Vacation Tall Tales -- Airport and Plane Ride

Okay. Most of you know that the kids, my mom and I all went on vacation at the beginning of July-- for those of you who didn't know that, these next few postings will be full of vacation tales and stories.

First off, at the Phoenix airport at 4:30 in the morning on July 4th, no one knew what was going on -- and I'm speaking of passengers as well as the airline employees. Granted it was 4:30 in the morning, and there are bound to be grumpy people, myself included especially when my suitcase was 8 pounds overweight! So, in the middle of the check-in line, I'm pulling things out of my suitcase: books, the Munchkin's shoes (which weighed about three pounds), my shampoo, and a couple of other items. I have no idea where these things were going, all that I know is that my husband and my mom were taking them as I threw them out and putting them in either her suitcase or the duffel bag that had the small one's booster seat in it. But, just those few things knocked the weight down to 49 pounds (the cut-off was 50). Whew! I snuck through.

Anyway, so we leave from Phoenix and to Chicago where we get a connecting flight to Boston. So on this airline that will remain nameless even though they were extremely nice and accommodating to me and the kids who had never flown before, this particular plane was the one where the seats are 1,2, 3, aisle, then 4, 5. Well, the kids and my mom had seats 1, 2, & 3, I took the seat 4 in the aisle across from them. I sat down and this nice looking lady came in and sat down on the 5 seat (the window). Now, I'm thinking, okay, seems nice, maybe someone to talk to, I don't know. Well on the take-off, she's gripping the armrests so tight I thought she was going to put holes in them, and then she's kicking the air under the seat in front of her and breathing (sounded like) Lamaze breaths and/or hyperventilating! Oh, *&$%, I thought! But she's okay as soon as the plane leveled out, and sort of looked like she dozed off a bit, but the plane hit some turbulence (my kids loved this part) over northern NY state. Off she goes again! Breathing, kicking and gripping the armrest like there's no tomorrow! I look over at my mom, she's praying (she doesn't like the turbulence) and tried to ignore this nice woman next to me, and stuck my nose in my book (I don't even know what I was reading), but I had to distract myself from her. Now, as we were coming in to land in Boston, the lady asked me for a piece of gum (I had offered her one at take off, hours ago) and I gladly gave her my whole pack. She then went on to explain that she didn't do well in take-off and turbulence (no, really?!?) and she read that the breathing and the kicking was supposed to help. Okay..I'm skeptical. So I, in my attempt to make her feel somewhat at ease asked, where she was coming from--San Antonio she replied. Oh, wow, said I, and then inquired, was Boston her final destination? No, says she, she was flying to Spain! Wow, says I, dumbfounded that anyone would subject themselves to that much flying when they obviously don't like to fly, you're very brave says I (and I think I said this numerous times). We parted, and I still hope that this nice lady had no one sitting next to her on that long and tiresome journey to Spain!

How's that for a kick-off to a vacation?My kids, who had never flown before EVER in their lives, did tremendous on the plane ride. I thought the little one would be nervous, but she was great and had a grand time. The Munchkin had some ear popping problems when we were getting our luggage in Boston, but that soon stopped after he had some water and some dinner at my aunt's house.