World Traveler
We just returned home from a 12 day vacation around Europe with Teri, Sam, and James. We spent some time in Heidelberg before going to Dachau, Salzburg, Eagle's Nest, and Rome. Teri headed home and then I took the boys to Paris and Versailles for a few days. We all had so much fun everywhere we went. I think I wore them out with all the walking! They were a great help with the baby, I couldn't have made it up and down all those stairs without them. Zoe of course slept through most of it. She was such a great traveler, never complaining - even if it meant spending hours in the stroller or Baby Bjorn. The vacation was fantastic up until the trip home. Sam, James, Zoe, and I traveled to Philly together. We said goodbye to Sam in Philly, and James and I took Zoe to the gate for our flight to Norfolk. When we got there, we saw the flight was delayed an hour, but we didn't mind - we were just excited to get home to see everyone. We got on the plane at 6, and taxi'd out to the runway, where we saw at least 30 planes ahead of us in a line. No one was taking off. It was then we were told a storm was passing through and we'd have to wait it out on the plane. Six hours on the runway, and we finally started to move. We thought for sure we were finally getting to take off when they announced we ran out of gas and had to go back to the gate. They told us to re-book our flights, as no flights were leaving that evening. It was after midnight, and I told James to run into the line to re-book, while I got on the phone. I figured working both ends might get us a flight sooner. James was such a trooper, he stood in line for 2 and 1/2 hours with Zoe, while I called family, hotels (no luck), and the airline. I got us re-booked on a flight for 4 pm the next day. While all this was happening, they made announcements like "all hotels in the Philadelphia area are booked" and "there are no more rental cars". I couldn't believe this. We knew what we had to do. We found a row of 4 seats without arms so James could lay down. I laid on the floor next to him, with Zoe curled up against my stomach. I looked at that floor, full of old band-aids, gum, little things that I'm telling myself were raisins, and who knows what else, and if I weren't so tired, I would have been sick. We finally got to sleep around 3, shivering because the air conditioning was turned up so high. Several people saw I had a baby and offered me their airline blankets for her, which I gratefully accepted. When I think back to that moment, with Zoe sleeping on that disgusting floor, I think she is the most amazing baby ever. Not one complaint. If there was ever a time to have a meltdown, that would have been it, but she never fussed. The next morning at 6 - which is just 3 hours after we fell asleep, I was awakened by a man holding what looked like a large ball of aluminum foil. He held it up and said, "for the baby, it's warm". I didn't know what to think, I partly thought I might be dreaming. (I realized an hour later it was an emergency blanket that the airport had handed out a few hours before.) I told him no thank you, and decided it was time to get out of that airport. I woke James up and told him we were going to try to go standby on every earlier flight to Norfolk. We got on the second flight out, a few hours before our scheduled flight. We were so happy to hear our names called to board, that we ran out the door and were in our seats in a matter of seconds. When we arrived in Norfolk, only 2 of the 4 suitcases were here, but just a few hours later, the other 2 were delivered to the house. After a long, hot shower, and a good night's sleep in a real bed, it's so nice to be home.
