Flight benefits can be the best part of a job with an airline.  They can also be a tease.  You plan a trip and a flight is wide open.  Then the day comes to leave and you can't get to your destination.  Or, like our trip to Disney last year, you visit 3 airports to make a trip happen.  For this trip to Paris, there were over 100 seats open to Paris AND for the return flight.  I was confident I would make the flights.

When flying international, the real gamble is, will you get Delta One?  If you win at this gamble, you win big.  If you lose, well, you still land in Paris.  The odds were in my favor on this trip.  There were 8 seats up front and I was number 1 on the list.  Fingers crossed!

A few things to keep in mind.  Even if you are number 1 with 8 seats in Delta One, you could still get put in the back because of "weight distribution."  It's also at the discretion of the gate agent. This is part of why we dress up when we fly and why we are always on our best manners.  Oh, and I have NEVER gotten up front on a domestic flight.  The revenue passengers usually use their points to upgrade, and that's great! When we fly domestically I'm always just happy to get on the flight.

So, if you've ever wondered what Delta One on an international flight is like, this post is for you! Please keep in mind all the hours I log as a solo parent, all the Christmases we've celebrated on a day other than December 25, and the countless days that Rob spends away from us.  Believe me, I pay for this  benefit.  

Oh, and this flight was on the 767, which isn't even the best Delta One has to offer.  The new planes have the little cubicles where you get real privacy!

I watched the WORST movie on the flight over, Phantom Thread.  It was awful.  I mean, I'm kind of out of touch with movies now that I have kids and don't watch much tv, but this movie ranks up there with the worst I've ever seen.  After we landed, I looked it up and Phantom Thread was nominated for Academy Awards.  Were the other movies that bad this year?  

After dessert, my movie was over (thank goodness) I laid my seat flat, curled up under my duvet with my full sized pillow and went to sleep.   While I was sleeping, Rob took his break and I saw him  going back to the flight deck when I woke up.  

The next thing I knew, our amazing Delta pilots had us safely on the ground at Charles de Galle.  Rob was able to de-plane shortly after I did.  One totally unfair advantage that pilots have over us mere mortals is special customs and immigration lines in foreign airports.  My dear husband gave up that advantage and waited in the regular line with me.  Isn't he the best?

After about an hour in line, we were officially in France and found our way to the train.  Now, Rob wanted to pay $50 for an Uber. but  I said, "the train is $10 a person!"  I'm not sure why he let me win that one, but with minimal hassle we took the RER to Gare de Nord, and then another train to the layover hotel.  It was really very simple and I would do it again.  That $30 we saved buys at least 2 glasses of wine!

Our strategy was to get to the hotel and sleep for a few hours. Luckily our room was ready when we checked in around 10am and we were able to go right to bed.  I was surprised that we woke up at 1:30.  It was tempting to fall back asleep, but Paris was beckoning out the window!

Do you ever see something and wonder, why is that there?  It happens to me often.  Like in Boston, in our hotel room, on the back of the bathroom door was a bottle opener.  Why?  Did someone complain about not having a bottle opener and the hotel thought, well we can't just have one in the room, people will steal it. I know! Let's attach it to the back of the bathroom door! No place better!

With the mystery of the bottle opener lingering over us, we set off to explore the city.  First, breakfast at Au Bon Pain, because it was a short walk from our hotel and the hotel restaurant was expensive.  Our mission for the day was to walk the Freedom Trail.  This is a red line on the sidewalk that takes you through a lot of important historical landmarks.  You can pay to do a guided tour, or get the free app from the National Parks Service and do it at your own pace.  We took the second option and found the app easy to use and full of information.  

The Granary Burying Ground.  Founded in 1660.  Many notable American Patriots are buried here.  We spent about an hour in the cemetery.  I could have spent all day.  

Not an actual part of the Freedom Trail, but we walked past the Parker House Restaurant, where the Parker House Rolls were first served.  

Boston Latin School.  Founded in 1635, the first public school in the colonies.

Side note- we homeschool our kids with the "classical model" which teaches using the trivium and includes the learning of Latin.  This is also the model that was taught in the Boston Latin school, the first public school.  You would be hard pressed to find a public school that utilizes this method today.  

Old Corner Bookstore.  Built in 1718.  First used as a book shop in 1828, on the National Register of Historic Places.  Now houses a Chipotle.  

​The Old State House.  Built in 1712.  Site of the Boston Massacre (1770). Declaration of Independence was first read publicly in Boston from the balcony (July 18, 1776).

Faneuil Hall.  Built 1743 by Peter Faneuil.  Center of commerce, also Samuel Adams spoke here.  Nicknamed the "Cradle of Liberty."  Currently under refurbishment.

Paul Revere's House.  Built 1680.  Really cool to walk through, only $5 a person.  Parts are original, some parts were restored in the early 1900's.  No photos allowed inside.  

From this point, the Freedom Trail crosses the Charles River and takes you to the site of the Battle of Bunker Hill.  We had to cut our tour short, so we decided to leave the Paul Revere House and go for lunch.  

Ye Olde Union Oyster House.  Established in 1826, longest continuously operating restaurant in America.  Very good food.  

Rob and I committed the cardinal sin of site seeing.  We forgot that however far you walk away from your hotel, you have to walk back.  We headed back the 2 miles to the hotel so Rob could take a preflight nap.  I went to the hotel lobby, watched people and read a book.  It was a great day in Boston and I was ready for Paris!!

Usually Rob and I send the kids to Camp Hendrickson (aka the home of Rob's generous sister) in the summer so we can travel alone on a short trip.  This year, however, the summer is already packed to the gills so we weren't sure we were going to make a kid-free trip happen.  Then Jenni mentioned she had some paid time off she had to take or lose by the end of the school year.  Coincidentally, Rob had a great Delta trip scheduled in April, so before you could say "Eiffel Tower" we had our trip arranged.

Rob would be dead-heading (riding on a flight and not flying it) to Boston in order to fly to Paris.  Because of the FAA rules around pilot rest, they had to give him a hotel room the night prior.  In regular people language, this means we were able to fly to Boston on Sunday and Rob didn't have to work until Monday at 5pm. Awesome!  The flight from Cincinnati to Boston arrived at 3:30pm, so we would have more than 24 hours in Beantown.  More Awesome! AND since Rob was going to work, he had a guaranteed seat.  Most Awesome!

It turned out to be a really good thing that Rob had a confirmed seat.  When we arrived at the airport, the flight had 2 open seats and I was number 4 on the list.  Looked like I wasn't going to Boston.  Then, someone didn't show up, so the family of 3 ahead of me on the list got on.  Rob volunteered to ride in the jump seat in the cockpit and I was able to take his seat.  

After landing we took a Lyft to the hotel, dumped our stuff and headed to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, Legal Seafood.  I really miss good seafood now that I live in the Midwest, and getting my fix at Legal was priority #1.

Dinner was delicious, but very filling.  We decided to walk off dinner with a stroll the Public Garden.

On the opposite side of the garden from the restaurant was the Cheers bar.  Now, we knew going in it would be touristy.  But it was actually pretty cool to see.  It meant a lot more to Rob, because he's more that age.  Oh, and no one knew our names. 

After a wine flight and a beer, I was ready for bed.  It was a nice walk back to the hotel. It was even nicer to turn off my alarm because I could sleep in!

For a long time, Rob and I have been talking about me bringing the kids to one of his Florida layovers.  We homeschool so we can travel, right?  Why not take advantage of the free flights and the hotel room provided for the layover?  Plus, it's warm in Florida and still snowing here in Kentucky in April. Last week he had 20 hours in Fort Myers, so I decided to go for it. 

Initially the direct flight from Cincinnati was wide open, but as the time got closer, the seats dwindled.  But we had told the kids we were going, which meant I would have to take them through Atlanta.  My best shot at that was the 7am flight. Here's a little airport math. If you are leaving on a 7am flight, you need to be there an hour early (6am).  Factor in needing to park in the longterm lot (5:50) and the drive in from our house (5:30).  Then factor in the time it takes to wake up two 5 year olds, get them dressed, teeth brushed, and at least eating some cereal out of a cup (5am).  Now what time did I need to wake up? That's right 4:30am.  Ugh.

One fun thing about this journey is I was only packing 1 carry on for all three of us.  I mean, how much do you need for just one night? Turns out, a lot.  

With a final check of the flight loads, I roused the kids at 5am and got us all ready to go to the airport.  Time for an adventure!

We got to the parking lot right on time, and then had to wait 15 minutes for the bus to fill up.  Then there was a huge line at security and for some reason they didn't have TSA pre-check up and running.  This is why I try to be early.  When we got to our gate, the flight to Atlanta was boarding.  We got 3 seats together, no problem! Woot woot! Then we had a 2 hour sit in Atlanta, but for some strange reason they cleared the stand-by passengers an hour before the flight took off.  Usually, they don't clear people (give seats), until the flight is boarding.  It was nice for a change to know we were getting on ahead of time!

We landed in Fort Myers about an hour before Rob's flight from Minneapolis got in.  Just enough time to eat some pizza!  Then we waited for our pilot in the empty baggage claim area, where the kids blew off steam by running races.  When they finally saw Daddy, you would have thought they had been apart for ages, not just 3 days!  Then we hopped aboard the hotel shuttle bus and were off.  By 2:30 we were at the pool.  

The layover hotel is near a shopping center, so we took a short walk and had dinner at a local seafood place.  And beer was 2 for 1!

And then it was bedtime.  The kids were exhausted after getting up so early and swimming.  The next morning we had breakfast in the lobby and then headed to the airport for an 8am flight.  Since the direct flight to Cincinnati was also not looking good, we decided to hop on Rob's flight to Detroit and drive home with him.  The kids had never flown with Daddy as their pilot and it was a very exciting part of the trip.

But the adventure wasn't over yet.  We had to wait for Rob to bring around the car from the employee lot, so the kids and I rode the Detroit Airport Skytrain up and down the concourse.  

Then a short 4 hour car drive and we were home!  It was a whirlwind, for sure.  But it was nice to hop on a plane and see Daddy.  Oh yeah, and the sunshine didn't hurt!

While I was enjoying the Raytheon Character Breakfast, Rob was stressing about how we would get home.  If you remember, we flew into Tampa because we couldn't get into Orlando International.  Well, we couldn't get out of Orlando International either.  And we couldn't get out of Tampa.  But we could get out of Fort Myers.  

After checking out of Shades of Green, we drove our rental car to Tampa and exchanged it for another car.  Why? Because they wanted $300 to switch it to a Ft. Meyers return.  The second car cost us $40, so we saved a lot with the extra driving.  By this time we were starving and Rob wanted some fresh seafood, so I pulled up the Google Maps on my phone and found a seafood place near the water that got great reviews.  

When we pulled into the parking lot for The Getaway Waterfront Tiki Bar we were not impressed.  I was down right frightened, actually.  There were no spots, lots of containers, and nothing that looked like a restaurant.  Then Rob found a small sign pointing to the restaurant and we walked along a sandy path.  The restaurant was so awesome.  It sits right on the water.  Some of the tables are on the pier and are just chairs facing the water.  It was totally relaxed, and just what we were looking for.

The food was great, fresh, local seafood and the view was spectacular.  So after our brief respite, we drove on to Fort Myers and eventually got a flight home.  It was an interesting ending to an outstanding trip.  I share this to illustrate that the pilot-family lifestyle isn't always sunshine and rainbows.  Sometimes you have to get creative or you will be stuck in the airport.  And sometimes there are no options and you are just stuck at the airport.  Luckily, thanks to flexibility and Google maps we were able to turn this one into a traveling win!

Unfortunately, our time at Disney World had come to an end.  It was a busy trip with lots of firsts, some great park time, good food, and even better snacks.  Not that its a competition, but this trip will be hard to beat! Thanks to Shades of Green and a company called Raytheon, there was one more cool thing for this trip.  

The event was described as a Character Breakfast, but it wasn't a character breakfast in the true sense of one.  The event was sponsored by Raytheon (a DoD contractor) and was open to all guests at Shades of Green.  It took place in all the ballrooms in the hotel lobby.  Breakfast was a line outside, where everyone was given a small Raytheon cooler and a bevy of breakfast snacks.  Clementines, cheese sticks, packaged muffins, yogurt, juice, cereal bars.  It was kind of odd, but free, and there was coffee.

The main event, however, were the characters.  There were two rooms, each room having the set up for four characters.  But some of the characters rotated in and out, so you could meet more than just 8 characters.  Anna and Elsa, for example, shared a backdrop.  So we met one, got back in line and met the other.  Since the event was limited to SoG guests, the lines were very short.  

I have to take my hats of to Raytheon, SoG and Disney.  These were the official Disney characters, including their handlers.  All of the guests at SoG are associated with the military.  The kids in these families sacrifice A LOT because of their parent's service.  Moms and Dads miss birthdays, holidays, ball games, swim lessons, bruised knees, wiggly teeth, and plain old Saturdays with cartoons and snuggles.  I told my kids that the Disney characters heard about how brave the kids are when their parents are gone and they just wanted to say "Thank You" and that was truly the feeling in the air that day. Plus the food and check in table were all staffed with volunteers from Raytheon.  And almost every one of them thanked us and made sure we had everything we needed.

So, enjoy these photos of my kids with a smorgasbord of characters!

Notice how Ryan isn't in a single photo with a Princess? He's 5 and already too cool for them.  Where does the time go?