Leaving on a Jet Plane.......OR NOT!

Well, my bags are packed, and I'm ready to go, I'm standing here................................

Our journey to the Salt Lake airport was uneventful. Got there 2 hours early and our friend 'Joe' the skycap told us that the wait was an hour inside to check-in. He said 'his friend' could do it for us real fast and we wouldn't have to wait in line. I knew he just wanted a tip, and little did he know that I always used skycap, so I said sure. Great thing is the skycap can now take your stuff in with your passport and do all the groundwork for you. We weighed our luggage while waiting. 4 bags weighing 32, 35, 34 and 49. (It's all those shoes Jamie packed!). Pretty good for 16 nights I think. In 10 minutes we had our boarding passes and were ready to go. I was only carrying on a camera bag and my "Disney Menu Bag" HAHAHA (thought Ken and Shari and Adrienne and Tony would enjoy that!) (inside joke).

Our Delta flight to Atlanta went off without a hitch. I had gotten my free upgrade to first class, and Robert and Jamie were sitting in coach. The plane had indivdual screen on each seat. Jamie's didn't work, so I think she listened to the Ipod the whole way. I got the Delta 4 star lunch, which consisteted of Chicken something. The apple cheesecake was the best part of the meal. Watched 2 movies-Premonition with Sandra Bullock and Blades of Glory with Will Ferrell. Blades was the stupidest, funniest movie I had seen in awhile. It was so over the top, you had to laugh. Glad I didn't have to pay for it!

Landed in Atlanta 10 minutes early. Jamie was starving since the "snack pak" on the plane consisted of nothing she would eat. So she headed straight to McD's to get chicken nuggets. Of course, she no sooner started eating them before she got sweet n' sour sauce on her shirt. Well, at least she has 15 more shirts packed and shoes to go along with them! She can't change, cuz all her luggage is checked in.

Headed for the T terminal. We had landed in B. So it wasn't too far. However, we were in T2, which is at the very end of the international terminal. They are remodeling, so there wasn't alot there. We landed at 4:45 pm and had til 8:30 pm. Robert proceeded to lay down across three chairs and promptly go to sleep. Jamie and I read magazines. Now, when we booked our flight, we could have come in 2 hours later to Atlanta and had about an hour layover, but I was worried that we would land all the way on the other side of the airport. Figured, heck, we will get delayed and then miss our flight. So we took the earlier flight out. Well at 7:30 p.m. at T1, right next door to T2, a flight comes in from Salt Lake City! so much for my pre-planning. We would have only walked about 50 steps to our gate. About the same time our pilot and crew arrived and got on our plane to get it ready for us.

About 8 p.m., when we should have been boarding, the whole crew of gate agents had disappeared. About 10 minutes later, the announcement came across that the "cattle call" was moving to gate T7. Okay, so you would have thought a hurricane was passing through. We started heading to the new gate. My good toe about got run over by a woman with a stroller. Got to the new gate and it now said we were leaving at 9:30 p.m.

Shortly after 8:30 pm, Captain "John" became the gatekeeper and came over the sound system to tell us that there was a problem with our other jet and that the ground crew would be "tugging" a new jet from the hangar to this new gate. But, then he said, that it may take awhile, since they literally pull it over and that 10 pm was more optomistic (if everything went right.) He then told us they had to move over all our luggage, food, etc., etc., and then they would have to clean the new jet. The final "step" he said was that then the airport had to do a complete "security sweep" of the plane before he and his crew were allowed on. Well, we had our fingers crossed that we would pass the test.

At about 9:55 p.m., the Captain was finally let on the plane, and about 10:15 they started boarding the plane, quickly! We actually got pushed from the gate about 30 minutes after we boarded. Robert always has to have the window seat, so I make sure that is taken care of for him. But since they switched jets, he got the one seat that has NO WINDOW. First thing he said was he wasn't going to be able to see anything. I asked him, what was he looking for, the ocean in the dark? Jamie just said "dad, sit down" and she sat down next to him. There were only two end seats, so I sat across the aisle next to the 2 year old who was told "go to sleep". That was great, excepther mom had her head in her lap and I had her feet. She reminded me of when Jamie was little, kicking, tossing and turning all night. Guess that's the price I pay for not sitting up in first class for this leg of the flight! We had some ravioli thing for dinner, ranks 1 1/2 stars in my book. Made me think of the great food aboard the Magic waiting to come. After dinner, they announced they were putting in the movie----Premonition. It was the same the 2nd time around as the 1st time! The ending was the same.

After the movie, we got some sleep and then they woke us up to serve their 4 star breakfast. It consisted of Orange Juice, lukewarm water (no ice) a banana, a granola bar and 1 smashed croissant with strawberry jam. My mind was saying-WHERE IS MY KRISPY KREME DOUGHNUT?

Speaking of food, we didn't even get a chocolate on our pillow on the plane last night.

Jamie was anxiously awaiting our touchdown so she could head to the closest McD's for breakfast. Well, she has a surprise coming. No McD's in the airport in Dublin!

We ended up arriving in Dublin 2 hours late. Captain "John" said it was 50 degrees in Dublin. As we got off the plane, I told him thanks and saw that his real name was Peter. Thanks Captain Peter.

Well, our luggage must have left Atlanta an hour later than we did, because we then stood and waited over an hour for our luggage to show up. Got our passports stamped. They let us in their country and then took the free shuttle to the Hilton Airport Hotel where we are staying.

I have been giving Robert and Jamie the "NO JET LAG" pills every two hours since we left home. They think I'm nuts. We will see if it really works.

Now, I am typing on this computer in the hotel and everything is german (which I don't understand because I am in Ireland), but hopefully this will post in English, since the keys I am using make sense and look like they are typing right. If not, well Shari Prosser knows a website that will translate cuz she sent me a note in spanish that Jamie said didn't make much sense. Hopefully, it translates better from german to english if need be.

Okay, so we are in Dublin, it is cold, and I will post about our day Sunday later.

Sea U Later!