Thursday morning, very early in the morning, we headed off to Atlanta and a Charles family reunion in the mountains of North Carolina. Even though we had to catch the 5:15 am train, instead of the originally planned 7:09 am train to the airport, we were all in good spirits and grateful we had any plane at all to catch. You see, lovely Lufthansa employees decided to strike a day or two before our flight. Chris had signed up for email updates on our flights, so we knew that our first flight, from Zurich to Frankfurt had been cancelled. But we were immediately booked on a Swiss flight instead, and there were no worries. It was earlier, but at least the flight from Frankfurt to Atlanta was still good.
Chris left at 8:30 pm Wednesday to check us and our luggage in, to save us from lugging that and all the tired kids the next morning on the train. We can do that here in Zurich, yet another reason why I love this city. There were quite a few people in line and it was taking quite a bit longer than he had originally planned. When it was finally his turn, it was almost 10:00 pm and the airport was slowly shutting down. The lady then calmly informed him that the flight from Frankfurt to Atlanta had been cancelled due to the strike. He asked if there were any other airline we could take instead. She fiddled around on her computer a bit and then took him to a man further up the chain of command, as she was unable to help him.
This gentleman informed Chris that there was a couple in front of him, that had been waiting even longer, he had to help them first. Also, he was supposed to go home an hour ago. Turns out later, he told everybody that. Chris sat down, handed him his passport, and the guy thought it was just Chris who needed a new ticket. When he saw all seven passports, he was even less thrilled. Started typing in the computer, and informed Chris that everything was booked out for the next couple of days. There was no way we were going to Atlanta at this time. Chris said a little prayer, right then. We really didn't want to miss out on the first half of the family reunion. It would be the first time all seven children, their spouses and children were all together in one place since the night Chris left for his mission 16 years earlier. Plus, it was his mom's 60 birthday. If we missed all that, there really wasn't any point in going at all.
After the quietly said prayer, there was a bit more typing from the other side of the desk. Maybe there was a chance, the guy said. Started typing some more on his computer, and discovered that one of his colleagues had already booked flights for us earlier in the evening, and we were scheduled to leave at seven am the next morning. Hooray! A miracle. We pretty much got the last seven seats from Europe to America available anywhere. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
But Chris still had all the luggage at the airport, waiting to check it in. Most everyone had gone home, it is after ten, you know. The man was all helpful attitude now, Let's see if we can find someone to take your luggage, he tells Chris. They saw a manager lady talking to some people down the hall. Walked up to her and asked if he could still check in his luggage. She didn't blink an eye, but said they had to hurry, the conveyor belts had already shut down. So she made a quick call, asked them to start it up again, checked us in, got all the luggage on the conveyor belt, and he was good to go.
By now, it was 10:30pm, and he had been at the airport for almost two hours. Chris had only paid for 15 minutes parking, thinking he would just run in, check in the luggage and run out again. (Didn't know anything about the cancelled flights at that point.) Luckily, the police must have gone home as well, because two hours later, no ticket was waiting for him on the windshield. Thank heavens for miracles, both big and small.
Our neighbor Kirstie, very kindly agreed to pick us up and take us to the train station at the unholy hour of 4:45 am. Right on the dot, she pulled up and we all piled into her minivan for a ride down the hill. The buses don't run in our neck of the woods that early, you see. We were oh so grateful, to not have to call two taxis (one just wouldn't hold us all), and to only have a few small lightweight carryons to deal with. The children were very tired, and thus very quiet and zombielike. Perfect traveling conditions, actually. Simply point them in the right direction, give them a gentle push in the back to get them started and they walk until you tell them to stop. Too tired to fight, complain, or whine, I highly recommend it to all my traveling friends. haha.
Instead of flying to Frankfurt first, as originally planned, we went to Copenhagen, and then on to Atlanta. This should have been a relatively simple change of planes, no luggage as it had all been checked through, except for one small glitch. Rather than stow our stroller in the front of the plane like they have on every other flight we've ever taken a stroller on, they put it down below with the checked baggage. That meant we had to pass through security and customs, (got a cool stamp in the passports, though) wait around in the baggage claim area for the stroller, then go back up through security and board. But the security people wouldn't let us through without a proper boarding pass which we didn't have because of all the last minute changes. All we had was a piece of paper with our itinerary printed out on it.
So they sent us back down to the check in area, where we were the last ones on the flight to be helped. We tell the attendant that we need proper boarding passes and he says, "Why did you come all the way down here? You should have just gone straight through to the next boarding area." Yeah, tried that, didn't work. So they issued us "real" boarding passes for security purposes (is there an eyerolling smiley?) and we ran to make our connection. When we got to the gate they told us the flight was closed and we couldn't get on. After a few minutes of us being stunned that they had shut the gate without us, even though they knew we were coming, they realized their error. Apparently, they had us mixed up with the family that was trying to fly stand by. Uh no, check out our nifty boarding passes, we got seats. So they eventually let us on the plane, and we breathe a sigh of relief.
We flew in the day, meaning the children were pretty much awake for the whole long flight over the ocean, although some did take a short nap. We ended up with the very first row and the very last row in the economy section. Somehow, in all the confusion of being the last to board, I ended up in the bulkhead row with all four small children, while Chris and Nick got to kick it in the back row together. To Chris' credit, just as I was thinking up a justifiable evil revenge to exact on him for sticking me with all these little kids all by myself on a 10 hour flight, like a true knight in shining armor he appeared by my side and asked if I would like a turn in the back row with Nick. This was about three hours into the flight. He took care of the kids single-handedly while I took a nap on Nick's shoulder for the next 3 hours. That was the best.
I did start to miss all that leg room in the bulkhead however, so I went up and traded seats with him again. Actually, he came back with Noah and Baby to say hi. Noah made this adorable little sad face and told me to come back up front, he missed me. After my nap, I was feeling great, so I took
over for the rest of the flight, while Chris and Nick stayed in back. We tried having Nicholas trade with one of the younger kids, but he was happy where he was and didn't want to move. That whole doesn't-like-change-thing again. It was fine, though, the kids all had individual screens to watch whatever they wanted, and a window they took turns looking out of, so they were well entertained.
At one point, we all had switched seats, so that Baby, Sophie and I were all sitting over by the window. Noah came running over exclaiming, "Just want to see if we're still flying!" He took a quick glance out the window and shouted, "Yep, we're still flying!" Then he ran back to his seat and sat down. Cracked us all up, plus a few fellow passengers.
The kids refused to eat any of the airline food, but I knew that ahead of time and had packed quite a few sandwiches, fruit and snacks for them to have instead. Would have been nice to also pack our own juice, ggrrrr, but at least on this flight they were quite liberal with the free drinks and were constantly passing out cups of water to anyone who wanted one. That was nice.
When we got to Atlanta, who did we run into in the airport? Melanie's Mom and Dad. Melanie is a lady who now lives in our ward from America. Her parents had come over to visit, and were flying home the same day we were. They weren't on our flight, but we saw them just before/after customs. That was kind of fun, totally didn't expect to see a familiar face in that huge crowd. It did take quite a while after we landed to actually get to our rental car, 3 hours to be exact. Atlanta airport has this new absolutely, stupid, makes no sense whatsoever rule, that after you wait for your baggage, go through security, and go through customs, you must re-check your bags and wait for them at another baggage claim area in a different part of the airport. Even if all you want to do is EXIT THE AIRPORT!!!! Where they think I could have magically gotten something dangerous after my bags have been checked, rechecked, x-rayed and separated from me on the flight over, I will never know. They don't even sell anything dangerous in the airport I could have picked up. But still, there we stood and waited and waited and waited for our bags a second time so we could walk out the door. We have vowed to never, ever, ever fly into Atlanta with it as our final destination again. No matter what. It bugged us that bad.
But then we got to the hotel and all was good again. More on that later.