We had a wonderful trip to Denver for Aunt Shelly's wedding -- once we finally arrived. Even though we are seasoned travelers and arrived at the airport with plenty of time, we missed our flight. Somehow in the craziness of traveling alone with all 6 kids (and their luggage in tow -- since Paul wasn't traveling with us, we couldn't use his frequent flier free checking of baggage privilege,) I didn't hear the announcement that our 7 AM flight which was leaving out of the very last gate in the Charlotte airport, had been moved to the next gate over. We were sitting right in front of what I thought was the correct gate for awhile, when I looked at my watch and wondered why there was not a gate agent at the podium. So I went over to the next gate and asked when our flight was supposed to start boarding. She said, "This is your flight."-- (Even though the lighted sign over her head did not list our flight) -- "You better hurry on because the doors are closing." Then she saw all the kids and their luggage, and their car seats, and the stroller and said, "No, you will not be making this flight."
The next flight we could get on was not until 2:30 PM. I tried calling Paul to see if he could break away from work and bring us home. No -- back to back meetings all day. So we spent the day at our home airport, which I have to say, is not very kid-traveler friendly. We finally get on a flight to Dulles, and when we arrived, we discovered that our flight to Denver had been cancelled for mechanical reasons. We then waited in a long line for a couple of hours so that we could be told that there were not any other flights available that day, no hotels available for us to stay in, and that they didn't know when we could fly out the next day because they had decided to create a new flight. We were supposed to wait a few more hours at the information desk while the airline figured out when this new flight would be departing. Luckily Paul's parents live in Maryland and they came and picked us up to stay with them for the night. I kept calling the airline, wondering when this "new" flight was going to be added. I just kept being told that there were no new flights, and that the only flight to Denver, on any airline, with any seats on it was leaving at 10:30 PM the next day. I finally decided to call back and take that flight. When the ticket agent looked up my reservation to move it she said, "Look, you have been automatically moved to a new flight tomorrow morning." I was glad to hear it and asked for the details. I was then told that I was on an early flight out of Charlotte, through Tennessee, to Denver. I then asked how I was supposed to get on a plane in Charlotte, if I was already in Washington D.C.? After much searching, she found that we could get on a flight to Chicago tomorrow afternoon that could connect to Denver. I decided to do that instead of taking the very late direct flight.
We spent a nice morning with Grandma Anderson, and then headed to the airport. I texted Shelly and said that we were coming to Chicago and that maybe we'd see her and Clark at the airport (not knowing that they were leaving out of the other Chicago airport.) She then replied saying that she hoped the storms passed before their flight. Sure enough, we arrive in Chicago and see on the departure board that at least 75% of the flights listed had been cancelled due to the storms. I couldn't believe our bad luck. Thankfully, our flight was not cancelled, only delayed by a few hours. We finally arrived in Denver -- only 36 hours after we were originally supposed to come.
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| Taegan, reading "Frog and Toad" books out loud to everyone waiting in line at the Dulles airport. |
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| Passing the time reading books, playing with an iPod Touch, and a DS. |
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Kelsye listening to her iPod while on baggage watching duty.
A couple of pictures from a quick trip to the park with Grandma Anderson before heading back to the airport.
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