****REALLY LONG POST: You might want to skim over this:), but I wanted it documented, so it's full of details
We got back from Atlanta on Memorial Day (yes, I'm just now getting around to posting about our trip!). It was somewhat of a last minute trip. For us, at least, we planned it about a month in advance. I'm normally planning a trip much further in advance. I wanted to see Jessica and her family, as well as some of my family, and John's family was looking for a place to go that was the same distance for everyone to travel (about 6 hours for us and about the same for his sister in NC). Anyway, we decided that Meyers and I would fly down one way, and that John (his family, too) would come down the next week for our little mini-vaca in Atlanta.
I was super nervous about flying by myself with Meyers. I was so worried she would melt down or get scared or have a blow-0ut, I mean, the scenarios with a 2 year old are endless. I scheduled the flight during naptime in hopes that she would nap. I was not thinking that we would be arriving in Atlanta during rush hour traffic. Traffic in Atlanta is ridiculous anyway, much less during rush hour. I felt super bad for Jessica who would be picking me up with her 2 year old and 4 week old. I know, she gets the good friend award!
Our flight was supposed to be leaving at 2:04. I wanted to get to the airport at 12:30. John told me he had to meet his boss for lunch that day, so he was going to have to take me sooner. I was not super happy about this, but what can you do? We got to the airport at like 11:30.
waiting patientlyWe made it through security in no time. Apparently there is not a lot going on at the airport at 11:30 on a Thursday. There were no problems at security, except my stroller wheel came off when they were giving it the run-down. The security girl acted like it wasn't a big deal, but it was my BOB stroller!!! I thought she broke it! She just hit a latch that unlocked the wheel. A nice man at security figured that out for me.
After that we had about two hours to kill. I was so stressed out. What was I going to do to keep Meyers occupied for that long???? Also, she is the pickiest eater ever. I knew she would probably not eat any airport food for lunch. But that was the only thing to do, so we went to Corky's (boo!) It was that or Popeye's. I'm sure you can why I chose Corky's. I don't even like Corky's restaurant ( I am a Rendevous, Central BBQ, Commissary kind of girl), much less in the airport! There was nothing for Meyers to eat there, so she ate Baked Lays and fruit snacks for lunch. Way to start off a trip, right?
Lunch took all of 20 minutes, so we went to wait at our terminal. Meyers LOVED watching the airplanes!!! We watched airplanes and did flashcards to pass the time. Around 1:30 or so, I went to change her diaper for the plane ride. Well we lost our seats, so we just strolled around in front of the terminal. Some friends have told me that they let you board first when you have a child with you. Well, no one told me that at the airport (even though the workers were right beside us when we were waiting), and I heard them say something about boarding early if you need to for special circumstances, but they were already for real boarding by that point.
watching airplanes
That 10-15 minutes of waiting to board on the little ramp were pretty terrible. You know how it gets all backed up and you are just standing there, well imagine you are holding a 30 lb two year old that doesn't want to be in their stroller, while holding onto your BOB stroller that is holding your heavy carry on, while holding onto your ticket and jacket (if I had only known how much work this would be, I would have never brought a jacket. I was a wet, hot mess thoughout this whole ordeal) with Meyers's backpack on your back while on a ramp. If you know anything about a BOB stroller, you know how easily they glide. I mean, it has a leash on the stroller. That's how easy it is. I don't run, but I bought it because it's a breeze to push. So imagine it on a ramp. I'm basically doing everything I can to hold onto Meyers and not let the stroller run over everyone in front of me. No one around me seemed to care. It was at that point, that I thought I might cry.....
But I didn't. We finally made it down the ramp part to where I was going to have to check my stroller. I had to put Meyers down, get the carry on bag out of the stroller, and fold up my stroller. I must have looked kind of frazzled because ONE man asked me if I needed help. Unfortunately, I was already done with the hard part. I would have gladly taken his help a few minutes back. So when I told him I was good, but thank you, my voice kind of cracked. I really was about to start crying now.....
But I didn't. I sucked it up. We made it onto the plane. My goal was to get to my seat and get seated ASAP before I started crying! I plunged through business class and hit probably every person on my right with my carry on bag. I really didn't care at that point. I was so mad that I was not able to board first. That would have prevented me hitting people with my carry on!
I find our seat. We have a window and someone is already in the aisle seat. I put Meyers in the seat behind him and try to quickly get the carry on off my shoulder and into the overhead bin. It does not go very quickly and everyone is staring me down for taking so long. I try to tell the man that we need to get in, and he won't even look up, so he doesn't hear me. Finally he decides to acknowledge my presence and he gets up. I collaspe into our seat and feel like I have just run a marathon. At this point, I am so relieved to be in our seat. The flight is leaving soon, and it's only 55 minutes. I know the Atlanta airport is a beast, and I'm not looking forward to that, but I can do anything for 55 minutes. So I start to think I might not need to cry anymore:)
Our flight was supposed to take off at 2:04. At about 2:2o, they come on and say that something is wrong and that a mechanic is going to need to look at it before we take off. About 15-20 minutes after that, they come on and say that the mechanic is 15-20 minutes away from our plane. It went on like this for 1 hour and 40 minutes. Again, I thought I am going to cry on this plane in front of all these people. But I didn't......Thank goodness, then I would have really looked crazy, instead of just feeling crazy. Yes, our plane took off 1 hour and 40 minutes after it was supposed to. So boarding about 20 minutes early + 1 hour and 40 minutes of sitting + 55 minute plane ride = almost 3 hours of sitting on a plane with Meyers in my lap.
Oh......I forgot to mention that part. Meyers just turned two. I did not want to pay for her a ticket. We missed the "cut off" by like 6 weeks. And she is really short (like 5th % short), so I figured she would be okay to sit in my lap. Bless her heart, she was AMAZING. She didn't cry or whine, but just knowing that the "other shoe could drop" any second stressed me out. And she didn't nap at all even though it was naptime. The man beside me (who didn't want to acknowledge my presence) earlier was pretty much like that the whole time. I wouldn't say he was unfriendly, but he was definitely not friendly. He kind of acted like we were a nuisance. I think his drink choice (scotch on the rocks that disappeared quite fast) when the drink cart came though summed up his feeling about sitting next to a two year old on a loooonnnnngggerrr than it was supposed to be flight. Everyone else complimented Meyers on how well she was doing and how sweet she was.....even the two college-aged boys in front of us, which I thought was nice because noticing how well a two year old is acting is not normally on college-aged boys radars.
only picture I got of Meyers on the planeFinally.....we made it to Atlanta. We waited for everyone to get off the plane. We picked up our stroller and headed to baggage claim. I'll spare you the details of how long that took. That airport is so stinkin' big!!! Apparently it took me so long to get to baggage claim, that my bag had made it off of the merry go round and was sitting in the airtran office. That would have been nice to know oh, say, 20 minutes earlier. So Jessica and I chatted while the girls sat on the nasty airport floor. What can you do at that point? We finally figure out my bag is in the airtran office. Good news is that it took so long with my flight delay, getting to baggage claim, etc, that we totally missed rush hour traffic and had a traffic-free commute back to her house.
waiting at baggage claim
they were so over it at this point!!
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