Hi followers…all 3 of you. I know that is an old line, but it is true in this case!
It has been a while, hasn’t it? We have just returned home from 4 weeks visiting family/friends in the US. What a long trip! The whole being there was great, but the whole 26+ hours of travel each way, well I could have done without that. I hope in my lifetime I see a contraption that will let me snap my fingers and it will transport me to the other side of the world. Hey, if we can send people to live on the moon, why couldn’t there be a transporter!?
Where to start? I guess the beginning is as good as any! Our flight from Brisbane to LA was so smooth, and Nicklas was so great, things could only get worse from there. We were flying standby from LAX to ATL, which I had assumed would be no problem. Well, 2 missed flights later, we’re finally the last 2 people to get on board an ATL-bound flight. I was starting to panic though, because we’d been awake 24+ hours, we had a baby in tow, and we didn’t know if we’d even get to ATL that day or have to stay in the airport or find a hotel for the night. It was so stressful by the time we did get on the plane, I felt nauseous the whole way.
Our stay in Atlanta was short, but a great time hanging with old friends. I wish they didn’t live so far away. The saying “Its such a small world” seems so contrary when your loved ones live on the other side of the world.
Our flight from ATL to DTW was smooth and Nicklas slept the whole way! It couldn’t have been more perfect. We spent 2 1/2 weeks with family/friends in the Detroit area, including a 2 night stay in Shipshewana, Indiana (Amish/Mennonite country) and a 3 night stay “up north”. “Up north” refers to Houghton Lake, where my husband and his siblings grew up spending their summers. I am so glad I got to experience it for a long weekend and wish we had somewhere like that Nicky could spend his summers growing up. The boat…the lake…grilling out…it was so peaceful and relaxing.
We also had a first birthday party for Nicklas in Detroit which was a blast. Nicklas had his “smush” cake, a small chocolate cake that he got to devour himself. I think the idea is that the baby usually just smushes it all over their face and drops half of it on the floor. Only noone told Nicklas that, and he ate almost half the bloody thing before I took it away from him! He was also spoiled rotten and I don’t have to buy him any more clothes until he’s at least 3!
My brother-in-law, Joe, interned at THE Joe (home to the Detroit Red Wings) last year and the day before we left, he scored us a private tour of the arena. When we got there, it was going to be just a regular tour, as no one that Joe knew high enough to get us in all the “good” places was around. Or so he thought! Turns out his former boss was there, and upon finding out Joe was in the building with his family, the REAL tour began! The Red Wings locker room, usually off limits to all tours (“I haven’t even been in the locker room!” said our tour guide), was opened especially for us, as well as the Owner’s Suite (and the owner’s private suite inside that suite!), not to mention a couple of other private suites, the Olympia Club, and the Ledgends Club. This might have been the highlight of the whole trip! We got to take Nicklas’ picture in Nick Lidstrom’s locker room! Very fun!
The time finally came to say goodbye though, and we headed off to DTW for our flight to LAX (via DFW). The flight left exactly 1 hour behind schedule, and arrived 25 minutes late to DFW. Long story short, we missed our connection to LAX and what followed was a debacle. We were at the gate at the schedule departure time, but they had obviously given our seats to stand-by passengers and closed the flight so it could push back on time. We were told the best they could do was put us on stand-by for the next flight. We never got higher than #10 and #11 on that list, and were bumped to the next flight. We also missed out on that one. It was getting to the point where I didn’t know whether to scream or cry, so I screamed then cried! We had scheduled a 6 hour layover in LAX to make sure we had plenty of time, but if we didn’t get on a flight soon, we’d miss our flight home to Australia. When an American Airlines CSR looked up our options, his response was “Well there’s a flight from LAX to BNE tomorrow night.” That is not good enough. Not when YOU’RE the one who screwed up! I was not looking forward to spending the whole day in DFW to try and get to LAX, or the whole night and next day to hope we got on the flight to Australia the next night!
My husband finally spoke to a CSR who was a huge help. He dropped the “sitting around with a 1 year old is not easy” line and wouldn’t you know it? We were on the next flight and had to book it to the other side of the airport for a flight leaving in 20 minutes. We made it. Thank God, too, because our flight from LAX to BNE was 100% booked, so who knows if we even would have gotten the flight the next night?
Nicklas was a gem on the long-haul flight. I am so lucky to have a funny, smart, happy-go-lucky kind of kid. And I can’t believe he turns 1 on Tuesday!
Enough for now, but it won’t be as long between posts again, I promise!
