Our Summer Vacation – Day 5
I woke up before dawn on Day 5 of our vacation. It would be a busy day and I needed a good breakfast. While my wife dozed, I hiked two blocks to a 7-11 and procured a large, dark roast coffee and a bear claw. From there it was a short walk to the beach to await the sunrise. On the way I passed other insomniac geezers, many accompanied by small dogs.
1300 miles away our son’s family was on a shuttle to the St. Louis airport. We had transported most of their luggage with us so each of the five of them were only encumbered with a small carry-on. Our grandkids were already excited about coming to the beach so I imagined the added adventure of boarding an airplane had the needle on the excitement gauge bumping the red line.
It was our grandkids first time to fly. It was also their first time to hear the phrase “flight delay”. Before they boarded their plane in St. Louis an announcement was made that their connecting flight in Atlanta would be delayed 2 hours due to bad weather.
As soon as they were airborne a kid in the row in front of them barfed prodigiously all over himself and his mom. An unlucky guy who had procured a window seat in the same row managed to avoid the projectile vomit stream but was treated to a full measure of the smell as it began to waft throughout the plane.
“I LOVE THE SMELL OF VOMIT IN THE MORNING!” said no one, EVER!
Meanwhile, back on Deerfield Beach, I was enjoying a glorious sunrise, along with a optimum dosage of salt air, sugar, and caffeine
It would be a busy day. As soon as the sun was up, I grabbed a cup of coffee for my wife and headed back to our room.
We would need to pack up from our one-night Airbnb rental, meet up with our grandkids OTHER set of grandparents who were someplace between Orlando and Fort Lauderdale headed south, form a two-car parade to pick up our son’s family at the airport, then, proceed en masse to check into the three bedroom condo I had reserved for the next seven nights in Boca Raton, Fl.
After sleeping in a different bed each night for the past 5 nights, we would now sleep in the same bed for seven consecutive nights.
Throughout the day we received updated ETA’s on our grandkids flight. 2:20 pm eventually ended up being 4:40 pm thanks to Mother Nature’s shennanigans. Though we were eager to see them, when it comes to air travel and flight delays, rather than getting frustrated, I always recall the wisdom once imparted to me by a hot air balloon pilot: It’s a lot better to be down here wishing you were up there than up there wishing you were down here.
Next stop: Fort Lauderdale airport
The View From the Other Side of the Hill 