Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Airports, Airports, Airports

Nikki and Kelsey dropped us off around midnight.  We took the red eye back.  Again, everything was open.  I stopped by a store and bought a spoon rest that said Alaska on it and a chocolate chip muffin I planned to save for the morning.  Our flight was about thirty minutes late. JetBlue boards the back of the plane first.  This is where we were. While people were still boarding there was a drunk old man.  He was probably in his  late 80s.  He couldn't talk without slurring his words. He called the stewardess over and asked for a beer. She told him that they couldn't serve beer now.  She brought him a water.  That made him mad.  He said, "I don't want water, I want beer!"  He was pretty loud.  The stewardess told him he was welcome to get a beer in the bar, but he couldn't get one here right now.  He was kind of excited about that and said, "Really?  And I can get back on the plane?"  No.  Of course you can't get back on the plane.  The entire plane is going to sit and wait while you go drink beer at the bar?  Finally someone came on the plane and talked to him.  She said, "You are not going to be served beer at all this entire flight.  Do you understand?  No beer."  He wasn't happy about that.  This guy was one row behind and on the other isle from Maysen and I.  It was extremely bizarre to listen too.  Especially since we don't have experience around drunk people.  Also, I don't know how much his age played into this.  Anyway, I guess his grandson was on the plane.  His grandson was probably in his 50s.  His grandson sat down in a huff and whispered/yelled at him.  "STOP TALKING!  STOP TALKING!  I'M BEGGING YOU, STOP TALKING!  YOU'RE GOING TO GET US THROWN OFF THIS PLANE.  PLEASE, PLEASE STOP TALKING.  @%&*@ STOP TALKING!"  Then he would slap his leg really hard and I was worried that he was hitting his grandfather.  It was extremely uncomfortable.  Finally someone behind me said, "Could you please not use that language?  I have kids with me."  That made the grandson really angry and he yelled, "Do you see what I'm dealing with?"  The guy said, "I still have kids with me and they don't need to hear that language."  The grandson says, "Oh right, like they haven't heard that before."  He was such a jerk!  Then he went back to whisper yelling at this grandfather.  This went on for about thirty minutes.  Finally they asked them to leave.  The grandson gets up in a huff.  Turns around and swears at the guy who asked him to watch his language and stalks off the plane.  The tension was so thick.  The stewardess were talking to the family guy and he said, "The old man wasn't the problem, it was his grandson."  That is true.  The old man was a little crazy, but the grandson was ridiculous.  I'm glad we didn't have to ride the plane with him, but I sure felt sorry for the old man.
Eagle at the Alaska airport ~ for Jorja  
Well.....our plane didn't make it on time.  We just barely missed our connection.  It took me a bit to figure out where to go to get help.  By the time I did I was the last one in line.  Oh boy.  All the flights were booked and we just had to sit and wait it out until the lady could get to us.
Maysen at the Long Beach airport
There were two men who had gone fishing.  The lady wanted to get them home tonight since they had all that fish.  Their option was to fly to Arizona, then to San Francisco, then to Utah.  That sounds enjoyable.  Another girl in front of us was able to get home with two connections.  There was a group of 5, one of them was very pregnant.  They were able to get back as well but had to take two flights.  Most people they talked into staying the night.  There was a father and son (the son was my age) that was in front of us.  They finally decided to stay.  They didn't want to wait all day in the airport and then told they had to stay.  The people who stayed were given a hotel room and airport food credit.  They had to pay for their own rental cars if they wanted to do anything.  I REALLY didn't want to stay the night.  The kids all start school tomorrow.  I wanted to get Maysen back for that and I wanted to be there on their first day.  Anyways, after waiting forever the lady comes out to talk to us.  She said she got us on a flight today.  We were going to have to fly out of the Ontario airport (apparently that is an hour away) but the flight would be nonstop.  Yay!  I was so happy I hugged her.  Maysen said the lady looked at her like I was crazy.  I didn't care, I was so happy.  She gave us a food voucher and told us to go eat and then come back and she would give us the transport.  We had to go back through security to get the food.  I forgot I had water in my bottle.  I wanted to keep the bottle so they had me go outside, dump out the water and go through it again.  I was escorted by security the entire time.  We got some food and sat down by the father and son we had been talking to.  I can't remember their names, but they live in West Jordan.  The son reminded me of Casey Cole.  They couldn't believe it when they found out we were getting home tonight.  I showed them our ticket and that is when I noticed we were flying to Oregon.  What?  We were leaving at 10:00 and arriving at midnight.  I told them that I was sure she said we would leave at 4 from Ontario and it would be a nonstop flight to Salt Lake.  They pulled out their tickets and discovered they were going to Oregon too.  What?  It took us awhile to figure out they just gave us those so we could get through security so we could eat.  That was a relief!  Anyway, we came back to where the lady told us to meet her.  That is when we heard our names.  Jackson and Chelsea were at the airport!  They were on a JetBlue flight to Salt Lake.  I told them to expect a full flight because there were a ton of people who couldn't get on it.  The lady came to talk to us and said that the flight we were on was messed up.  They put us on a nonstop flight for tomorrow.  Yikes!  She said to stay here and she would see what she could do.  I introduced her to Jackson & Chelsea.  "These are my cousins.  They are flying to Salt Lake on JetBlue and offered us their seats."  She laughed at me and walked away.
Maysen, Stephanie, Chelsea, Jackson
We waited for awhile until the lady came out and said she got us on a nonstop flight out of LAX.  It would get into Salt Lake around 10:00 at night.  Yay!  Twelve hours after we were supposed to be home, but at least we will get back in time for school!
Maysen
Not only did she get us on the flight, but she got us in first class.  Fancy.
First class didn't seem much different than economy.  My orange juice came in a glass.  They had bananas and Halloween size Twix in the snack basket.  I would have much rather gotten home on time.
Maysen in first class
Mike was waiting for us when we got there.  The kids were asleep when we got home.  I am so glad we finally made it!  We left Alaska almost 24 hours ago.  I'm so tired!  This is not how I wanted to spend the last day of summer.  It is also not how I wanted to spend my mom's birthday. I'm just glad we are safely home.

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