Alright, so no scary stories here of almost missing our flight. We made it to the airport in plenty of time, we even got a cab to take us there for as cheap as the shuttle bus would have been. But our trip home was far from easy.
We get in line to check our bags, and there is this lady with two kids with her at one of the ticket counters, and she was there FOREVER! And one of her kids started yelling loudly, and then proceeded to take the stroller where her other child (a little baby) was in and started spinning the stroller around, and then the stroller tipped backwards. I could see everybody in line, just gasp, and luckily this mother grabbed the stroller just in time, but she didn't even seem phased, and just let her older kid keep running around. Everybody in this line was on the plane to Newark, so I just knew that knowing our luck, they would probably be sitting behind us on the plane.
So, a lot of time passes, we go through security, Immigration, all that fun stuff. We get on the plane, and Kristin looks at me, and says to me 'oh great, a family of five is sitting behind us.' And not just any family of five, but yes indeed, that mother, and her two rowdy kids from the ticket counter, and also, her husband and one more kid. Awesome.
Now, nothing against babies or families for that matter, but little, little kids are just really not fun on a six hour flight And on all of our other forms of travel we had the pleasure of having screaming kids right next to us everywhere we went, and now there were three of them, right behind us.
So, we got our seats kicked for about half the flight, and yes, there was screaming and crying, but we had headphones and movies to watch just like on the way there.
Sadly, we arrived very cranky and hungry in Newark because they did not have our vegetarian meals for us, and we had a six and a half hour layover until our flight to Seattle left. Trying to get an earlier flight was fruitless unless we wanted to pay fifty bucks each, but we did get some meal vouchers, and we got some pretty gross stadium-type nachos at this bar in the airport.
So, as we are playing Phase 10 and trying to pass time in the airport, the sky lights up with lightning, and it starts raining like crazy, and the thunder was just ridiculously loud. So, not only did it rain EVERYWHERE we went in Europe, but also in the city of our layover! Flights were being cancelled and delayed left and right. And the news station that was on in the bar just kept reporting on how HOT it was in Seattle! Now that is just not right. Seattle, where is is SUPPOSED to rain all the time was having record highs while we were stuck in the Newark airport on an already dreadfully long layover.
So, our plane was only delayed a little bit. Most of the storm stopped by the time it was our time to leave, and we boarded the plane about 45 minutes later than scheduled. But here is the kicker, once we are all boarded, we look out the window and see the thunder and lighting and rain all start up again. So the captain comes on and says we will most likely be sitting there for about an hour and half to two hours until the crew can get back outside and the rain stops. And, to top it all off, kitty corner from us, there sits a mother and her baby boy. This little boy thought it would be fun to SCREAM bloody murder the second he got on the plane, and he really did not like it when his mother fastened his seatbelt. And he also thought it would be fun to just scream every now and then during the flight home. His mother did not seem to care too much. Thank goodness my iPod battery was full.
Luckily this storm passed quicker than the first storm, and we only sat for about an hour or so and then we were able to take off. We made up time in the air and still arrived here in Seattle pretty much on schedule.
Uncle Darren was kind enough to come pick us up at the airport and we come home, and yes, you guessed it, popped some microwave popcorn. Let me tell ya, nothing ever tasted so good.