Everyday Lunasea

So last night we made it home.

Because we are travelling at peak times, and we are paying for four tickets, we try to get the lowest fares. This means staying an extra day or two, and, flying out on a late flight on Sunday. Big mistake. Note to selves: next time, cough up the extra bucks and fly out early in the day.

I'd rather get up at 5am than take another 5pm Sunday flight. And that's saying a lot.

For one thing, you sit around all day with your bags packed and nothing to do. For another thing, flights are more likely to be late. Ours was delayed about half an hour. And then, because it's late, we had to sit on the tarmac when we arrived for another half an hour waiting for our gate to be available. Not the worst thing in the world, unless you're trying to calm a cranky, tired, and very loud 20-month-old who is causing the collective blood pressure of the passengers to rise exponentially. I'm used to people smiling at us when they see Ben. That didn't happen so much on this flight.

And, because flights are delayed, the baggage handlers are too busy. We got to the baggage claim area to hear an announcement that there was a minimum 45 minute wait for baggage.

The announcer got progressively more and more defensive: "Step away from the carousels! No bags are coming! You will be alerted when luggage is arriving! Please be patient! I only have one baggage handler per carousel!"

And we got a lesson in baggage handling logistics: "There are only so many baggage handlers and they have to take your luggage off your flight and then get the departing flight's luggage on the plane so it can depart! Then they can load to your luggage!"

"There are 17,000 people travelling through this airport and all of them have luggage!" OK, lady, geez. It seemed to me that people were actually being quite patient. I mean, what are you gonna do? Besides, I was feeling like da bomb because I had single handedly gotten all our luggage (we were lucky - our flight was one of the first to arrive) off the carousel and onto our cart while G went to get the car.

A. serenaded the passengers with a medley of holiday tunes, going from "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" to "Jingle Bells" and ending with some original tunes, including "Snow is Slippery, Just Like You." That last one is a particular favorite of mine, and he knows it, so he sings it often.

So no one threw up, no one had diarrhea on the plane (although A. had to go potty right before take-off, despite our continued explanations that he should go in the airport - nothing will make that kid go before his bladder is about to pop- and the attendant let him use the airplane potty really really fast), and I don't think our holiday will go down as one of the best Thanksgivings ever, but hey, it could have been worse. I think.

Did I mention that it stormed the entire time we were up there? I suppose our flight could have been cancelled. That would have been worse.