The Denver Airport, Part 2

Thank you to everyone who expressed their concern on my last post about our adventures returning home from the Beehive State. To make a long story short, we made it home. We're both safe, though a little worse for wear. If that's all the information you wanted to confirm, then you don't need to read the rest of this post. Check back later for some cute pictures of G-Man and my New Year's Resolutions. If you want to hear of our adventure, please, stick around.

When I last posted, we were waiting to board the plane in two hours. G-Man was asleep. Things were looking good. I even had a very nice girl that confirmed the flight information with the United agent and then came to find me since I didn't want to move the sleeping baby. She was one of the few people waiting for the plane that was kind and was handling the situation well. It got pretty ugly. People were yelling at the United agents. They even had to post a security guard at the desk after a while.

It was time to board, G-Man woke up, and we walked down to the desk only to find out that we were again delayed. The pilot that had been stranded in San Francisco was going to be illegal within 20 minutes of landing in Denver and couldn't fly us to Boston. They had another crew, but now we would be taking off at 10 p.m. and arriving in Boston at 4:00 a.m. They were offering to put people up in a hotel overnight and rebook them the next day, or keep them on the original flight. We opted for the hotel. We both needed to sleep. Bad news - no way to get the luggage. It was already on the plane and was going to Boston that night. The United agent assured me that there was a place to buy baby food next to the hotel.

We went down to catch the shuttle bus. I realized I had no car seat. Slightly panicked, I waited with the growing throng of people that would now be spending the night at the Radisson South East in Aurora, Colorado. Up pulls the shuttle bus and it was already half full. People are pushing for a spot. It's cold outside. We took a taxi. The taxi driver got lost trying to find the entrance to the hotel. He was kind enough to turn off the meter when he realized he couldn't get to the entrance and had to make three U-turns. I figured out how to get there and talked him through it. He was very flustered and I felt bad for him, so I tipped him for being so nice.

We checked in and got a crib for the room. I asked the desk staff how I should walk to the grocery store - it was nearby, but it required crossing some big streets and walking under the freeway. The manager paged the head shuttle driver to take me to the grocery store to get baby food. Not only did the shuttle driver take me over there in the middle of a huge rush of people trying to come in from the airport, he waited for me to buy my stuff so I wouldn't have to walk back to the hotel. I tipped him too. I should have gone back and tipped the manager that had him drive me.

We ate dinner - turkey rice dinner and sweet potatoes for G-Man, tuna melt from room service for me - and took a shower. G-Man was not amused with that. He usually likes showers. It was weird. Then we tried to get to sleep. G-Man was not interested in the three foot cage they gave us as a crib. He got his legs stuck in it immediately. I put him in bed with me. The bed was awesome. It was one of those Select Comfort sleep number beds. G-Man's sleep number is a 55. Mine is a 50, but I think I'd opt for a higher number if I ever get to sleep in one of those beds again. Though we had a cool bed, neither of us slept well.

G-Man woke up at 4:30 to have a bottle and went back to sleep. I woke up at 5:30 to get ready to catch the 6:00 a.m. shuttle. G-Man woke up at 5:40 by vomiting the entire bottle he had just drained. I should have tipped the maids, but I didn't think about it until now.

More fighting for the 6:00 a.m. shuttle. I missed the first one, even though I was there at 5:45. A bus pulled up and I hurried to the back to load my computer bag and stroller only to get to the front of the bus to be told the bus was full. They were taking my stroller off. I yelled into the bus that I only needed one seat and asked if there was just one available. There was. Yelled to the guy in the back to put my stroller back on. Rode in fear that they had taken my computer bag off and left it in the street. (They didn't.)

We made it through security without too much trouble. (Sidenote - I'm actually pretty organized when it comes to going through security. I have spent time thinking about it and make sure when I pack my bags that I can grab the liquids and other things that need to be removed. I wear shoes that are easy to take off and put back on. Since we have flown with G-Man about once a month, I'm pretty good at it now. Now I need to be more loving toward the people who don't think about going through security and hold up the line. I followed a family through security in SLC that took forever. They actually walked through the metal detector without pushing their bags and bins into the x-ray machine. I've never seen that happen.) The flight wasn't until 8:45, so we were pretty early. I got to the departures board and saw the same dreaded words from Friday - DELAYED. AIRCRAFT DELAY. Lots of edgy people were there with me. I was just waiting for someone to complain about the situation.

Complaining Boston Passenger: blah, meeting, blah, important, can't believe stupid United, blah blah
Me: "You're right. It is hard when these things are delayed. Especially when it has to do with weather that can't be controlled by humans. It's hard on everyone. I was by myself in the airport with a cranky baby for nine hours, he wouldn't sleep at the hotel and then he then vomited on me this morning. It's sure too bad about your meeting, though."

No one complained.

The flight home was pretty good. G-Man slept on a middle seat for a while. The luggage was already there waiting. We went to the car and started driving home. And when I saw my house, I started to sob.

To be continued...