We made it but... Dec 20, 2008

So we left Charlotte an hour and 20 minutes later than we were supposed to. There was fog or something in Atlanta and they had grounded any new flights coming in. We arrived at 9:51 am in Atlanta and our flight for San Francisco left at 9:45 am. You would think after all the problems they would have held it for 10 lousy minutes. I went to the Delta service desk where I waited in line with about 150 other people who missed connections. After at least an hour and a half, I found out we were automatically booked on the 4:05 PM flight ON SUNDAY!!! So I had tried to be all Zen as I was waiting in line but when I found that out, I had a freak out moment and had to cry. We got put on standby for the 2:35 pm flight today but I was not hopeful since we had to have 4 seats. I was bound and determined to get on a flight today no matter what it cost. After my freakout, Scott and I started making contingency plans. We got our Alcatraz tickets moved from tomorrow to the 31st and we resigned ourselves that we would end up missing The Nutcracker tomorrow. I was cranky, the kids were cranky and crying because we couldn't get to California and where would we sleep and where were our clothes, etc, etc, etc.
We went to eat lunch and we were all snapping at each other. So we decided that if we could not get on the standby at 2:35 we would just have to turn it into something good and stay the night in Atlanta, visit the aquarium and make the best out of a bad situation.
We went to the gate for the standby flight and for about 45 agonizing minutes, we didn't know. There was a group of 6 in front of us and there were nine seats left on the screens in the terminal. I even offered the lady $1000 to let us have her seats (she wouldn't do it). The after the party of 6 got on and they had checked all the seats, they had 5 left. We were literally the last four people on the plane by some miracle (and believe me, I was praying like crazy). I mean, our seat assignments were hand written on a ripped sheet of paper, seriously.
So we made the flight and we had good seats that were all together. The flight was pretty good but about 1 hour before we landed, after about 4 hours of watching the in flight TV, Luke felt sick. He was using the barf bag and freaking out. Luckily it was just a little motion sickness and the poor eating schedule from today and watching the horizon and sitting in my lap cured him.
Next comes the luggage situation. As I mentioned in my last post, the baggage belt broke in Charlotte and the last time we saw our luggage was in a pile at the check in counter. We got to baggage claim and while I waited to see what came off the carousel, Scott checked with baggage services. One bag could not be found, one was on a Northwest flight to San Francisco (we flew Delta), and the other was on our plane. As it turned out mine and Scott's were on our plane and we have no idea where the kids is. They are supposed to deliver it to our hotel but the website says it was foudn in Charlotte and we'll be here, the question is when.
We took a taxi to the hotel 6 hours after we were supposed to be here where Luke fell asleep. Hopefully they will have clean clothes in the morning but I am not holding my breath.
So we are here, and we are together and I guess none of the rest should matter. It has been a dreadfully long day but we will get to go to Fort Pointe tomorrow morning and see the Nutcracker in the afternoon. Hopefully I will be able to post some pictures tomorrow.