The trip home started at 5:30 AM Tuesday morning. Early, but the boys both woke cheerful and chipper :) We arrived at LAX, returned the rental car, checked our bags, got through security, and made it to our gate without a hitch. We were there with plenty of time to spare and had to wait quite a while, but the boys did great and were content watching planes and people. As soon as we boarded, they both started getting drowsy and were asleep by the time we reached altitude. They slept until 20ish minutes before we landed (on a 4 hour flight!). Seriously, it was a perfect scenario, like a dream! It was 4:15 PM CST when we arrived at O'Hare.
Once we were off the plane, we grabbed a bite to eat and prepared to make our way to our next gate. My parents and I were parting ways at this point, and because Ryan had to fly home two days earlier, I was by myself with the boys. We only had about 20 minutes until we boarded, though, and the flight to Milwaukee was only 35 minutes. Totally do-able! When we stopped at the board to verify our gate and time, my dad saw that our flight was delayed an hour, until 6:50 PM. Bummer. An extra hour to entertain the boys, and an extra hour until I could see my hubby! I was disappointed, but what can you do? After we said our goodbyes, my parents and Aubs went in the opposite direction, and we slowly made our way to our gate. Abe is a major dawdler and tends to move slowly. Because I was trying to manage the stroller (with a 16 month old who kept trying to turn around!) and a few bags, I wasn't able to control him as easily. I kept making him hold onto one of the stroller handles, which worked fine, but it took quite a while! That was okay, though. I had an hour to kill, so we could move as slowly as he wanted!
As we passed another board, I shot a quick glance at our flight and saw that it had been delayed another half hour. GREAT. Super bummer indeed. Now we were stuck there until 7:20 to even leave, when we originally supposed to be home by 6:30! I called Ryan to let him know, and he wondered if he should just drive down to get us. Since he would arrive about the same time as the flight departed, we figured we may as well wait, especially since the flight home was shorter than the drive!
We finally got to our gate and sat down near the window so the boys could watch the planes. They did great! Charlie offered his paci and some Smarties to many of the people in the waiting area (who all politely declined). Abe made friends with a little boy and girl nearby who were playing Uno, and things were going pretty smoothly. Charlie kept me on my toes...I went back and forth between making him stay strapped in the stroller and letting him get out to move. They were making periodic announcements about the status of our flight and it looked like we were indeed going to be on board at 7:20 PM.
After a while, a ton of people started filling the area and they were making announcements for a flight to Knoxville. I didn't really think too much of it, but as more time went by I realized that they hadn't made a single announcement about the Milwaukee flight in quite a while. In my naiveté, I just assumed our plane would still be coming next! A bit later, Ryan called. He had been following our flight online and saw that it had been cancelled. They hadn't made any announcements about it at all, but it seemed to make sense given the recent changes at our gate.
Super, super bummer. Now it was 7 PM. Had Ryan left when we first spoke, he could almost already be there! But as it was, I had no clue what was going on and was alone at one of the nation's largest airports with an almost 4 year old and a 16 month old. Though it wasn't my first time flying, I surely am not a seasoned traveler. Had I been alone, or had the children been older, it would have been easier, but my situation was a bit precarious.
The boys and I made our way to the counter with a few other people on our flight. The woman behind the counter was very rude and told us the Milwaukee flight had been cancelled, with an "oh well" attitude that made me want to yell at her. She said she had to go and we could go rebook down by Gate 4, complete with a "shooing" motion of the hand. We trudged back to our seat and started to gather up all of our stuff. At that point, a toy of Abe's broke, and he started crying. Charlie started wailing because he wanted someone's water. I was about to lose it. You know that feeling when you can almost physically feel the stress rising inside of you? I was there, and I could tell tears were welling up behind my eyes. I took a deep breath and blinked back my tears, hugged Abe and told him we could fix the toy at home, and strapped Charlie in the stroller with promises of water.
After securing said bottle of water, we went to Gate 4 and waited in line at the rebooking phone. The woman on the other end told me we were on a flight at 7:30 the following morning. I told her that I wasn't going to spend the night with my two young sons in the airport, that my husband would just come to get me, so could she please instruct me as to how to get my luggage that was being transferred for the morning flight? She told me I would have to go down to baggage claim and "hopefully someone will be there to help you." Hopefully, indeed. I called Ryan to tell him the situation, and he told me he was on his way down. I felt such relief knowing he was on his way, even though we still had some hoops to jump through.
We headed toward baggage claim, and en route I decided to stop at the AA ticket counter, because it was finally a staff member to speak with. The kind man listened to my whole schpeal, told me he couldn't help me, but I should go find the man in the green checkered vest. He was a supervisor and should be able to help. Okay. He was on the phone, so we waited while he finished up. I repeated the schpeal again. He seemed to be in a hurry and told me it was "No problem. I'll just give you this number to call, and they can deliver your bags in the morning." I told him that would be great, except for the fact that my two carseats were also checked, and we would need those to get home. So he then told me to head down to carousel 9 where there would be someone to speak with.
So off we went. Abe was quite enthralled with the glass elevator we went down, so that was a nice diversion for a bit! When we got to carousel 9, no one was around except a young worker in a neon yellow vest. I told him my request, and he told me I'd have to go down to carousel 6 to speak with an agent. Good grief. Off to carousel 6.
I saw a counter. With AA staff members behind it. It seemed like a good sign. We waited in line (well, Charlie and I waited while Abe spun around the line dividers. Hey, he was happy, he wasn't bothering anyone, and I was too tired to care, so spun he did!). The lady called "Next!" and we approached the counter. She was very kind and put in a request for our suitcase and carseats. I thanked her profusely for helping us make some progress. It was so refreshing to have someone with a pleasant attitude! We had to wait about 30 minutes for our things to be retrieved, so we munched on some Garrett's popcorn while we waited. That popcorn was a lifesaver!!
After our items came onto the belt, I pulled everything off and then made my way to some seats over beside the door. I had Charlie in a stroller, two backpacks, a large suitcase, and two carseats, so it was no small feat to get everything to the door. I had to push Charlie and the suitcase 5 feet or so, then move the carseats, and repeat, all the way to the door. I'm sure we looked ridiculous! We got a few "wow, you have your hands full", but no offers to help, though I didn't really expect any.
Finally at the seats near the door, we watched for Ryan to arrive. We had about an hour to go at that point, and the boys did SO well. I was so, SO thankful for their behavior, because it could have been much worse. They were near angels given the circumstances, and I just had to keep chasing them around our seating area. I'd take that over crying and whining ANY day! Around 9:25 PM, Ryan finally pulled up. I cannot begin to express the relief that washed over me when I saw him! I asked a lady nearby if she would mind watching the carseats while I rook out the boys and the suitcase. She kindly obliged, and we headed out.
We still had an hour and a half drive home, but at least we were out of that airport! Despite his early morning, Abe jabbered the entire drive home, while Charlie fell asleep.
Today, the whole traveling fiasco was finally put to rest when I met my mom in Rockford to exchange vehicles. Oh, yes, I forgot to mention that when Ryan tried to head back from Peoria a few days prior, our car wouldn't start. He had a mandatory training the next morning, so my parents told him to take their vehicle up to Wisconsin. Ryan's parents were able to take care of getting it to a repair shop during the intervening days, SO, we are now home in Wauwatosa with our own car, the airport craziness now just a memory. And what a memory it was!
Whew. Hopefully you made it. With that saga now behind us, I'll post pictures of our trip soon; it was such a wonderful time. Thanks for reading!
Wow! I'm glad you're home again and that your boys did so well through the whole thing. We just got home last night, and I'm thinking I hope we don't have to fly anywhere for a while - and our trip even went without a hitch!
ReplyDeleteps - happy birthday!
love Meg