California Trip: Part I - The Flights

Yesterday, we returned from our vacation to visit my sister, Laura and her family in California.  Of course, we had a wonderful time and we hated to leave.  Over the next week, I hope to blog about different aspects of our trip.  I am not sure how many parts there will be, but I think I can cover everything in four posts.  I just don't feel I would give our trip its due in one post.  We had such an amazing time.

Last time we went to California there was an issue with our plane and our connecting flight.  When I booked our flight back in March, I kept this in mind.  I wanted to make sure if there was delay in our first flight we could still make our connecting flight in Atlanta.  Our layover was supposed to be 2 1/2 hrs.  Then in May, the airline changed our layover to 48 minutes.  I started to worry.

Sure enough when we arrived to check-in on Monday we had to see a Delta agent.  Our flight was delayed due to weather in Atlanta.  At this point we had a few choices.  Reschedule for Tuesday or go to Atlanta and hope to still make our connecting flight.  Our layover changed from 48 minutes to 15 minutes.  It wasn't a hard decision since I was traveling with the girls.  We rescheduled for Tuesday.  Drea was very upset because she was really excited to go.  None the less, there was nothing they could do or guarantee.  So we returned to Fairmont.

However, after that little hiccup, everything else went as planned.  We were rerouted to Minnesota, instead of Atlanta and arrived in San Diego at 1:30pm on Tuesday.  The rest of our flights and layovers went off without any problems.

Here's our first plane, on Tuesday in Pittsburgh

Charlotte excited about riding on the plane

During our layover in Minnesota the kids played in the play area

The play area had a plane, baggage cart, and...

...a control tower

Charlotte driving the baggage cart

Back on the plane, staying busy with electronics

Charlotte getting some needed rest

Drea still staying busy

 Once we arrived in San Diego we met up with my sister and her family and headed for lunch.  Then into the car and off to their home in Imperial.  The drive takes about 2 hours, which gave the kids time to talk to one an another and get to know each other.  Their was some shyness from each of them to begin with, but before long they were talking and sharing their technology.  Fast forward to the end of our week and we were back at the airport.  I thought it might be a good idea to take the red eye back to the east coast.  We wound up renting a hotel in San Diego on Saturday and spending the entire day on Sunday in San Diego.  Our flight was at 11pm west coast time.  We enjoyed our day and arrived at the airport at 9pm.  At 930, this was Charlotte...

...passed out in the terminal

The entire time Drea wanted to ride in a plane that had tv.  She finally got her wish.

And Charlotte still slept.

I hope you check back later this week for the best parts of our vacation;  swimming, Sea World, and spending time with family.