After learning our lesson last year, we arrived at the airport with plenty of time, parked in remote, grabbed a shuttle, checked most of our bags (travel light in terms of carry-ons if you are with small kids - just trust me), through security without any issues and got to our gate with time to spare. We had left the house at 11 am, got to the airport around noon and flight was around 2pm. Off to what we thought was a good start.
Then, they change our gate and we trek across the terminal. Okay, no biggie. Then, they announce they need to make a repair, we will be delayed 30 minutes. Okay, makes our connection a little tighter, may have to grab dinner on the run through Chicago, but we can roll with that. Then, after closer to an hour, they announce that they are going to have to find a different plane. Uh oh. We scramble back to the other side of the terminal to see if we can get on a different flight that is leaving about that time. They only have room for 1, not 4, not going to work. Trek back across the terminal. They announce that they have found a plane and we will be changing gates. Trek back across the terminal. Board plane. Overhead announcement - this plane also needs repairs and we have to shut off power so everyone will have to de-plane. We all get off. We wait. We re-board at about the same time that our connecting flight is taking off in Chicago. Did I mention that it is the only flight to Marquette that day? Doh! The girls do so well through all of this!
We arrive in Chicago around 8pm and work on alternate flight plans and getting set up with hotel and meal vouchers (thankful it was mechanical and not weather related so that the airline provided this). We are re-booked on 2 flights - fly to Detroit at 2pm the following day on AA and then switch to Delta to fly to Marquette and arrive around 9 or 10 at night, adding another leg to our journey. We are assured that our luggage will be checked through and as hauling our luggage with our littles isn't practical, we go with that.
We wait for the shuttle to the hotel which is located about 20 minutes from the airport. We wait. We call. Shuttle is at the next terminal and will be there shortly. We wait some more. We stare longingly at the Hilton across the street. We breathe in fumes - bus fumes, car fumes, cigarette fumes, cigar fumes... We call again. Last shuttle was too full, it will come back (40 minutes round-trip). We wait. We cheer with joy when shuttle arrives. We chat with all of our fellow disgruntled airline passengers. We line up at the hotel for our room with our vouchers (all of us). We get a key and request cribs - we get into the room around 10:30. The cribs arrive around 11 or so. We finally get our over-tired, jumping on the bed kids into bed around midnight. Olivia cries every 45 minutes - I try sleeping with my hand in the crib, pulling her into bed, etc. to no avail. Everyone wakes up exhausted around 6:30am. Breakfast opens at 7. We eat breakfast, watch tv and pass the time.
We get back on a shuttle and back into the airport with plenty of time to use a meal voucher for lunch. We buy lots of soy milk from Starbucks as Olivia can't have regular milk and almond milk isn't available. Get on plane to Detroit and negotiate with other passengers to sit with our kids. Arrive in Detroit. Sit on tarmac waiting for our gate to open up - please don't let us miss our connection. Exit security. Get on shuttle to Delta terminal. Check into flight despite extremely rude Delta lady (we may have given her back a little attitude). Go back through security. Trek through really big terminal. Get gate person to arrange for us to sit with our kids (although not together). Brian grabs dinner for us, but they give it to him in open containers and the flight is boarding. Exhausted, stressed... Juggle food, kids and carry ons onto plane. Finally break down into tears. Give kid food, but can barely eat through the tears. Order wine. Ignore little plastic cup and drink from little plastic bottle. Take lots of deep breaths.
We finally arrive in Marquette and no surprise, our luggage did not. I watch the kids play at the Little Tykes play thing at the airport while Brian fills out the lost luggage paperwork and I cry some more. I'm just done.
Our luggage (and our Plexus!) arrives the next night at midnight. After wearing the same clothes for 3 days and having run out of my carry-on Plexus Slim, I could have kissed the delivery guy!
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