Since my inlaws decided to enjoy their "golden years" in the Catskills over six years ago, it has become a dreaded ordeal in the travel department--my travel department, that is--to travel North.
We formerly resided in Northern Virginia, just outside D.C. Not too bad of a drive when they lived just outside of NYC, about four hours. Even that was doable with young children. The move upstate added a 2-3 hour drive to our several-time-a-year, plus some, road trips. To make our visits even more difficult, we decided to move to Nashville three years ago. This makes the drive impossible, of course, for a short stay. Needless to say, we see our New York family less and less as traveling becomes more and more an aggressive hobby, shall we say.
Anyway, my family--consisting of my husband and two sons, 15 and 11--began our mini trip on Friday at 10 a.m.--a VERY late Ukrainian Christmas celebration. We "mosied" to our cute little airport here in Nashville with all our Christmas presents in tow (all carryon, of course, in order to annoy our teenage son), checked in with time to sit and have a leisurely meal at the airport's grill. Since we pre-printed our boarding passes online before leaving the house (due to my eleven-year old's insistence of holding an "A" boarding pass to make sure we all can sit together (I can't even imagine where he gets that from--grin), we enjoyed this remarkable non-pressured snack.
The flight up, including a major layover in Baltimore, was uneventful. Full as usual, I did manage to seat the family members together as best I could in the 3/3 seats. I'm the one waiting in front of the cattle run in line "A" in order to accomplish this feat. Would sure love to get my hands on one of those bright colored pre-boarding passes you wear around your neck!
We enjoyed seeing everyone. Four-out-of-five siblings were there to celebrate the "Southern" Ukrainian Christmas they have come to know since it gets later and later each year as we keep moving South. All the little cousins ran amuck, enjoying the snow ball fights with the big kids (brothers Bob (hub), Tom and Steve and sister Ann). Of course, my kids just enjoy the snow, period!
Now, finally, to the point of traveling on Super Bowl Sunday! Phew, Guess you were wondering if I would ever get to this. Sorry, this is my first go at this blogging thing, and I have been editing this for several months, due to the usual winter illnesses and then spring and now summer. So...... We arrive in Albany. Very nice airport, completely empty. We sat and watched the first half of the superbowl (one word or two?) and then board out plane. (BTW, I was totally pissed when I JUST missed Sir Paul! Oh well.) There were all of 15 people on the entire flight back to Nashville! My teenage son had a row, my 11 year old had a row and my husband and I decided to get a little ANKs time (adults, no kids). We both fell asleep, as did the kids, I think; and the next thing we knew, we are landing in Nashville. This was a flashback to when flying was a joy. No hassles, no meltdowns, just getting from point A to point B as it all was planned.
So, there, my first blog, that took over four months to post. Was it even worth writing? Perhaps next time, I'll continue with my train of thought.....haha. Think I lost it somewhere a couple of months ago! So solly.
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