Adventures in airtravel

Well Ronan and I had a busy 2 days.

My grandma died last week. She was 93. The memorial service was yesterday. Living in a small town we have limited access with airlines. There are basically 2 airlines that fly in and out of San Luis Obispo. And being as they are puddle jumpers basically they are expensive! Anyway knowing I was going to have to do the bombing mission up there I decided to not mess around with driving to Santa Barbara or San Jose or some other larger airport. so I find a flight thats under $500 that leaves SLO Tuesday night and gets me to Arcata at midnight (bleh) I book it and a hotel next to the airport that has a shuttle service so I don't have to bother with Dad having to drive in to pick me up or renting a car or trying to get a taxi to come to the airport at midnight.
So Tuesday night we all go out to dinner and Judd and Logan head home and Ronan and I head to the airport. We get there and the lady at the counter says "there is a little problem with your flight" GREAT! The plane was coming up from LA and it would be here on time but there was some sort of weather related problem in San Francisco and they were not allowing them to land there. So my 7:55pm flight was now scheduled to leave at 10:00pm (if the weather cleared). I was like ummm well my connection in SF is at 10:35. What are my options?
She said I could come back in the morning and try and fly standby on the 6am flight but if I couldn't get on that one she could get me on the 8am flight which would get me to Arcata at 3:15. I say I'm going to Arcata for a memorial service at 1pm so me getting there at 3:15 is not going to work.
So my only other option was to get up to San Francisco on my original delayed flight, and she could get me on the 8am flight from SF and I'd get to Arcata at 10am. Ok fine. Now I'm thinking crap I'm going to have to try and find a hotel near the airport in SF with vacancy and shuttle service at midnight with a crabby infant in tow. Terrific!
So Ronan and I settle in at the airport to wait for the next 3 hours till our flight leaves. We play some, he charms the others waiting, and I feed him his dinner.
The LA plane arrives on time and the passengers deplane and then they announce that SF weather has cleared and we' d begin boarding in 10 minutes. HURRAH, so we only end up leaving about 35 minutes late. Great news as this will still get me into SF in time to make my connection.
Ronan is having a ball on the plane, looking out the window, yanking on this, poking that, smiling at the steward and other passengers. Then he finally falls asleep after about 10 minutes of flight time. The steward says our connecting flight leaves from Gate 76. Now anyone thats been in the remote terminal at SF knows that its kinda like a starfish. A central hub with about 5 gates on each of its little arms. WE land at gate 88. So I know I have about a 10 minute walk to the next gate (5 minutes if you are not toting an infant or have a stroller.) No problem I think that still leaves me plenty of time. So we deplane and I round the corner to where I assume is the ramp going up into the terminal only to be surprised with 2 flights of stairs! I must have said an expletive or something along the lines of "YOU"VE GOT TO BE KIDDING" as the airport dude that was making sure the passengers didn't wander off into the bowels of the tarmac grabbed my suitcase and hustled it up the stairs for me. Yay one problem solved. So we head off to gate 76. As I'm dragging my suitcase behind me and my left bicep is starting to cramp from holding Ronan I think "now why was it I didn't bring the stroller? or the Bjorn?" ARGH sometime trying to make things simple and easy just makes things hard and complicated. so anyway we get to gate 76 only to see it says "Bakersfield". HMmm I think, maybe Arcata is the next flight but I see that this flight is not even boarding yet. So I go look at the arrivals/departures board and it says Arcata is boarding at gate 71! AWWW *&^&^% I think and start hustling back the way we came. I'm getting a tad concerned at this point as now I have to go 2 fingers back and I can't run or anything as I'm lugging my backpack, Ronan and dragging the suitcase. "why why didn't I check my luggage and bring the stroller?" We follow the signs to gates 71-73 only to find or more accurately not find gate 71. I'm thinking WTH? Where is it? It said go this way. So I look at the arrival/departure board again and this one says Arcata is at gate 76! WHATTTTTT?? ARE YOU SERIOUS I JUST CAME FROM THERE! So I go to the nearest gate and say where the HE*& am I supposed to be? 2 of your boards say 2 different things. So they look and it is at Gate 71 which thankfully is right down the aisle. I had walked by it in my hurry to get there. so we backtrack to gate 71 and the man there says Hey would you like to pre-board since you have the baby? YES THANK YOU! So we get to get settled in without anyone breathing down our neck and Ronan thankfully falls asleep right away.
We get to Arcata at midnight and I go out to call the shuttle only to find my cell phone doesn't work there! (I'd forgotten that little fact from Thanksgiving) Luckily there was another shuttle van driver there who called the Holiday Inn for me. The shuttle arrives and we get to the hotel, throw on our jamms and hit the sack.

Dad and James pick us up about 10 and we go have breakfast and head out to Aunt Rose's ranch. 3 of the uncles and a couple of cousins were there. I don't remember ever meeting the cousins before and it had to be AT LEAST 25 years since I'd seen any of the uncles. It was very strange. Uncle Phil and Uncle Bobby were just older versions of the uncles I remembered from my childhood but Uncle Silas I wouldn't have known if I'd passed him on the street.
The service as very nice. The cemetary is in a redwood forest. It was a clear sunny day so it was very beautiful and peaceful. We go back to the ranch. While trying to get Ronan to nap I was listening to everyone talking around the kitchen table. it was funny how that brought me back to being a kid and listening to them talk when I was visiting Grandma. The cadence and speech patterns were the same. some of their sayings and their laughter. It was weird and comforting and the same time.
so about 7:30 Dad drives us back to the airport. We board and Ronan is asleep before we even get off the ground. AGAIN when we land at SF there are stairs instead of a ramp. AS I gear up to try and haul a sleeping infant and my suitcase up the stairs a 20 something kid comes over and carries it up for me. How nice was that? It was funny as when I saw him in the waiting area at the airport he looked stoned to the gills. I guess it just goes to show you just never know about people.
We have about 45 minutes to wait til our next plane leaves but we don't have to walk anywhere as we landed right next to the gate we were leaving from. Ronan slept the whole time. We board and land in SLO about 11:45. Get to the car and drive home. Into jams and into bed.
Get up at 6:30 this morning get Logan's breakfast, make his lunch, get Ronan dressed, hand them off to Daddy. They leave for school and daycare and work and I have breakfast and go back to bed for some much needed sleep. Got a solid 3 hours of napping. Get up have a leisurely shower then catch up on 2 days of the Tour of California bike race, then zip down to HWY 1 to watch it go by.
So glad I put my rain pants on. It was a miserable day for racing. It wasn't raining when I went down there but after about 10 minutes it started to sprinkle. Then it came a pretty steady rain and it got windy. I was frozen after about 1/2 hour. Due to the rain and headwind the racers didn't get there when they were first expected so I ended up sitting in the rain for an hour and a half. But I did get some good pics which I'll post later.
So there you have it, our adventure. Thanks to the nice people who helped us out along the way!