Adventures in Airline Travel

Over Memorial Weekend, my son rode on an airplane for the first time.  We went to visit some friends in a northern state and had a layover in Minneapolis on the way there.

I intentionally got wing seats so that he could see how everything worked. 

First the noise as the landing gear deployed.  Big eyes.  “What was that?!” 

The older lady next to him smiled and answered, “The landing gear.” 
“What’s landing gear?”

“The wheels for the airplane to roll on when we get on the runway,” I answered.

“Oh.”

The flaps came up.  “Mom, look at that.  Why’s it doing that?”

Here’s me hoping I understand the mechanics correctly.  “The flaps come up to create drag.  Do you know what that is?”

“No.”

“Do you know about friction?”

“Yes.”

“It’s kind of like friction.  The flaps come up and it creates a kind of friction and helps slow down the airplane.  Then there is less pressure on the brakes and they last longer.”

“Oooh.”

I think this may have been the most exciting part of the flight.  It’s very cool to see how things work.

On the way back, we got to experience other new things....

The flight out of Michigan was first delayed due to weather in Chicago.  About 4 hours after we were supposed to take off, our aircraft finally arrived.  It had been grounded at O’Hare because of the storms. 

The aircraft landed and the agent reiterated that it would be 15 minutes and we’d be boarding.  Five minutes later, he came back on the speaker and announced that it would be another 45 minute delay because all flights at O’Hare would be grounded. 

This is a big bummer because my son was already about to go stir crazy after 5 hours in a little airport with nothing to do.
During this time, I went to the desk several times and asked about our connecting flight to Denver.  “Well, your flight doesn’t show delayed but all the other flights show delays because of weather so you’ll be fine.  It’ll be delayed.”

Finally, the announcement, “Ladies and Gentlemen, Flight xxxx with service to Chicago O’Hare will begin boarding [pause] NOW!”  People literally ran to queue up.

Got to O’Hare.  Learned that the flight to Denver not only already left but that it would be Wednesday morning (this was Monday night) before we could get a guaranteed flight out of Chicago.  Ok.  Put us in the queue for standby.  Missed the last flight of the night by 3 people.

Headed out to ticketing to find out about a hotel.  I must have looked like a complete crazy person.  That agent took one look at me trying to tell him what I needed while trying to keep my son off of the baggage scales and started typing.  “I can get you a room x distance away for y dollars or one much closer for $10 more.” 

Me:  “Give me the closer one.  Son, I told you to get off the scale.”

Agent:  “It’s a crazy night.  With the President coming in after the storms let up, things have gotten pretty backed up.”

Kid:  “But, Mom, I want to see how much I weigh.”

Me:  “These scales are only for baggage.  Not for people.”

Agent:  “Do you have boarding passes for tomorrow so that you can get through security for standby?”

Me:  “No.”

Agent:  “Ok, let me get those for you.  It’ll be better for you in the morning.”

Me:  “Thank you.  Son, stop messing with the scale.”

Agent:  “Here’s all your information.  Go over there to get to Ground Transportation.  There’s a shuttle to your hotel.  Look for the shuttle with their name.”

Thankfully, the next morning the agent at the gate for the first flight out was able to confirm us on seats for the afternoon... and then she pulled out her magic wand and got us the last 2 seats on the morning flight.

Adventures in airline travel.... Thankfully the most memorable part of kiddo’s first trip was not the stress of flying through O’Hare but the great people he got to meet in between the trip up and the trip back.