Travel Woes and Wonders

It's been nearly a week since the family left for Alabama and my brother's wedding. It's taken me that long to recover from the trip and finally share my experiences.

Things I learned on my first cross-country travel experience with the family:

1. Cheaper isn't better
The hotel we stayed in the night before our 6 am flight was cheap (under $50) but definitely not better. The noise from neighboring rooms and the really bad mattress led to all of us getting little sleep the one night we stayed. Our "early bird breakfast", the brown bag breakfast to replace the continental one in the lobby consisted of a granola bar and cheese and crackers package. Not enough for this mama to live on in a morning. Top it off, our shuttle back to the hotel from the airport took 45 min for a 10 min drive! Tony and I already scoped out the hotels that were closer to the airport and the ones we saw the vans for most frequently while waiting.

2. You can't predict the weather
Our flight to Alabama (with a layover in Dallas) left on time, but due to thunderstorms we were re-routed to the south and then east over Arizona and New Mexico. As we got closer to Dallas, thunderstorms were preventing flights from landing and we were out of fuel from the re-route so we couldn't just hang out waiting. We were diverted to land in Waco, then Waco airport was closed due to thunderstorms, so we landed in Ft Hood. What we thought was just a quick re-fuel landing turned into a 4 hour stay at the Ft. Hood airport until Dallas opened again. By the time we got into Dallas, our connecting flight and all other flights that afternoon were canceled. The airline was wonderful with getting us hotel discounts and already had us booked on a flight out the next morning. The biggest problem? We would be late for the wedding. We just did the best we could with the thousands of other stranded travelers in the city. We were able to finally get a hotel that was awesome with great beds, lots of pillows, and no room service. We were able to relax and eat somewhat hot food at 9:30 that night after being awake for 17 hours straight.

3. When it's important, people are flexible
Due to our delay in Dallas we were late to my brother's wedding. He wanted me there so much, he told everyone invited and involved to show up an hour late. Our family showed up, changed clothes, and saw the entire wedding. It was great to see everything and have the boys be ring bearers in the wedding. Though we were worn out and drained, the wedding was nice. Want pictures? Check out my facebook. The boys (all three) were adorable!

4. When you're expecting the worst, you are pleasantly surprised.
After all the problems getting to Dallas, Tony and I were expecting all sorts of issues getting to Alabama. We assumed our flight would be over-booked, our luggage lost, and the kids would be cranky. The boys were wonderfully behaved on all the flights. We had minimal fussing and Carson even fell asleep and napped! When we arrived in Alabama, not only was the flight on time, but our luggage and car seats showed up! It was just so nice that after all the anger and frustration of the first flight to have everything to the way it was supposed to.

We plan to fly to Arizona to visit Tony's parents sometime next year and hopefully we'll remember what we learned this trip to make it easier.