Saturday
We were really well organized for the trip, had everything
packed ahead of time and managed to leave an almost spotless house right on
time. We arrived at the airport
with plenty of time to spare. Mate
dropped the girls, suitcase and me off at the terminal and then went to park
the car. Before I got out, I
handed him the car seat manual just in case he needed it to get the seats out
and folded. Mia, Ava, and I got in
line and waited longer than I would have liked for our turn. During our wait, I could feel people’s
eyes on us. I’m sure they were
thinking this pregnant lady is nuts traveling alone with two toddlers. Anyway, we checked our bag, got our
boarding passes and waited for Mate.
It seemed to be taking awhile and he arrived a bit perturbed. Apparently, he couldn’t quite figure
out how to get the car seats folded securely. When I asked him if he brought the manual with him, his
answer was no (I set that out for a reason). We decided to get through security and then figure it
out. This was by far the worst
part of the trip. The girls were
getting restless, our hands were full, juice spilled, some of the security
people weren’t particularly friendly, etc. We made it through, only to find that they needed to go
through Mate’s carry-on. At the
last minute, we had decided to throw some things in his bag to ensure our
checked baggage wasn’t too heavy (who wants to pay extra?). Unfortunately, the girls’ sunscreen, my
face wash and lotion were confiscated.
I didn’t care at the time, but I wouldn’t call any of those things
cheap…lesson learned. For anyone
keeping score, Mate and I were already putting our “it’s okay not to like each
other” practice into use.
We found my grandma and niece at the Little Tikes play area
and were happy to have a second to breathe. Mate watched the girls, while I began figuring out the car
seats. At one point, I looked over
at my children and saw some sagging diapers. As we went to change the girls, Mate looked down and
realized he was covered in poop.
We just started laughing.
At that point, there was nothing else to do. I changed the diapers and he cleaned himself up. We headed over to the gate and boarded
the plane without any trouble.
Luckily for us, we had the only extra seat on the plane in our row. Here’s a little trick. When choosing seats, we picked the
aisle and window, leaving the middle seat between us open. The hope is that no one gets assigned
to the middle. If they do, they’ll
gladly switch to be in the aisle or window seat. It worked on our flight over to Europe a few years ago and
it worked again today. I’m
convinced that empty seat made all the difference.
The girls were absolutely amazing the whole ride. Ava waved to everyone she could and Mia
yelled “wow” loudly as we took off.
They were charming the other passengers, which I hoped would work in our
favor if their moods shifted.
Luckily for us, crayons, play-dough, Elmo, books and the magna doodle
were a hit. We did notice the
girls showing signs that their ears were bothering them during landing, but
there was no crying. I was really
very proud of how well we all did during that leg of the trip.
The happiness is a bit short-lived. Mate went in one direction to get the
rental car, while my grandma, niece, the girls and I went to baggage
claim. We got our suitcases
quickly and began our journey to find Mate. To make a long story short, we were on opposite sides of the
airport, there were missed calls on Mate’s end and at least one toddler who had
lost her patience. When we finally
found him, he said they didn’t have the right car and we had to pay for an
upgrade. Apparently, being forced
to pay more money and a screaming child is the right combination to make me
just about lose it. I am
completely guilty of being less than pleasant to my husband at this point. In my defense, there were about a
million problems to solve at one time and he doesn’t multi-task. Thankfully, I talked to the rental car
representative and she said we wouldn’t be charged extra since it was their
fault (phew).
All six of us piled in and enjoyed (I use that term loosely)
our two hour journey to the hotel.
It should have taken just over half an hour. Let’s just say, Mate driving and using his phone to navigate
at the same time didn’t work out so well.
The good news is we eventually made it.
Sunday
After enjoying breakfast with my grandma and niece, we
parted ways. They headed off to
Disney, while Mate, the girls and I began our trip towards Miami. The three and half hour drive was going
well until I happened to look at our receipt from the rental car. I noticed over $400 in extra
charges. Remember that “phew”
moment I wrote about earlier?
Well, apparently being told we weren’t being charged doesn’t actually mean
we aren’t being charged. I knew I
had a not-so-fun phone call to Avis in my immediate future.
We arrived at the hotel, more than ready to check in, but our
room wasn’t ready. To the pool we went.
Mate thought we could get away with letting the girls go in the shallow
part without the two of us changing into our bathing suits. After about two seconds, I realized one
of us had to do more than wade around with the girls. I ran to the bathroom, changed and arrived back at the pool
to find Mate just shy of soaking wet.
Within half an hour, we were told our room was ready. Mate entertained the girls while I
called Avis. The phone call took a
long time and didn’t go well. I’ll
try again tomorrow. I spend a lot
of time finding the most cost-effective ways to travel. I’m not about to let all my hard work
go to waste.
We rushed out of our room only to make it to the parking
garage without keys. Well,
actually, I had the keys but I didn’t know it. Mate ran back to the room, looked all around and couldn’t
find them. Oops.
Finally, we were on our way to meet our friend, Tomislav,
for dinner. He is attending school
in Miami, so we were able to plan a quick get together which was much
needed. We had a wonderful time
catching up and the girls were amazing at the restaurant. It was the best part
of our vacation so far.
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