"How was your flight?"
"Uneventful."
"That's exactly how we like them."
This is my standard conversation with Isaiah every time I pick him up from the airport. Then we proceed with "How was the event?" "How was the food?" "What fun things did you do in the evenings," etc.
I learned something from our flight home from Disneyland this past weekend: Never take an uneventful flight for granted.
We boarded our fight from LAX to Ogden through Gate 51. We had booked a 6:30 a.m. fight, because we wanted to get home early Sunday and have the rest of the day to rest, relax, regroup, and rejuvenate, before the start of our semester (both LDSBC and SLCC) Monday. Our airport shuttle service insisted on picking us up at 2:45 a.m. (yes, you read that right) for that 6:30 a.m. flight. It was overkill, but I'm sure they don't like being yelled at when traffic is heavy and people are worried about missing their fights.
We arrived so early that we had to wait two hours for Allegiant Airlines to even open its ticketing counter. My mom left us to catch her flight to Portland, and finally, the ticket counter opened and we passed through security and made our way to Gate 51. One problem, though. Nowhere could we find Diet Coke. Two restaurants were near Gate 51; both sold only Pepsi! Can you sense my frustration? There wasn't even very much good food around. I stood in a long line to get a croissant for Shulamith and a pastry for me, and water. Boring water.
But whatever. We'd be back in Ogden within a couple hours. No worries.
After a quick 90-minute flight, the captain told the flight attendants to "prepare for landing," and they instructed us to fasten our seat belts and make sure our tray tables were in their upright positions. Excellent.
Then we waited. Too long. Shulamith whispered to me, "I don't think we're landing. This airplane isn't landing."
Almost immediately, the captain came on again to inform us there was too much fog over the valley to safely land. "We're gonna just stay right here for awhile and hope the situation improves."
And we circled. For a half hour. Finally, the captain again: "The weather seems to have improved enough to try again, so please prepare for landing." Same deal with the seat belts and tray tables. Hooray! We were going home! We'd been up since 2:00 a.m. Two tired mommies and three very tired babies were going home.
Just kidding.
Once again, it was too foggy, and we began circling. For a half hour. Then suddenly there was a change. "Shulamith, we're not circling anymore. This plane is headed somewhere." And then the captain, "The weather is still unfavorable for landing, so we are going to Las Vegas to refuel."
Well, great. Las Vegas. Maybe we could at least get off the plane for awhile? Nope. Not allowed. But still some hope. Maybe they will refuel and take us home. Please let that be true!
After 45-ish minutes on the ground, we were off again, but not to Ogden. The captain came on again to report that the fog over the valley wasn't lifting, and the forecast was not favorable. So they were taking us back to Los Angeles and would try again tomorrow.
Tomorrow?!?!?!?!?! Nooooooooooo!
Keep in mind our situation:
1. We'd been awake since 2:00 a.m.
2. We had three children with us, ages 5, 3, and 6 months.
3. They were exhausted.
4 We were exhausted.
5. My semester began the following morning.
6. I wouldn't be there.
7. We were carrying three car seats, three strollers, four backpacks, and one oversized suitcase.
8. We are only two women. Pretty cool ones, but still.
We exited the plane through none other than Gate 51, the exact gate we boarded from A FULL SEVEN HOURS EARLIER.
We made our way to baggage claim, kids and strollers in tow, and plopped ourselves in a heap on the floor. One by one, I gathered the car seats and suitcase from the baggage carousel and added them to the heap. For a while we just sat there, trying to make sense out of what seemed such a hopeless situation, through the mental fog of exhaustion, surpassed only by the physical fog covering the Salt Lake Valley.
But in the face of adversity, Shulamith is always a girl of action, and not much gets her down. She got on her phone and began calling nearby hotels. "Do you have a room available? How much does it cost? Is there a free shuttle to and from the airport? Is there any food around?" So tired, we nearly forgot how hungry we were. Allegiant is cheap (think $70 round trip tickets), but they definitely don't feed you.
She found us a hotel with shuttle service, so we stacked car seats on top of strollers and carried children in arms as we made our way outside to the pickup area. In no time we were guests of a rather sketchy motel near the airport. It wasn't, like, terrible. But let's just say, one night there was plenty. Even the McDonald's across the street was crap. Cold fries and yucky Diet Coke. Which we ate and drank anyway because, by that time, we were absolutely ravenous. One good thing about the motel was the laundry facilities right near our room. You see, we had packed very light, knowing we'd be carrying so much stuff. We literally brought clothes for two days, and none of the five of us had one single clean article of clothing.
I bought some laundry detergent from the front desk, and we did one big load. Clean clothes never looked so good. And despite the less-than-favorable accommodations, we all slept unlike babies, meaning we slept well. In the morning, we once again moved all our stuff back onto the shuttle headed back to LAX. At one point it occurred to me that we were getting a hell of a lot of flying for our $70 tickets.
Through security once again, we made our way to.....you guessed it.....Gate 51. I felt a bit like I was in the movie Groundhog Day. Please let today's ending be different!
It was. The fog had lifted, and after another quick 90-minute flight, we finally landed at the Ogden Airport. We were home. Almost. We drove through Wendy's and bought big burgers and fries and Diet Cokes and frosties for dessert.
And here's the thing: Even with foggy endings, grace flows. We came home to cloudy skies and the most lovely rain. I really believe it was a gift from Heaven just for me.
That's the story. Oh, and you'll notice there are no pictures with this post. That's because through two days of relentless travel, we both looked like homemade sin, and while Shulamith isn't even a fraction as vain as I am, even she wouldn't have wanted any pictures. So instead, look at our cute pictures from the previous two days in Disney.
Magic! With a slightly foggy ending.
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