For our 50th Wedding Anniversary, we were taking our kids and grandkids on an Alaskan cruise. We had been planning the event for over a year. Coaxing, encouraging and mildly threatening all to attend. Talk about herding cats. When children are grown and have their own families, interests and obligations spiral in many directions. That’s why we started early, coaxing, prodding and even playing the guilt card.
Well, it worked, and with a couple of months to go, everyone had made their plans and had their passports. Becky and Eddie and the two grown kids were driving from Prescott Valley, Arizona to Vancouver. Paul and Sandy and their two kids were flying in two days early from Roanoke, Virginia, to see a little of Vancouver. Missy and Terry and their two kids were flying in the day before the cruise from Jacksonville, Florida. We were also flying in the day before from Springfield, Virginia. It turned out that we were scheduled to be on the same plane with Missy and her family from Chicago to Vancouver.
One of the basic rules of flying is avoid Chicago during the summer. Well, Carole and I eventually did.
Our United flight was to depart from Reagan National at 9:30 AM to Chicago. Our philosophy is we would rather get to the airport early and wait, than have something go wrong. Our neighbor, Jim Vancini, graciously gave us a ride to the airport. We arrived at 7:15 AM and checked in. We had used frequent flyer miles to upgrade. We were informed at the counter that we were flying Ted, not United, to Chicago and there were no first class seats on Ted. Our first class seats from Chicago to Vancouver had also disappeared. Then the plane was delayed until 10:24 AM. As we only had one hour to make our connection in Chicago, it looked like we would miss it.
I am usually an optimist and I figured if our flight was late, maybe the flight to Vancouver would also be delayed. Missy and family (minus one), who had arrived in Chicago, confirmed that the Vancouver flight had been pushed back. Tyler, Missy’s son, had a last minute mandatory university obligation, which dropped him from the trip.
After we were on board and in the queue to take off, the captain came on the intercom and told us they had “weather” in Chicago and we had been put on “hold.” We sat for 30 minutes and then the captain came on again and advised that they had shut down the Chicago tower because of a possible tornado. What a helpless feeling. We couldn’t get back to our gate because it was occupied by another plane. So, we sat.
A little before noon, we taxied back to the gate. I had spoken to a flight attendant about our 50th wedding anniversary cruise and they were concerned. One of them said they would talk to an agent about a flight from Dulles to Seattle which might help us. When the plane got back to the gate, a very helpful manager hooked us up with an agent. The Seattle flight had already departed. BUT, Air Canada (an affiliate of United) had a flight to Toronto where we could connect to Vancouver. While it took an hour and a half, the crew actually got our luggage off of the Chicago flight. The flight to Toronto departed at 5:45 PM, so, again, we had plenty of time.
We picked up our luggage, checked in with Air Canada, had a leisurely lunch and went back through security. We were getting good at many of these tasks. We could see the light at the end of the tunnel. And, from then on, everything went relatively well. In Toronto, we sat on the plane for over an hour waiting for connecting passengers and then the push-back vehicle wouldn’t work. I had visions of something getting broken. But by 9:30 PM, Carole and I were in the air, destination Vancouver.
Missy, Terry and Kristin had not been so fortunate. Our last call from Missy told us that all flights out of Chicago had been canceled. They had been booked on an early flight the next day to Denver with a connecting flight to Vancouver. The next morning when they got to the airport, they found out the Denver flight had been delayed so that they could not make the Denver to Vancouver flight. Did I earlier mention helpless feelings. It is a helpless feeling when you can’t get from here to there.
Terry went up and talked to a United agent about their plight and the next thing he was frantically waiving to Missy and Kristin. It turned out that because of all the canceled flights the day before, United had put on an additional flight from Chicago direct to Vancouver! They were seated in the first class section and away they went. Of course, their luggage was still waiting for the Denver flight. But, we all made the ship. Missy’s last suitcase showed up two days later when we docked in Icy Straits, Alaska.
The anniversary cruise was everything we planned for and expected. There were only two mandatory formations, the life boat drill and the family photo session. That will be this years Christmas card – no not the life boat drill.
