Let's Get Out of Here

Vacation time!  

If you have read any of my past blogs you will remember that when we fly, travel days can be quite stressful. This trip would be no exception.  We knew the night before we left that we would not make the 9am flight to Atlanta.  Our best bet was an 11am to Atlanta with a 2pm connection to Miami.  We went ahead and booked our rental car.  We typically book a car either the night before or the day of our flight.  

An 11am flight means we needed to be at the airport at 10, which means leaving our house at 9:15.  Since we are all up at 6am, this was enough time for me to make pancakes and bacon, finish packing and have everyone dressed and loaded into the van at 9:15 on the nose.  Everyone includes Griffey, first stop, the doggy hotel!

We always have the same routine when we arrive at the airport.  First, we go to curbside check in and check the bags.  Checking bags is a risk when non-revving, but since this was a 9 day trip we had to risk it.  I cannot wait until the kids are responsible enough to pull a bag through the airport and we don't have to check anything! 

Next, I take the kids to security while Rob takes the car to the long term parking lot.  Since I have TSA precheck, the kids and I can go through the shorter line.  Then I take the kids to the bathroom and we all meet up at the gate.  Yes, it takes the same amount of time for Rob to park the car, ride the shuttle and go through security as it does for me to take the kids to the bathroom.  Sigh.

Here we are, waiting at the gate.

At this point, the morning had gone smoothly, so of course when Rob arrived he had bad news.  The flight to Miami had filled up in the last hour.  Our best bet was to switch to a flight to Fort Lauderdale, which had 60 open seats on it.  It would mean some fast finger work to switch the rental car, but Rob had it under control. And then I remembered, our bags were going to Miami!  

It was time to break non-rev rule #1, never bother the gate agent.  Rob spent about 5 minutes chatting to the man behind the counter.  The man put a note in the system but there was no guarantee that the change would happen given the busy nature of the Atlanta airport.  

Now here is where I give a huge plug for Delta Airlines.  Did you know that their app now offers bag tracking?  Yup!  The barcode tags that they put on your bag when you check it now has an RFID tag in it, which you can track through the Delta app.  So Rob pulled up the app and saw that our bags had been loaded onto our flight from Cincinnati to Atlanta.  Awesome! Time to board!

​We had a pretty easy flight from Cincinnati to Atlanta.  I was with Anne and Rob was with Ryan.

Once we were on the ground in Atlanta we took the train from one concourse to the other, stopping to pick up lunch on the way.  While we were waiting to board the flight to Fort Lauderdale, Rob checked the app and it said our bags were loaded onto the FLL flight.  Really?  How awesome is that???

This flight was wide open, so we actually got two rows to ourselves. Anne sat with Rob with a seat between them and I got to sit with this handsome fellow.  We each had an empty seat between us, which was nice.

This flight was on a super nice 757, Rob's airplane.  It had tv's in the seat backs, and if you haven't flown Delta recently, onboard entertainment is now FREE.  Yup.  My little dude is eating his lunch and watching Polar Express.  Sounds like a relaxing flight, right.  Wrong.  It was very bumpy. My stomach started to feel a little motion sick, so I turned off the episode of Downton Abbey that I was watching.  

Then I heard a snapping sound from Rob, Anne was making use of the airsick bag. Poor baby.  All I could do was pass tissues, paper towels and baby wipes up to Rob.  Such a helpless feeling.  Luckily she got sick while we were on approach to FLL and we were on the ground soon.  There we were, making our way through the airport with a 4 year old who was sick and needed to be carried and all our carry ons.  Not ideal.

Did you wonder why there were so many seats to FLL?  I didn't.  We flew down 6 days after the shooting that took place at the airport baggage claim.  When we got to baggage claim, the area of the shooting was still draped off with black cloth and we had to walk outside and around to the baggage claim carousel that was working.  It was a very solemn atmosphere, people quietly claimed their luggage and walked away.  

Normally when we fly, I stay with the kids and the luggage while Rob gets the rental car and we meet at the curb.  This time, neither one of us wanted to do that, so we all got on the shuttle to the car rental building.  All 4 of us.  And two suitcases.  And two carseats. And 4 carry ons.  With Anne still sick.  The shuttle was hot, full of exhaust fumes, and crowded.  It was a miserable 5 minutes.

The rental process was quick, the car seats were installed, and soon we were off to the Keys! Except Anne was still not feeling well and got sick into the only bag I had, a zip lock.  Which I then had to hold until we could get off the interstate and throw it away.  Gross!

We found a Panda Express for dinner.  Anne had plain white rice, which did the trick and we drove the rest of the way with no further incidents.  I think the drive is a little over an hour from FLL to Key Largo.  Of course there was a ton of traffic and it took us 2 hours.  But I would rather sit in traffic in Florida than traffic in Kentucky.  

At long last, we found the Key Largo Marriott and we could go to bed.  

Ah, the sleep of babes.  

Sorry this post was mostly text.  But really, did you want pictures of Anne being airsick?  The next post will have more pictures and no sickness, I promise.