Day of Departure

Tuesday, August 5th finally came for our family. Off to Alaska! But a LOT had to happen first before we even got to the airport.

The day started with minor panic. The bag I had packed for me and Jared seemed it bit heavy. I put it on my bathroom scale and it showed '58' pounds. Ugh. I think the weight limit is 50 lbs. So I got online to verify Continental Airlines' weight restrictions. But before I found that information I saw a big announcement stating there is now a $25 fee for having a second checked bag. WHAT?? For as long as I've been flying (which isn't a ton, but enough) every ticketed passenger has been allowed 2 checked bags free of charge. We had purchased 5 tickets and were banking on the fact we could technically have 10 checked items, if we needed them, without being charged. After all, we've got to have room to bring halibut home with us.

As of that morning, I had packed our family into five bags and then we were checking fishing poles, bringing our total to six. A closer look at this new guideline and I saw that it is effective for those who purchased their tickets on or after April 5, 2008. Hmmm, we bought our tickets in the spring, but I couldn't remember the exact date. It was going to be close. My American Express statement confirmed, however, that we bought our tickets on March 5th, so we were still allotted 2 checked bags without any fees. Phew! But how LAME! Especially when you're taking your family to Alaska and all the extra stuff you need traveling to a colder climate and for two weeks. I was pretty impressed that I actually got 2 people in per bag. The fourth bag was diapers and gifts I was bringing for people in AK (allowing space to bring home souvenirs). The fifth bag held the "necessary extras":coats, hats, gloves, jackets, rain boots for the kids, the snugli, and our two temple bags.

So just a word to the wise....if you haven't traveled in a couple of years by plane and you will be in the near future, I would seriously get online before purchasing tickets and review the airlines' baggage restrictions. For me, that will be a big determining factor as to which airline I fly on. And if I have to succumb to the new "only one checked bag" rule that some airlines have adopted, at least I'll be prepared. I did discover though, that Southwest is still allowing 2 checked bags per ticketed customer. Go Southwest!

Back to my original issue: the heavy suitcase. I spent the next 30-45 minutes weighing all five of our bags on our bathroom scale. The only overweight one was mine and Jared's (which was also the biggest). So, I took out three pairs of shoes. Jared and I were going to wear flip flops to better assist us in getting our troops through security, but I wasn't forking out $50 bucks for 8 extra pounds just to wear flip flops. So we wore our laced up shoes instead. I moved a little bit here and a little bit there and finally got our big bag to 46 lbs. and then prayed that our scale wasn't weighing light. I reweighed all of the luggage TWICE though just to make sure they were all still under. We were good to go.

After a prayer for safe travel and a properly functioning car, we finally got out of the house around 2:30pm. Our flight was scheduled to leave out of Seattle at 9pm. (Tickets out of Seattle were $150 cheaper than out of Portland hence the flight out of Sea-Tac and long term parking for 2 weeks was only $120 so we chose the longer trip). We had a few errands to run before we hit the highway. One of them was the post office. We headed north up 198th Ave. from our neighborhood and as we were driving I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. There was an electrical power line that was slowly falling from the group of wires on the left of the street that connected to the house on the right side of the street in front of us. Jared saw it too, but not as soon as I did. If he didn't stop we would drive right into it and snap it in half. It all happened in slow motion. I started screaming and braced myself. He slammed on the brakes, but our van was weighted down with our bags and the van wasn't stopping as quickly as he wanted it to. I was just waiting for us to be electrocuted! We swerved into the oncoming lane trying to avoid the electrical wire before we finally came to an abrupt halt. Fortunately there was no one behind us and no one coming towards us. And fortunately we did not snap the line. Oh my pounding heart! I could feel the adrenaline rush through my veins. The owner of the house was actually out there and saw what happened. He was all mad because he said the power people weren't supposed to hang the line like that. We were just stunned. Speechless. We didn't know what to do. By that time there were 6 or 7 stopped cars in the other lane. The homeowner was saying something. I rolled my window down. He told us to just drive over it. I gave him a look and said, "are you sure?" He said yes. I braced myself again. The line was actually lower on our side of the road and we were able to drive over it. I'm not sure what the other cars were going to do since it dangled higher in front of them. I'm just glad we got out of there in one piece. A few minutes later I saw my hands shaking and told Jared I was feeling queasy. He said "excitement" can do that to your body. And then he said he hoped this wasn't a preview of things to come, that sometimes bad things happen in 3s. I told him to stop talking like that and hopefully the falling power line was all that would happen and it was done and over with.

Knowing we had a 3 hour drive ahead of us gave me a few twinges of anxiety especially when we had a flight to catch that wouldn't wait for traffic or flat tires. Sometimes my mind gets carried away, but I forced myself not to think that way. We did get a rock flung at our windshield causing a nice little dent and crack, but we have a zero deductible for windshield replacement so that's okay. We hit a little traffic around Fort Lewis but got to our Park and Fly around 6pm and made it to the airport shortly thereafter causing me to breath one small sigh of relief. We made our first destination. However, we forgot to remind the shuttle driver about our fishing poles and he drove off with them still on the rack. It wasn't until we were at ticketing that Jared remembered them. He was able to phone the company, run down to the drop off location and get them back when the shuttle made it's return trip. Thank goodness for cell phones.

Security was...pretty much how I envisioned it. Jared was in front, I was taking up the rear. It was a big flurry of untying and taking off shoes, stripping down, doing the same for the kids, telling the line of people behind us "it's okay, please go around us", being at the mercy of the movement of the conveyor belt, making sure the kids didn't go through security until their name was called, and trying not to lose our boarding passes and ID while I put everything in buckets with one hand because I was holding my 3 month old with the other arm. That's a sure fire way to test your deodorant! I was ready to combust after that. And all for one very anti-climatic step through a metal gateway and then we got to do it all over again in reverse. Phew.

The flight was very uneventful. Though I would say next time we have 2 seats in one row and three in another, I would take a boy with Calvin on my lap and Jared can have Karcyn and the other boy. I had Karcyn by the window in her car seat and I was in the middle seat with Calvin. Jared was up one row and on the other side in the aisle with the two boys. It wasn't that easy trying to placate a two year old and a three month old one handed. With that said however, it wasn't bad. The only trouble was when I needed to retrieve something from the diaper bag or the floor. The seats were so close together, I was all but chewing on my knees just sitting there. I had no room to bend over with Calvin in my lap and hit my head against the seat in front of me when I leaned forward let alone bent forward . I felt like a contortionist. But...Calvin made not one peep. He was an angel. Can't say quite the same for the baby behind us, however. And Karcyn, who hasn't flown since she was Calvin's age, did great too. She thought take off was pretty cool and then drifted off to sleep about an hour later. She did wake up and start crying 10 minutes before we landed, but she, like me, was tired of being cramped into one position and wanted to stretch. I actually asked the guy next to me to hand Calvin to Jared so I could get her out of her seat and hold her. But once my hands were free, she had fallen back asleep. Of course.

We didn't get to bed until 2am that morning...3am Portland time. But we made it safe and sound and all of our bags and car seats did too! Our day was filled with all sorts of blessings. Big and small, we're grateful for them all!