water, apples and bananas, and granola bars. I felt like I was on a Price Is Right game trying to figure out the combinations of food I should buy.

The flight to Utah went pretty well. Anna, Jackson, and I sat in the front row and Wyatt and Erik sat a few rows back. My bag of tricks had definitely dwindled but I was able to keep them entertained enough.