A Trip to Remember

We had the opportunity to go back east to see my brother perform in an orchestra in the Kennedy Center.  The performance was Sunday at 4pm. We were flying in at 9ish pm on Sat leaving Great Falls at 11am.  It was a perfectly planned for naps, eating, and bedtime.  I should have known that it was going to be a LONG LONG day/night when Andrew noticed that he and I ended up on different flies out of Minneapolis.  This happened because we bought one ticket with frequent flyer miles and the other with cash.  Anyway, it was our fault and we were just going to do the best we could.  Andrew would have Drew and I would have Brynn.

Then the dreaded announcement came 20 min. before we were to depart that our plane had been struck by lightning and a mechanic was to be called to check things over.  Well, LONG story short we finally left Great Falls at 8:30 that evening headed to Minneapolis, once the manufacturers in Brazil okayed the repairs.  (SERIOUSLY??)  We had rebooked our tickets for the next morning so that we would arrive in back east at 10 am.and had arranged to stay at a hotel in Minn.

We were told (at 11:30 pm) when landing in Minn. that we would have to get our back at baggage claim 6 then recheck them in the morning. So we waited with Brynn in good spirits and Drew asleep in his stroller, and waited and waited. Nobody from that plane found their baggage on console 6.  Then an announcement was made that they could get our bags but they would "have to get them from the back and it may take a long time."  What the heck does that mean? The back of what?  THEN I overheard one of the passengers say that they were told their bags were down on console 13.  So I went down there to check it out, and sure enough, their bags were, but ours weren't.  We had considered leaving for our hotel but we didn't want a problem in the morning locating the luggage since our flight was at 7 and it was going to be an early morning. Anyway, we finally went to ask what we should do, where our bags were etc. and we were told that they would not be in baggage claim, that they would be all ready for us on the plane the next day.  Great! But really wish we could have known that an 1 1/2 hours ago.

Now it was 1 am and we were thinking about how by the time we got settled in our hotel and to sleep we would get less than 4 hours of rest since we had an early flight.  Earlier walking down to baggage claim we had noticed mats that we could use to sleep on. (Obviously this airport has a lot of 'sleepovers.' :)  So we went and found a "quiet, dark" corner to sleep in at our gate.  But as soon as we entered that space the lights flipped on...curses!  But the kids settled right down regardless of the bright lights and the blaring CNN news going on right above their heads. I had found one red Delta blanket for Drew to use while getting mats, and while sleeping, Andrew and I woke up to a nice airport worker putting blankets over Andrew and me also.

Well, we finally arrived to Washington, were able to take a shower in my inlaw's hotel room and were off to the show.  My inlaws watched the kids in my parent's hotel room that was right near the Kennedy Center, so it was a fun little date that Andrew and I were able to have. 

We spent the rest of the week with Andrew's parents and had a great time!  We went to the beach, the zoo, shopping, and to parks.  Our trip was less eventful coming home, thankfully!