Vacation to Bermuda - Day 1

Day 1 –

The day started out fabulous.  I dropped Julia off at daycare.  We had Lauren out last night so that she could come out to the school and see how the code works, where Jules goes in, and what the school is like.  Julia wasn’t so sure about Lauren being there at first, but warmed up just fine.  Then we went home and went over all the info.  Julia and Riley at dinner and were playing with us upstairs.  When Lauren went to leave, Julia asked to watch her drive away (“I see!!  I see!”) and then said “I sad.  My Lauren!  My Lauren!”  We talked about how Lauren would be picking her up at school and that we would be on a ship.  She totally got it and kept saying “Lauren pick me up?”  So when it came time to actually drop her off in the morning, she was ready, happy and didn’t even say “Bye!”

We arrived at my parent’s house around 8:30am and our Suburban arrived to take us all to the airport.  Was great to get a ride so we could just enjoy the trip.  We had printed our tickets out already so we just had to check one bag.  My parents needed to print their boarding passes and also check one bag. So we went to curbside check-in where Jeremy chose to hand the guy my ticket.  Turns out I had AAccess and was Priority Seating.  Must have been because we used our miles from our card to get the ticket??!!  So we were able to get both bags checked in for free under my name.  Was awesome!!

We went upstairs and went through the line to get into the airport.  Riley and Grandma went through together and all of us went through without any issues.  The guy checking in next to us was extremely tall and looked like he played for a basketball team.  So I asked “What team do you play on?”  He said “Milwaukee Bucks.”  I’m curious to figure out who he was.

We found our gate – C16.  And sat.  And sat.  The flight before us was running late.  They had loaded the flight, but they were sitting there for a long, long time.  Our flight time got pushed from 11:25 to 12:10.  Then 12:30.  Then 12:45.  Then 1:10. 

The American Airlines worker came over the speaker “We have the plane in Dallas.  It’s in our hanger.  We have eight or nine planes that have to come over.  And we are short on drivers.  But don’t worry – we’ll have you on your way.  Thank you again for flying with us.”

We all got lunch – Riley had McDonald’s for the first time with us!  She enjoyed her cheeseburger.  And she was such a trooper!  She loved being in the airport and she was pure joy the entire time – no meltdowns at all.  Riley colored and sat and played with her McD’s toy.  We also went to the window and watched the planes and talked about how she would get on, how we walk down a long hallway to the plane and then find our seats.  She was so excited to just watch them preparing the planes.

Finally, they announce that they are bringing an airplane from the hanger.  Riley announced to those around us “Ok everybody!  If you’re going to Boston with me, put on your shoes!  We’re going to Boston!”  The lady next to us chuckled.

About two hours late, they announced that we could board the flight.  Since I had priority access, all five of us were able to board the flight early.  We were all sitting in the same row which was great.  Originally our plane was to have three seats on one side of the aisle and two on the other.  The plane they had brought to us had three seats on both sides of the aisle.  As we’d had bad rain the night before, there were many cancelled flights so we’re assuming they brought a larger plane to accommodate more people.

Riley was excited to walk down the hallway to the plane.  She was so happy to get going.  We walked onto the plane, found our seats.  There weren’t any windows in our row, but we could see out the window in front of us.  It took some time for everyone to get settled and then the captain came down to talk to us.