I am a very sleepy girl today. We had one of those travel days yesterday, where what should have been a smooth 4 hour journey ended up spanning 15 hours. You heard me right- 15 hours!
And what really stinks? It was pretty much my fault.
Giddy with vacation belly tickles, we got to the airport yesterday at a respectable 1.5 hours before our 12:30 flight was set to depart. When I entered our tracking number into the check-in kiosk a message popped up saying "you must check in within 30 minutes of your departure, and that time has passed."
Huh?
Thinking there must be a mistake, we went up to the counter- only to learn that yes, the itinerary had changed, and our flight left almost a full hour early. How could I have missed that?
I had printed out our initial itinerary right when I booked the trip back in June, and yes- I had gotten a couple emails from the airline confirming the reservation, etc, but didn't ever have the thought that maybe the times had changed - I just thought these were typical confirmation emails. Wouldn't you think for a flight being changed to an hour EARLY departure they'd put in the email subject line in bold caps "YOUR ITINERARY HAS CHANGED!" You better bet from now on I will always, always double check our itinerary the day before we go anywhere.
The next flight we could get booked on left Austin at 7:30pm, connecting in Dallas and getting us into Albuquerque around 11:30pm. That's when the tears started. That was a LONG time to wait, and chopped off an entire day of our vacation. The option existed to try to fly stand-by prior to that (on completely oversold flights), and honestly I was in the mindset that going home and napping sounded best. However, since I had already messed up the travel arrangements, I deferred to what BC wanted to do- which was hang tight at the airport and try to make an earlier flight.
Side note: BC was SO amazing during all of this- it didn't even phase him. He wasn't upset with me or the situation and just took everything in stride. I am so lucky! Normally I am able to take airport delays in stride as well, but I think the pregnancy hormones coupled with my guilt at the mix-up created a perfect storm, and I was definitely tearful. So much so that BC gave me the temporary nickname "Ms. Mopey." Happily Ms. Mopey only stuck around for about an hour- it seemed feeding her worked well to diffuse the sullen mood.
And then miracle of miracles- we made the standby list on a 3pm flight to Dallas! I thanked my angels and we boarded the flight.
However, our next connection didn't leave Dallas until 8pm. And then at 7:30pm huge storms rolled into the Dallas area, temporarily closing the airport (isn't' this getting fun?). We had to switch gates & terminals a total of 3 times, and finally at 10pm we were able to board our final flight.
2 important things still needed to happen:
*We needed to get to the car rental company before they closed at 11:30 to have any hopes of getting to Santa Fe yet that night. Otherwise, we'd have to grab a hotel in Albuquerque and pick up our car in the morning.
*We also had no idea if our luggage was already at the airport or when it might arrive.....
We landed at 11pm and started to taxi to our gate. BC and I decided to divide and conquer- he'd grab a shuttle to the car rental office, I would look for luggage.
And folks, we DID IT. Our luggage was not on our flight, but was on the very next one that arrived at 11:15. BC just made it to the rental company before they closed, and picked me and the luggage up at 11:30. Our original vacation giddiness was a tad muted at this point as we set off on the one + hour drive to Santa Fe.
At about 1am we checked into our hotel (keep in mind this is 2am Austin time!). I had already passed my exhaustion phase (sadly I am unable to sleep on planes), which meant I had a 2nd wind, and hence had a lot of trouble falling asleep in the new-to-me bed and new-to-me pillow/sheets.
As I was washing up, I noticed for the first time that I no longer had a belly button. I've been watching its transformation for awhile now, from a deep innie to a more and more stretched out innie, and somewhere between Austin and Santa Fe it completely disappeared. Flat, pale, nothing. So weird.
So today begins our first official day of vacation! It will be a very sleepy one, but we have until Saturday to get in our groove, nap, have massages, & just kick back.
Bring it!
And what really stinks? It was pretty much my fault.
Giddy with vacation belly tickles, we got to the airport yesterday at a respectable 1.5 hours before our 12:30 flight was set to depart. When I entered our tracking number into the check-in kiosk a message popped up saying "you must check in within 30 minutes of your departure, and that time has passed."
Huh?
Thinking there must be a mistake, we went up to the counter- only to learn that yes, the itinerary had changed, and our flight left almost a full hour early. How could I have missed that?
I had printed out our initial itinerary right when I booked the trip back in June, and yes- I had gotten a couple emails from the airline confirming the reservation, etc, but didn't ever have the thought that maybe the times had changed - I just thought these were typical confirmation emails. Wouldn't you think for a flight being changed to an hour EARLY departure they'd put in the email subject line in bold caps "YOUR ITINERARY HAS CHANGED!" You better bet from now on I will always, always double check our itinerary the day before we go anywhere.
The next flight we could get booked on left Austin at 7:30pm, connecting in Dallas and getting us into Albuquerque around 11:30pm. That's when the tears started. That was a LONG time to wait, and chopped off an entire day of our vacation. The option existed to try to fly stand-by prior to that (on completely oversold flights), and honestly I was in the mindset that going home and napping sounded best. However, since I had already messed up the travel arrangements, I deferred to what BC wanted to do- which was hang tight at the airport and try to make an earlier flight.
Side note: BC was SO amazing during all of this- it didn't even phase him. He wasn't upset with me or the situation and just took everything in stride. I am so lucky! Normally I am able to take airport delays in stride as well, but I think the pregnancy hormones coupled with my guilt at the mix-up created a perfect storm, and I was definitely tearful. So much so that BC gave me the temporary nickname "Ms. Mopey." Happily Ms. Mopey only stuck around for about an hour- it seemed feeding her worked well to diffuse the sullen mood.
And then miracle of miracles- we made the standby list on a 3pm flight to Dallas! I thanked my angels and we boarded the flight.
However, our next connection didn't leave Dallas until 8pm. And then at 7:30pm huge storms rolled into the Dallas area, temporarily closing the airport (isn't' this getting fun?). We had to switch gates & terminals a total of 3 times, and finally at 10pm we were able to board our final flight.
2 important things still needed to happen:
*We needed to get to the car rental company before they closed at 11:30 to have any hopes of getting to Santa Fe yet that night. Otherwise, we'd have to grab a hotel in Albuquerque and pick up our car in the morning.
*We also had no idea if our luggage was already at the airport or when it might arrive.....
We landed at 11pm and started to taxi to our gate. BC and I decided to divide and conquer- he'd grab a shuttle to the car rental office, I would look for luggage.
And folks, we DID IT. Our luggage was not on our flight, but was on the very next one that arrived at 11:15. BC just made it to the rental company before they closed, and picked me and the luggage up at 11:30. Our original vacation giddiness was a tad muted at this point as we set off on the one + hour drive to Santa Fe.
At about 1am we checked into our hotel (keep in mind this is 2am Austin time!). I had already passed my exhaustion phase (sadly I am unable to sleep on planes), which meant I had a 2nd wind, and hence had a lot of trouble falling asleep in the new-to-me bed and new-to-me pillow/sheets.
As I was washing up, I noticed for the first time that I no longer had a belly button. I've been watching its transformation for awhile now, from a deep innie to a more and more stretched out innie, and somewhere between Austin and Santa Fe it completely disappeared. Flat, pale, nothing. So weird.
So today begins our first official day of vacation! It will be a very sleepy one, but we have until Saturday to get in our groove, nap, have massages, & just kick back.
Bring it!
Good-bye innie! Soon you'll have an outie. It is the weirdest thing.
ReplyDeletePS Glad you made it safe and sound, enjoy your vacation!
Oh, yes-it will magically reappear like a headlight right there in the middle of your belly. *THAT'S* how you know you're getting close!
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your vacation because, it's trite but true-vacations are never so restful once there are kids involved!
Abby