Monday, May 14, 2012

To Boston

It took me 8 1/2 years of being a mother before I had the courage to take one of my kids on an airplane.  Maybe it was not lack of courage so much as it was lack of opportunity, ambition, interest and purpose.



Our parents and most of our siblings live in our city, so we don't need to fly anywhere to see them.  Besides that, I am just not a huge traveler.  Traveling by air requires time, money and well...getting on an airplane.  My personal opinion is that if you can drive somewhere in less than 10 hours, you are better off just driving instead of flying.  I feel weird when I fly- like I am going to pass out or something.  Besides that, it is so annoying!  All of the security, shoe removal, stuffing your bags in overhead compartments, paying to check luggage- all of it is just annoying.  After driving to the airport, parking your car (or arranging for drop off/pick up), getting through security and your gate and then doing the same on the other end, well, it still takes most of a day.

I also get annoyed by people who break the rules when they fly, making it inconvenient for everyone else.  All of these people have gigantic carryons, which are bigger than the printed measurement rules.  No one cares, however, and the airlines just let them get away with it.  Those of us who don't fly very often and think that the rules are rules and not negotiable, bring smaller carryons and then have to try to stuff them between these huge suitcases.

But I digress.

Noah had to go to Boston for work, and so I decided to bring Everyn and go along for part of the time.  I did look into bringing all of the kids and driving, but that seemed like too daunting of a task.

It took a lot of time to get a schedule/babysitters lined up for the kids and to get everyone packed and ready to go.  I worked Thursday night shift, got home and we finished packing everything up and preparing for the babysitter.  We gave instructions to the babysitter and were off to the airport (yes, without any sleep for me. Yet.)

We had decided to park our car, but of course we were out of gas.  There was a moment (or two) of panic as we realized that we needed to stop, or else I would have to try to find a gas station at 2300 when I got into the van to go home.  There are not very many gas stations around the airport, but we finally found one, parked the car and took the shuttle over to the airport.  That was our first time getting baby, stroller, luggage on and off of public transportation and it wouldn't be our last.  Thankfully we were still in the midwest and so we had friendly, helpful, tolerant people around as opposed to serious, unhelpful, hurried folk.

Security was fun.  Shoes off. Pockets emptied.  Stroller collapsed. Luggage Pushed through.  Baby carrried.  On the other side: shoes on, pockets filled, stroller expanded, luggage collected.

We grabbed overpriced airport food because we realized that in the rush of the morning we hadn't eaten.  I dozed while we waited to board. Finally we got on the plane and the plane started to move.  Everyn wanted to eat so I nurse her, but it took so long to actually finally take off that she was done before we had left the ground.  At least she was quiet.  She nursed/used her pacifier most of the flight and I lightly slept for part of the time.  I sat by the window, Noah sat in the middle and then this young boy sat next to Noah.  Turns out that the boy is actually the son of a lady that Noah plays broomball with, so they chatted a little.

We had a short layover and boarded our next flight which was also uneventful except for the fact that Everyn nursed and nursed and I didn't get much sleep.  We landed in Boston and found the correct bus to get to our hotel.  That was another interesting public transportation experience while carrying all of our stuff.  How do people do this on a daily basis?  I know that they aren't carrying luggage all over, but still!  Getting on and off of buses with babies and bags is hard!  I kind of like my minivan.  And my garage. And parking lots.

We got to the bus station place and walked a couple of blocks to our hotel.  It was so nice to arrive and put everything down!  Everyn enjoyed laying around on the bed and kicking her legs.  Noah went out and got some food and brought it back to our room.  I was extremely exhausted due to not really sleeping for 36 hours, so I crashed pretty quickly after that.
End of Day 1.

 

3 comments:

Unknown said...

1st off...don't have things in your pockets when you go to the airport...wear shoes that are removed easily...
You are well on your way to fly to visit me...good news in the airports here you don't have to take off your shoes, etc...

Johanna said...

I once took my youth pastor and his wife and FOUR little boys to the airport...and marveled that they were able to manage all the stuff AND the kids with just the two of them!

I love to travel, but it's just me--and that's quite easy to manage :)

Unknown said...

So...the question is, will you fly again?