So, after much discussion and finding out the facts around the credit we got from the airline that if we were going to use our credit, we needed to go to Michigan yet this summer. So we booked tickets for the last week of August to return late in the night before the first day of school. However, if you know us at all, you know that it is rare for our travel to go as planned when flying.
We left at quarter to 7 in the morning from Charlottetown. I love living 10 minutes from the airport.
Gideon was pretty pleasant on the plane.
We made it to Toronto and that is when things fell apart. First, we had to sit on the plane for an extra 10 minutes to wait for our gate to open up. . Then we had to stop at the ticketing counter to get our boarding passes. We had learned in Charlottetown that somehow when our tickets were booked, something went weird with Gideon as a lap infant. He wasn't connected to our family, but was still booked, just out on his own. So, that made every time we check in take extra long, including in Toronto. Then we had to go through customs and the line was quite long. As we were waiting line, I was watching time ticking down from an hour before our flight, to 30 minutes and I am starting to get really nervous. We finally get our turn with custom agent, who sent us back a step. We were very confused, and spoke with the agent there. Apparently what had happened was the ticketing agent who entered our checked bag number made a typo, so our bag did not connect with us and our itinerary. This, of course, was not cool with the US customs, so the agent had to come with us to get us through customs. By this point I think we had 15 minutes before our flight left. So we ran through the terminal. Wilbert had Mataya on his shoulder and I was pushing Gideon in the stroller. And, of course, we missed the flight by just a few minutes.
The agents at the gate were very nice and helpful, though and found one alternative for us and then looked some more and found another that got us in to Grand Rapids an hour earlier than the first. So now we were flying from Toronto to Minneapolis and then to Grand Rapids and getting to Grand Rapids at 5:30 pm, rather than at 1:30 pm as we would have originally.
We were also impressed when the same agent that helped us sort out our bag problem in customs hand delivered our new checked bag tag to us at our gate.
We got some lunch in Toronto, got on the plane for Minneapolis. The kids shared some animal crackers at the gate in Minneapolis.
We got our flight to Grand Rapids and arrived as scheduled. It took us a bit to get out of the terminal though since Wilbert left his phone in the seat pocket. But, we finally arrived got to see Grandpa and Grandma.
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