utah sweet utah

What an airplane trip from HELL! Our luck definitely did NOT improve with airplanes and airports. All seemed well with only a 15 minute delay until our plane "broke" and we had to switch. It all went downhill from there. The new plane we were supposed to get on couldn't pull into the terminal because the snow banks were too high. Once that problem was solved and we finally boarded (now 90 minutes late) we settled into our seats only to find out that our cargo door was still open?! and to make matters infinitely worse -due to the ridiculously bad wind chill (-25ish)- a majority of the detroit airport workers went home?!?!?! there were only a few employees to service the thirty planes that needed to takeoff and land. We waited ON THE PLANE for almost four hours before moving. I CANNOT believe that Zeb did as well as he did. He was happy and pleasant and running up and down the aisle. The plane crew was really nice and let us move around and whatnot. I was afraid of getting deep vein thrombosis or something ridiculous- plus I was getting more and more uncomfortable every minute sitting there so I tried to walk around a lot.
After the INSANE 5 and a half hour delay we finally took off. The plane ride was diabolical. We took off at midnight and landed at almost four am Toledo time. Zeb slept almost the entire plane ride- but I cannot say the same for Kent or me. We had one minor catastrophe during the flight. Zeb slept on Kent's lap (no room on mine) and so I had the drinks on my tray. Kent grabbed his drink from my tray and didn't get a good enough grasp. It dropped upside down directly onto Zeb's sleeping head. He FREAKED- as would I if freezing cold Ocean Spray cran-apple juice with ice was poured on my sleeping head and down my ears and shirt. I think he inhaled some of it too. I couldn't stop giggling (that's what I do at HIGHLY inappropriate times and when I am really tired). Thank heavens he was calmed quickly.

We finally landed in SLC only to find out that our luggage had mysteriously disappeared. Imagine that. No freaking luggage. There were no Northwest agents available to make a claim either- and it has to be done AT THE AIRPORT upon arrival or else you can't make a claim. All of our christmas presents and Kent's clothes and my shoes were gone. After the most ridiculous wait we finally left the airport at six AM toledo time. Zeb was highly entertained by my dad and the escalators -thank heavens.
We made it home to sleep for a few hours and then I began the attempt to recover or at least locate our bag. Apparently it is very typical for airlines to HAVE NO FREAKING IDEA where bags are during holiday weeks. They told us there were hundreds of bags at the airport that we could come and look through- but that they didn't think ours were there. They weren't sure where they were though. We would just have to call the airport every time a Delta or Northwest flight came in from Detroit.
Our bags showed up at midnight that night on the front door. We will call it a Christmas miracle. At ten when we went to bed we called the airlines and they said they still had not located the bag.
While on the plane Kent and I decided to never travel again for Christmas- but now we are very happy to be here. I don't have my camera cord to upload pictures- but I'm borrowing one- so by tomorrow I should be back in blogging business.

Merry Christmas! Let's hope the trip home isn't quite so long and ridiculous.