On Sunday, May 20, 2012 the boys and I, along with Loni began our journey to Alaska. Mina and Stan had flown to Vancouver the day before, and we were to meet them aboard ship.
I need to preface this first day's tale with the fact that I had not been in a plane since 1989, nor had I ever have used a passport, but have had a passport for several years in case of an emergency when the boys went to Costa Rica.
Loni picked us up at my house since my van was still in the body shop from the wreck I had on May 7. It was a squeeze to get all the luggage into the back of her Jeep, but the boys managed and we all settled into our respective seats. What happened next have been our first hint that things might not progress as we had hoped.
My youngest announced that he did not have a seat belt in the back seat. Now that was news to Loni, but then again she has never ridden in the back seat of her car. As the youngest continues to look for a seat belt, Loni is in the front seat commenting on how she paid good money for the car and it should have seat belts. Of course, the whole thing just gave me the giggles. Finally after much digging a seat belt was found. We are now ready to drive off but then Loni realizes that the back is not latched. The oldest offers to get out and shut it, but then he cannot get out because Loni has the child safety locks on. Now I am giggling even harder and Loni is saying she doesn't know how to disengage the child locks, and that sets me off even more. This might be the place to mention that I have not been to bed because we were leaving so early I saw no point to trying to sleep. Loni figures out how to let the oldest out, he shuts the back completely, and we are off to the airport.
Once at the airport we park in long term parking, board a shuttle and after some wrangling of the luggage, arrive at our designated check in point. Loni points us to a kiosk and says check in. I turn that project over to the boys because the oldest has flown several times in the past 7 years and the youngest has been out and about a couple of times. They start doing what they are supposed to do with the machine and Loni is on another machine and I am standing there waiting. It doesn't take long for me to figure out I hate this part. The machine will not accept the oldest's passport and I start getting anxious. We finally get up to a clerk and he asks for our passports which I promptly plop up on the desk. He takes them one by one, the oldest is fine, the youngest is fine, he gets to mine and says invalid. I almost pass out. WHAT??? Loni is saying not possible since she had to have them to finish booking the cruise. The man walks away with my passport and then comes back with a pen and says sign it. Couldn't have have just said you need to sign your passport instead of INVALID!
It is probably a good thing I did not know about Loni's drama going on with her passport while we were dealing with checking in or I would have probably hyperventilated. She tried to give them her AmEx gift card as her passport, because she didn't know she had left her passport in the kiosk and it had been found and put behind a desk.
We get through security and to the gate. We start looking at our boarding passes and realize Loni and I are not sitting together like we were supposed to, but the boys are together in their seats. Loni says we will fix it, but I am not too worried about our seats if the boys are together. I am just happy to be able to get on the plane.
Our Alaskan adventure was underway!
Once at the airport we park in long term parking, board a shuttle and after some wrangling of the luggage, arrive at our designated check in point. Loni points us to a kiosk and says check in. I turn that project over to the boys because the oldest has flown several times in the past 7 years and the youngest has been out and about a couple of times. They start doing what they are supposed to do with the machine and Loni is on another machine and I am standing there waiting. It doesn't take long for me to figure out I hate this part. The machine will not accept the oldest's passport and I start getting anxious. We finally get up to a clerk and he asks for our passports which I promptly plop up on the desk. He takes them one by one, the oldest is fine, the youngest is fine, he gets to mine and says invalid. I almost pass out. WHAT??? Loni is saying not possible since she had to have them to finish booking the cruise. The man walks away with my passport and then comes back with a pen and says sign it. Couldn't have have just said you need to sign your passport instead of INVALID!
It is probably a good thing I did not know about Loni's drama going on with her passport while we were dealing with checking in or I would have probably hyperventilated. She tried to give them her AmEx gift card as her passport, because she didn't know she had left her passport in the kiosk and it had been found and put behind a desk.
We get through security and to the gate. We start looking at our boarding passes and realize Loni and I are not sitting together like we were supposed to, but the boys are together in their seats. Loni says we will fix it, but I am not too worried about our seats if the boys are together. I am just happy to be able to get on the plane.
Our Alaskan adventure was underway!
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