Home, Sweet Home

Continued from Savannah Day 2 Part 2.

Heading back home today. It’s been an exhausting trip, think we’ll leave the kiddos home next time for a trip like this. While PL had fun at times, it was also difficult for her to be out of her routine. Her skin has been dry and irritating her and that has caused her to be even fussier than her usual self.

DSC06018
We had PL sleep in grandparents room last night so that CL wouldn’t keep waking up PL during her night time feedings. That worked out well for RL, PL, and I. Not sure if the grandparents enjoyed having to be extra quiet in their own room though.

DSC06020
Hasn’t learned her lesson yet. Loves playing with ice still. She just keeps pouring that ice water back and forth, entertaining herself. So rare for her to play by herself.

DSC06021
Soon we were all packed up, and I walked around the corner to pick up the car from the garage. Odd, someone had thrown some sort of liquid all over the front of the car while it was parked, but otherwise no damage.

DSC06022
Happy to go home, but unhappy about having to get on two flights with PL.

DSC06023

DSC06025

DSC06026

DSC06028
Gassed up right before drop off. The airport is only about 20min out of town. They had gas stations here with the brand “El Cheapo” around here. Hah.

DSC06031
Did not know Gulfstream is located here.

DSC06033
Those trash bag looking white things in the trees are actually giant birds. Kinda cool.

DSC06035
Savannah airport and their kind of confusing signs. Without GPS on our phones, we would have probably taken a couple of wrong turns.

DSC06037

DSC06039
Cool, got the car dropped off…except, the guy handling the drop off couldn’t process our return for some reason. Now we’ll have to head inside and talk to the service desk to see if we can get it resolved.

DSC06042
Wish I had gotten a Pacifica instead of the Caravan for the same price. Luck of the draw I guess.

DSC06044
Finally found the Avis desk inside.

DSC06045
So expensive.

At the desk, I was informed that when I picked up the car, they had never opened my contract, and therefore couldn’t process my return. They claimed that they would get a manager to open and close the rental contract later. They better! I don’t want to get a notice months from now about how I’ve now owe thousands on a rental car! Update: It’s now been a week later, and I still haven’t seen the rental car charge on my credit card…Maybe it’s time I give them a call…

DSC06046
Oh look, dream playscape for PL. Stairs and escalators.

DSC06047
Flight is on time, not looking forward to flying with two kids.

DSC06048
Got our boarding passes printed here.

DSC06051

DSC06058
Love this solarium before passing through security. We are here pretty early, so we’ll hang out here for a bit.

DSC06064
PL is in heaven.

DSC06066

DSC06069

DSC06070

DSC06077

DSC06081

DSC06082
She was so excited and happy!! We all took turns going up and down the stairs and escalators with her. She could probably spend a whole day here just going up and down up and down up and down.

DSC06087

DSC06088

DSC06089

DSC06095
Everyone’s is already tired of going up and down the stairs with PL.

DSC06097
Yeah, why don’t you calm down a little and eat a snack.

DSC06103
Wants grandma to keep playing with her. We haven’t even left the airport and PL is already exhausting us.

DSC06104
Time to head toward our gate.

DSC06105
If I had to spend any time using this table, I would immediately get hungry for food. Cool concept though.

DSC06106

Then, after we got to the gate, we had one of the worst boarding experiences, ever! When it was time for the group with small children to board, we walked up and handed over our tickets to be checked. Then the rude gate agent said that we didn’t have lap infants noted on our tickets. Well, I had booked the tickets originally with lap infants, it’s your stupid machine that didn’t assign the lap infants to our tickets. Then at that point, we were directed to another gate agent, who was equally as rude. This gate agent took forever and complained the entire time about how it was our mistake that we didn’t assign lap infants on our tickets….wait a minute. It’s your lame system that fucked up, not us, you bitch! I didn’t cuss her out, but really wanted to get her name and file a complaint because she was actually just being plain mean most the time!!

Our seats were reassigned because now that our tickets showed that we had lap infants, we were put on the very last row where they had extra oxygen masks for the children. Finally, now we’ve got our tickets and we can board. Except it gets worse!

We proceed on getting on the plane, after half of the flight has already boarded ahead of us since it took the gate agent forever to resolve our lap infant ticket issues. As I am about to settle into my seat, I get a call from BH on my cell phone. BH just informed me that they wouldn’t let him board the plane because they said that he was with a later boarding group and that he has 3 bags, so has to check one….WTF. The gate agent is now just fucking with us because the whole time we spoke with her about the infants our whole group was up there talking with her and she saw that BH was apart of our group. BH was definitely with us, and he can board early because we as a family are traveling with young kids. As for the 3 bags, he was just holding one of our bags since some of us are holding kids instead. I am so fucking pissed at this point. Since we are in the very back row, there was a flight attendant who was in the back with us, I asked him to see if they can call the gate and explain all this to the gate agent. He said that he will, but he can’t make promises that they’ll comply with his pleas from up there. UGH!!!

IMG_6603
Cell phone pic, but hard to see. BH was finally allowed onto the plane with all the bags. Delta, you suck shit!! Though, the flight attendants were super awesome in trying to resolve this issue for us. It was like night and day as far as their attitudes were concerned when compared to the gate agents.

DSC06108
Finally flying, surprisingly PL is only mildly fussy on this flight. It’s a short one hour flight to Atlanta, where we have an 1.5 hour layover.

DSC06110
Arrived in Atlanta.

DSC06111
While BH was stuck unable to board the plane, the gate agent had told him that he had to consolidate all of his bags in order to board, so he had put PL’s nuggets that we had bought in the airport inside the carry on.

DSC06112
Good thing we had other snacks on board the flight, because the carry on wasn’t easily accessible during the flight.

DSC06114
Really excited about her nuggets! RL, DH, and I spent 5 minutes slowly chewing away the fried batter on these Burger King nuggets so we can just feed the chicken(hopefully some chicken…) to PL. The McNuggets skin peels off much much easier.

DSC06116
No time to sit down and eat a slow meal, one of these overpriced sandwiches will do.

DSC06117
Had to deal with another gate agent here in Atlanta. Delta wouldn’t let me pick my seats for this flight until check in 24 hours ago, which meant that we got stuck with 4 middle seats and no one was together. I was told by another gate agent in Savannah that there are some seats that are blocked off that only the gate agent in Atlanta can give to us. Of course, this gate agent had a shitty attitude again when I asked him if there was anything he could do for us getting at least two seats together. After much pleading, we were finally able to get two seats together!

But seriously, what’s up with the shitty gate agent attitudes and the great flight attendant attitudes? Then it occurred to me that it may be because flight attendants are not from Georgia, they are probably from a different state. Maybe many people in Georgia are just assholes! Or maybe gate agents are just assholes! Fuck ’em!

DSC06118
Got on the plane, no drama with boarding this time. Then we gave an ultimatum to the passenger sitting in the seat next to our two contiguous seats; trade seats with another one of our single middle seats, or be at ground zero listening to a crying kicking PL for 2.5 hours…We now have 3 contiguous seats!

DSC06119
This is a nice plane with built in screens. PL is a fan…but it may get old for the person in front since PL keeps on pushing the buttons.

DSC06120
Then the fussing and the crying commences once we are in the air. Somehow, must try to get PL to take a nap.

DSC06122
Cry cry cry, sorry to everyone else on the plane who has to listen to this.

DSC06125
Grandma did it again! She was able to put PL down to nap after a very difficult time. Hopefully PL will stay asleep for a long time.

DSC06127
CL is fascinated by the Angry Birds movie. At least it keeps her entertained and not fussy.

After a short 40min, PL wakes up from her nap. Shit! Immediately upon waking up, we knew we were in for bad, bad news. PL woke up on the wrong side of bed, was really fussy and scratched all over her body. The super dry air on the plane was giving her eczema all over her body and she’s super irritated by the itchiness. Soon, she was crying at the top of her lungs, and couldn’t be stopped. Then we get notice that we have started our descent and we all need to stay in our seats. We tried to give PL benedryl to help with the itching(as she was scratching so much she was bleeding), but she was so upset that she wouldn’t take her meds. She wouldn’t drink water or eat to equalize the pressure in her ears either. It was 40 straight minutes of hell with PL losing every bit of herself until we landed. That. Was. A. Nightmare!

DSC06130
After that flight from hell, I asked everyone to put on a fake happy face for a photo.

DSC06131
CL was calm on the flight. She doesn’t need to fake a happy face.

DSC06134
My sister in law CH arrives to pick us up! Thanks CH!

DSC06136
Now finally calm.

DSC06139

DSC06142
On our way to Home, Sweet Home.

Nope, not flying with kids again until they are past their toddler age. We tried it once, and never again until they are much older! If only the blog could convey 1/10 of the difficulties in traveling with a hyperactive toddler!!