We arrived at BLI to find out that our flight to Seattle had been cancelled due to mechanical problems. I am of the opinion that it is better to be safe and inconvenienced than fly on-time with worries. (I made sure to tell the ticket agent too, since the poor gal was taking a lot of heat for something she had no control over.) We were rebooked onto a later flight out of Seattle to Orange County no problem, but there wasn't enough room on the flight from Bellingham to Seattle to accommodate our entire party of eleven. So, we decided to drive to Seattle instead.
Wait a minute - let me explain why there were eleven people in our party. My dad and his wife wanted to take my sister and her four kids to Disneyland. My sister is a single mom and does not have the means to take such a vacation with her kids, so my dad and his wife decided to gift them with the vacation. Well, Ernie and I thought it sounded like fun, so we tagged along. And, my mom also thought it would be fun to experience the trip with her grandkids, so she came along also.
Back to our travels...we arrived at Sea-Tac without any problems and made it onto our flight. My sister's kids were a bit nervous to fly. One of the boys was especially concerned that the plane would crash, but we assured him that we wouldn't put him or ourselves in danger, and that the flight would be fine. (I think he was finally convinced when we arrived at the gate in Orange County.) Sophia was super-excited to ride in an airplane. We are convinced that she thought it would be just like the airplane ride at the carnival a few weeks ago.
Sophia did great on the flight! I have a friend who has travelled with her two boys a lot, and she gave me some great advice for airplane travel with a toddler: 1. you can carry the carseat on your back like a backpack if you loosen the straps; 2. don't let the toddler out of the carseat - just like when riding in a car - because the toddler won't want to get back in for descent and landing; and 3. take a bag full of toys, snacks, activities, etc to keep the toddler occupied. We followed all three and they worked like a charm! As for the activities, I had a backpack full of dollar-store toys, color books and crayons, and puzzles. (Airplane trays are just big enough for a 24-piece puzzle.)
When we arrived in Orange County, we discovered that the car rental place was closed. No 15-passenger van for us to take to the condo. Thankfully, the Super Shuttle was reasonably priced. Of course, it took two vans to get us there, but we made it. Then we ordered pizza in for dinner (after 9pm!) and went to the corner store across the street for breakfast supplies and a few snacks to tide us over until we were able to get the van and get some proper groceries.
Whew! We made it, finally. We never could have planned for all the changes that occurred during our journey to Southern California. But, considering we had a group of eleven, I think it went pretty well.
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