Every year we journey across the pacific enduring 14 grueling hours of flying followed by hours of layovers with three kids in an airport; we brave customs and the Atlanta airport (which is no small feat) to come home to Georgia to visit family and friends. This year's pilgrimage began much the same, with the exception that we flew Air Canada to save quite a bit of money. Note to self: NEVER fly Air Canada to save some $$$. A full 5 days BEFORE the flight, somehow the airlines knew that the flight would be delayed by 4 hours, but still couldn't manage to rectify the situation. At least I was forewarned and didn't show up to the airport 4 hours too early! What this delay meant for us was that we missed our connecting flight in Toronto and had to spend the night in a hotel. Imagine 14 hours on a flight with 3 kids (did I mention that Lee didn't travel with us?) where they, blessedly, slept for most of the flight. This is followed by customs, the collecting of luggage and navigating a new airport with three kids in tow and then catching the shuttle to the hotel (again, not small feat!) at 11 pm. Then imagine getting to the hotel room at 12 am with kids whose bodies don't think it's time to sleep! For us it was time for lunch, not time to sleep. So, I did the only sane and rational thing that a mother could do and gave each child 1/3 of a tylenol PM, told them a Pipi Longstocking story to settle them in and we all enjoyed 3 hours of sleep. I should not fail to mention that I resorted to the Tylenol PM only after 2 hours of trying to manage them in the cramped hotel room, jumping from bed to bed.
For some reason, I held the deranged idea that the following morning's flight would actually be on-time. Silly Kitty, Trix are For Major Airlines!! Due to 'weather' in the originating city, our flight was delayed by three hours. This time we had no warning. We were sat helplessly watching as the flight continued to get later and later.
Luckily, we made friends at the airport, like we so often do, with a great guy named Chris. You know how your mom always told you "Don't judge a book by it's cover"? Well, Chris looked like a mean burly biker dude, but turned out to be a soft and cuddly tatted up biker dude.
He passed the time coloring carebears with the kids, taking Cooper to buy candy and eating pizza with us. The time passed a lot faster with a friend to hang out with.
We also made friends with a Chinese American family travelling from Shanghai to Chicago, where they live. As the mother was also travelling alone with small children, we had a lot to talk about. Her two girls were about the same ages as our kids and they got along really well. I was thankful for the added company as well as the insight I gained from chatting with the mother.
Thankfully, our flight from Toronto to Atlanta was relatively painless. We did have to wait for the aircraft to be refueled after we boarded. Getting to Atlanta was such a relief after 36 hours of travelling! Grandma and Pappou were happy to see us. They had patiently waited at the airport for 3 hours due to the delays that weren't announced until AFTER they had left their house!
Whew! With our luggage in tow, we made the one hour journey from the airport home, enjoying a stop at Sonic along the way for dinner.
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