We left Maui at 9:05pm and arrived in LA at 5:02 am, which was really 2:02 am Maui time. Baby Bug did not sleep the entire flight. She wasn't bad, necessarily, but she wasn't great. There was no crying or screaming, she just couldn't sleep. For 5 hours it as "Mommy, Mommy, Daddy, Daddy" and a constant shifting between laps. Her brother was a champ and slept the whole time. Daddy got maybe an hour's worth of sleep while I tried desperately to snooze while holding a squirming toddler. Needless to say that did not work out so well. I finally resorted to the ipod the last hour letting her watch her beloved "Caillou." Wish I had thought of it sooner.
We arrived at LAX with no problems. Slightly grumpy, very tired, and hungry, but no problems. We made our way to the bathrooms, out of security to find our new terminal, and back to a new check-in with a new carrier (that's what I get for going budget), and back into security. Somehow in our travels we ended up in the business class section for United and the lady let us use their kiosks for checking in and we used their security check in line. At the time in my sleep deprived haze I didn't realize we were in the wrong line and told Will we should travel United more often since it was our easiest check-in yet. He informed me that we were in the wrong line and things are always better when you fly first class or business. Huh...it's a whole new world and it's so accommodating! Of course we did not have business seats, just checked in at the wrong place :)
After finding our gate, we did the usual, allowed the kids to run around the almost empty gate, ate some breakfast and took turns snoozing. We even popped in a DVD for the kids. Our flight was supposed to leave at 9:50. Around 8:30 we made sure to do another diaper change for Bugs, and made sure that Boogie used the bathroom. I fell asleep on the seats while Hubby took care of that. For some reason he arrived back around 9:15...or maybe I was just sleeping heavily. I got up, looked around, and didn't see any agents, people lined up or an airplane at the gate. I went to the bathroom and did another check on the screens for departures.
ARGGGGHHHH!!! We were no longer departing from Gate 70A as per our tickets, but now switched over to Gate 83. When did that happen? We never heard an announcement (not that they didn't give one, we just never heard it!). I threw all of the stuff we had strewn out of the bags: dvd player, headphones, DVDs, pillow pets. I told Hubby we had to book it to Gate 83. He offered to go ahead and check things out and come back and get us. I told him that we didn't have time and it was better to all go together. Boy am I glad that we did. And boy am I glad that I work out! I grabbed the double-stroller with all our carry-on crap and booked it down the hall. Hubby had Bug and Boogie followed behind us. At one point, Hubby had to carry both kids because they couldn't keep up. I flew down the hallway to find out, yes, indeed, they had changed our gate, and yes, indeed, they were already boarding!
How is it possible to have an almost 5-hour layover and to still almost miss the flight home? I swear my life is like sitcom and everyone else is laughing but me ;) Hubby checked us all in, grabbed the kids, and all of the carry-ons and boarded the flight (not an easy task). I stayed behind at the gate to gate-check the double stroller and to struggle putting it in the stroller bag. Thank goodness a very nice TSA lady helped me by keeping the bag open while shoved the stroller in it. Hubby wanted to pitch the bag from leg 1 of our journey, but I insisted on keeping it and being the one to struggle with it the next four flights (to Maui and back). I'm glad that I did. The stroller bag took a beating and was ripped in some places, but the stroller itself is still in good condition. I don't care if the bag is beat up, as long as my stroller is fine :) Priorities, priorities :)
Well we made it home. Everyone was able to sleep the second leg of the journey home. We grabbed dinner on the way home and walked in our door at 8pm our time. After our flights, it was a beautiful place to be...now if only I could sleep at night...still jet lagged :)
No comments:
Post a Comment