Friday, July 18, 2014

Oh, It's Been Awhile!

Happy Friday! I know, it's been quite a while since we last posted. We've been rather busy the last month or so. Who said summer was a vacation?! The last month or so saw the end of a successful, yet sometimes trying, school year, a bump in on-line orders, and a trip back home to see the family. Now that we're back on the West Coast and just about all caught up on everything, we figured now is as good a time as ever to get back on here and maybe share a few of the projects we've been working on since!
Our mom wanted us to update our blog when we were home, but it was so hot that we didn't really do much of anything, so that's where we'll start as we play catch-up. After spending weeks on the road for the last three summers, we decided to take 'easy' and take a non-stop flight home. After waking up at 4, leaving at 5, we got to the airport at 6 and got through all of the chekpoints without any issues. We were able to find the bathroom (you know, just in case, because who would really want to use the airplane bathroom unless it was a real emergency?!) and by the time we got back, they were already boarding the plane. We waited in like for all of like 5 minutes and it was pretty great. After spending $400+ on tickets, they treated us quite well. Like, surprisingly well. We got some breakfast wraps (meh, but something was better than nothing), snacks, and a frozen yogurt pop. At this time, you know, about 4 hours into the flight, it's just about time to need the bathroom again. But you think, "Oh, I can wait another hour until we land to use the bathroom". And then the pilot comes on the loudspeaker and tells you that you are in a "holding pattern because of a wall of severe storms in New York and Pennsylvania, but it should only be an hour or so". Ok, maybe you can hold it, but the bathroom on-board is looking like a necessity, but you push on. So then after an hour, the pilot comes back on and says, "Well, we need to make a pit stop in Buffalo to get some gas". Now all you want to do is run off the plane and find the bathroom. Oh, but wait, we have to turn back around to go to Buffalo, and then sit on the plane for 45 minutes to an hour waiting for the air traffic controller to tell the pilot what the plan is. Finally, the pilot feels bad and lets you all out (politely, of course) and you run to the bathroom. And wait. We walked around the Buffalo Airport for a little bit, longing for that first cup of Dunkin' Donuts coffee (and only the second one of a long day) that we've been waiting for for the last year, but unfortunately we didn't find any. It was another hour until the pilot came back and told us to get back on board. It was rather impressive how quickly that went. One would think that it would be a pretty straight line from Buffalo to NYC, but oh no, they had us swing over towards Cleveland and Virginia, and then back up north. That was an additional two hours. At this point, all we wanted to do was land, but then we noticed that the "time to destination" on the screen didn't change too much. We were stuck in another holding pattern over New York. After like 12 hours (the whole flight was supposed to be 6ish), we finally land amid a torrential rain storm with thunder and lightning (oh, how we missed that summer sound!) The lady next to us made some comments about the weather, and we were like, "Oh, no, this is natural". She was rather friendly, so it was good. We sat on the plane for another 30 minutes or so because there weren't any gates free to drop us off. Once they found one for us to disembark, the pilot told us that we were the last flight to get in for the night because of the storm. That would have been terrible, to be stuck at some airport so close to home. Fortunately, we didn't have to get on any additional flights, like the couple going to Milan or the family with a 6-hour delay to Maryland. When we got into the airport, there was an international flight waiting to leave, but they weren't going anywhere. It was hard not to feel bad for them.
We decided to rush through the airport to find the kiosk for the shuttle to Grand Central. As we're sitting there, waiting for someone to show up at their post, trying to charge phones, not get on each others' nerves, and burst into tears (that'll come later), we figured we just missed the last shuttle to leave. 45 minutes later and there's still no one at the kiosk. There were two or three shuttles from Connecticut, and I was totally tempted to lose the money spent on the two tickets and hop in their vans.  We decided to wait it out and went outside, and after finding the small sandwich board, stood with a group of people who were apparently going to LaGuardia. After three unmarked shuttles, and one bus go by (you know, since the bus was "only dropping people off") we started to get really frustrated and with tears on the verge of falling, we asked a driver what we were looking for. He was quite helpful, but it was still like another hour that we had to wait. In the meantime, Robyn ran inside to charge a little and not two minutes later, the bus pulls up. He was in an apparent rush and I told him to wait so I could get Robyn. He gave me an attitude and said "No, catch the next one". I'm not proud of how I reacted, but I ran inside to grab Robyn and we made it. We ended up waiting for like five minutes anyway. Pretty sure the driver almost got into a few accidents on the LIE, but we finally made it to Grand Central at about 11:00.
At this point, we were just happy to know that we only had one more leg of the trip to go and that this was going to be the easiest part. We were able to get our tickets, found the track it was supposed to be, and waited. We went back and checked the board, just to be safe, and they had changed it. We walked over to the other track and spent the time determining where people were from (you know, the guys wearing pastel shorts, button down shirts, and boat shoes were most definitely Southern Connecticut). With three minutes to go, they alerted us to a change in tracks, (oh, back to where it was supposed to be originally) so everyone rushed over to that track. And of course, it's like 11:20 and no one wants to share a seat. (Or, should I say, it's New York to Connecticut, so no one wants to share a seat?) So we were scrunched in with a fella going to Southport. After not eating anything since the first part of the flight, we were beyond uber excited to find a granola bar in my bag from the day before we left. Thankfully we got to BPT without any more issues and our awesome daddy was waiting for us. At 1:00 in the morning. What a trooper! Once we were finally home, we spent another hour talking to the 'rents (Mom was also a trooper for staying up so late, and only got on our nerves once, as she called while we were at the airport). After such a long day, it was finally bedtime, and I'm pretty sure we slept in until 10:00ish, but then again, it was only 7:00am on the West Coast.
Phew! I'd say that this post was way too long, but it was a looong day of travel. I will continue the rest of the trip round-up tomorrow. I need a nap after writing this!
Thanks for stopping by! For those looking for our crafting projects, come back Sunday (or maybe Monday) and we'll start posting our crafts again! Have a great day!

No comments:

Post a Comment