Unexpected Vacation

We are back from an adventure that we didn't plan on taking! Our time in Oregon was fantastic. We had a lot of fun with Dani's parents and family. We celebrated our second daughter's second birthday and Dani and i celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary.

The camp i spoke at was incredible and really encouraging as well. You can read more about that at the Y∙LIFe blog here, if you want to.

We were scheduled to return to Texas on June 27th and we loaded the plane at PDX in Oregon. Our flight had a lay-over in San Diego where we were supposed to switch planes quickly (we had less than an hour originally)and then finish the jaunt to DFW in Texas. Our flight was delayed an hour leaving PDX so we thought we were really in a pinch to make our connection. We found out that there were 18 other people on this flight that were also trying to get to DFW, and we were all sitting in the back of this plane. The flight attendants made an announcement for the other passengers who had more time to make their connection to stay seated so the 18 people trying to get to DFW could make their flight.

Then, as we landed and had permission to turn our cell phones back on, i received a call from Orbitz.com. On a side note, if you are planning a trip soon, Orbitz.com is a GREAT site to book your reservations. Not only do they offer great fares but they also call you the day you are set to leave and update you on your flight status (i.e. on time, delayed, cancelled). Back to the story: As soon as i turned my phone on, i received this call from Orbitz.com. It said that our flight to DFW had been cancelled! i told the fight attendants and they hadn't heard yet.

So, we were no longer in a mad dash to get off the plane to make our connection. Instead, we had to go to the American Airlines counter and see what was going on and when we could get out. As you can probably imagine, the line was LONG! Our flight was supposed to leave at 5:15 but every flight to DFW from San Diego had been cancelled starting at 3:40. So, we were all now in line trying to get out on another plane.

Since there were four of us flying (Dani, our two girls, and me), they had a hard time finding a flight that we could get on so we ended up having to wait until Saturday before they had another open flight. On top of that, the airline would not help us out to cover the expenses because the cancellation was due to the weather. i asked if all the rain in Texas was a publicity stunt from "Evan Almighty" but the humor was lost in the chaos.

Dani started calling hotels in San Diego to see if we could get a room for the next three nights. She found us a room at Sommerset Suites for a great price, but they didn't have any openings for Thursday night. We discussed renting a car and trying to drive home but it was going to cost at least $600 just to rent the car since we were going to leave it in Texas. After weighing all our options, we decided to head over to Sommerset Suites and hope for an opening on Thursday.

Unfortunately, no rooms opened up so we had to move. Thursday (during nap time) we had to check out and get a cab to take us to Town and Country Resort. This was a nice place that had a GREAT deal on rooms as long as we didn't cancel our reservation with them. Apparently, they just wanted to fill up their open rooms so instead of $400 a night it was $119 a night.

We skipped naps and checked in (we had 4 huge bags of luggage and a trash bag with our oldest daughter's carseat in it) and decided to go swimming. The weather was beautiful in San Diego! Cool nights and warm days with a nice breeze and dry heat! Of all the places to get stuck, this was probably the best (even though everything was really pricey there).

Friday, we decided to catch the trolley and head over to the San Diego Zoo. This was a blast and the girls had a lot of fun. The polar bears were playing together, the hippo was sleeping with his noce up to the glass underwater, the pandas were within 10 feet of us, and the gorillas were sitting right in front of the glass. This was a really fun day! Then, we found out that you can use the ticket you buy for the trolley for the bus ride as well (we had to take both to get to the zoo). The only problem is that we found out after we already bought four tickets for the bus. :)

The room we had for Thursday, Friday, and half of Saturday was decent but all the beds were in one room (not a suite). That meant nap time was off and bed time would be a little challenge. We were so thankful for the room and to have a place to stay though.

Saturday, we swam a bit in the morning and then loaded all our luggage up to check out and hop back in a cab to take us to the airport. We decided we should get to airport early since there had been so many cancellations. When we arrived at the airport, our flight had already been delayed 45 minutes. We were a little nervous and hit our breaking point as we tried to get through security. i wish we could have it on tape, imagine the four of us taking our shoes off, unloading the girls and our stuff out of the strollers, getting our laptop out of it's bag, taking our belts off, emptying our pockets, etc. Now imagine this in double speed with a line of people behind us!

We finally got through and realized that i left the girls water cups in the stroller and it spilled on the scanning machine as it went through! So, now we have a wet stroller, no water for the girls, and the security people wanting to know what liquid i was trying to smuggle in. As all this is going on, our youngest grabs the tickets and starts playing with them. It was all a bit chaotic.

Finally, our plane is ready for us to board and we venture on. Mommy carrying a big pink backpack in front, daughter #2 right behind pulling her little Dora backpack on wheels, daughter #1 pulling her little Dora backpack on wheels behind daughter #2, and me carrying the carseat and laptop following both daughters and Dani. I'm sure that we are those passengers that other people just hope aren't on the same plane.

Our plane was delayed another hour but we finally took off and landed at DFW just before midnight on Saturday! My brother picked us up and we headed for home. We finally made it home around 2:30 am on Sunday morning at went straight to bed.

This unexpected vacation ended up being a pretty fun trip (until the bills come in). :) God was definitely teaching us all flexibility and patience throughout this trip.

Needless to say, this is the most excited we've been to be back home and in our own beds! Right now, our girls are napping!!! Obviously that didn't happen much on our trip and they still really need that rest time (as do we).