48 Hours

48 hours is the total amount of time we were delayed during our flights to & from England over the past week. It was, hands down, the most unbelievable travel experience we have ever had.

I blogged before we left about our 24 hour delay getting to Manchester due to mechanical problems. Luckily, once we finally left on Sunday evening, things went smoothly. Jack was great on both our flight to NY and the flight to Manchester, and he even slept a bit over 5 hours on the plane, meaning he easily adjusted to the time change (which is hard to do when flying overnight).
On our return journey, our flight from Manchester to NY was delayed 3 hours apparently due to high winds in NY. Our connecting flight to Detroit was changed by the airline to accommodate our later arrival. Smartly, Mick suggested I pack pajamas and extra diapers for Jack, just in case. We finally set off from Manchester around 2:30 pm (original flight time of 11 am). The flight took longer than normal because we had to skirt the volcanic ash (which had closed airports in Scotland, Ireland, Spain, and Italy on Sunday) and we finally landed in NY at 5:45 pm Eastern time. At that point, we'd all been up for 14 hours (since we'd woken at 3:30 am Eastern time).

Our connecting flight was at 6:25 pm and we knew we'd have to hustle to make it. We had to clear customs & immigration, recheck our luggage, and go back through security. Luckily, we noticed that our flight was delayed to 6:50 so it gave us a bit of breathing room. (Side note: going through security after international travel was MUCH easier at JFK airport than it was at O'Hare... there was a security checkpoint immediately after we cleared customs that was dedicated just to those of us making connecting flights from international travel. What a relief!)

We ran about a mile (no exaggeration) to our gate, got our seat assignments, waited about 10 minutes, and then the flight started boarding. We were SO relieved to be almost home.

Silly us.

After first class boarded, we realized that no one else was boarding. Then, we saw the luggage being removed from the plane. Not a good sign. We were told that due to mechanical problems (again) we'd be delayed until 9:30 pm. Ugh. After waiting about another hour, we were told the flight was canceled. We were stuck in NY. Again - being "stuck" in New York would have been something I would have welcomed a few years ago. But with toddler in tow, we just wanted to get home.

Mick was told the earliest direct flight to Detroit was at 6:30 pm the next day. So instead he opted for an 8:30 am flight to Atlanta with a connection to Detroit. We stayed in a hotel Sunday night and were up at 5:00 Monday morning with Jack, thanks to jet lag. (Of course, it took us about an hour and half to make it from the airport to the hotel as we needed to board the air train (Jack is obsessed with trains so this was fun for him) and then wait about a half hour outside - where it was cold and very windy - for a shuttle to the hotel. I almost cried from sheer exhaustion but was able to hold it together.)
So that was Sunday. A very memorable Mother's Day for me, to be sure.

On Monday morning, we tried again to get home. Once we boarded our flight to Atlanta, we thought we were home free. We were in the first row of first class and were enjoying our leg room and the service while waiting to leave the gate. Jack was playing nicely on the floor in front of us. All of a sudden, he started getting upset. I picked him up and noticed he was SOAKING wet. His jeans were basically dripping with water. And the water was freezing cold. I looked at the floor and noticed that the carpet at our feet was waterlogged. When Mick and I tapped our feet on the floor, water squelched out everywhere. So, we had to call the flight attendant who, in turn, had to notify mechanics. Mick and I were just waiting to hear we had to deplane or something but luckily they fixed the problem and we made it to Atlanta with no more problems.

We caught our connecting (packed) flight to Detroit and landed at 2 pm Monday. We were so happy to be home... but we still had to contend with luggage that did not arrive until 4 pm. By the time we got the car from the lot, drove to Ann Arbor, and did a quick grocery run for milk and some other staples, we didn't get home until almost 6:00, a full 24 hours after we were scheduled to return.

So the grand total of flight delays going to and coming back from England was 48 hours. The total door-to-door travel time between leaving Mick's mum's house on Sunday and walking through our front door on Monday evening was 36 hours.

Through it all, Jack was fantastic. Given that he and I had such a rough, tantrum-riddled week the days leading up to our travel, I was expecting the worst. But this kid was a champ. Anyone -- adult or child -- would have been justified in having at least one meltdown during the return travel. But Jack was just charming and cooperative and good spirited. Mick and I really lucked out; Jack's good behavior helped to calm us and we didn't end up in one argument (though we were frustrated beyond belief with the situation).

We were so grateful to be able to visit with family over the last week and Jack had a lot of fun adventures (children's museum, steam train riding, swimming pool, park, etc.) so I'll post those pictures later.