Tag Archives: American Airlines

Bloggings, Family, Travel

Last Day in Mexico

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We woke up around 7 this morning and finished last minute packing. Then we went to the Italian restaurant for the breakfast buffet again. It was good and so much better than the other buffet.

After breakfast Lucas and I walked around with my parents. We walked to the marina, and we looked at the iguanas and the dolphins. It was crazy windy!

It was about 9:20 and we decided to go back to the rooms to get our bags and check out. Don, Lucas, and I loaded into the elevator with our bags. We thought we had pressed down but the elevator went up to 5. When it opened a family with a stroller was there, but they couldn’t fit on. When the doors closed the elevator dropped a bit and then it stopped and said, “out of service”. Lucas was immediately scared. I immediately panicked. The elevator was super small and hot. I pressed the alarm button over and over. I had no cell or wifi service. Don was able to call the front desk, and they said they would send someone. It seemed like forever, but it was probably under 10 minutes. Lucas and I were laying on the alarm button. We heard some workers outside and they opened the door. The elevator was stuck below the 5th floor but above the 4th floor. I lifted Lucas out and some bags. Then I got out and finally Don. We had to carry our bags down from the 5th floor. What a way to end the trip!

When we got to the lobby we checked out. Check out was way faster than checking in. Then I went straight to the bar to get a beer. I was going to take advantage of the all inclusive until the last minute, especially after the elevator situation.

Our airport transfer from USA Transfers was 10 minutes early, which was nice. They were great. Getting thru security wasn’t that bad in the Cancun airport but it was super crowded and there’s nowhere to sit really unless you get lucky.

Now we are on our flight home and the pilot said it will be a smooth flight for the first couple hours then it will be turbulent so I’m a little nervous. Lucas was asleep before the flight even took off. He slept for almost 2 hours.

The flight was fine. The turbulence wasn’t bad at all. We got back around 8 pm, had some Jimmy John’s and got ready for bed. While falling asleep Lucas asked me, “how much longer until our next vacation?”

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Traveling to Mexico!

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My parents spent the night last night so it would be easy for us to all go to O’Hare together. We woke up around 4 am. Getting to the airport was nice–uneventful.

Once at the airport we checked in easily. Then we stopped at the food court for breakfast. Lucas had a McDonald’s sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit with a hash brown. He later talked me into getting him a donut from Dunkin. The rest of us had burrito beach. It was a nice relaxing time.

Lucas and I got upgraded to business class because we booked separately from Don. We tried to get our seats back, but we could not. So Lucas and I are enjoying our time in business. I kind of miss the coziness of economy in our whole row, because here there is a seat divider.

Once on the flight the flight attendant came right away to get drinks. I got a mimosa. Lucas got apple juice. Then they took our order for breakfast. We got a smoked salmon plate with fruit. They brought us a hot wet cloth and Lucas was very confused by it. He said “when we get to the airport can you tell Dia everything that happened here”.

He ate all my hard-boiled egg and some of my salmon. I had to take away his butter because he was just eating it plain. The flight was good. Lucas watched ninja turtles. I read and tried to sleep but couldn’t. Lucas took maybe an hour nap.

Lucas and I got off the plane quickly and we got in line to go thru security. The line we were in did not move at all from the time we got in it until we saw Don and my parents. It had to be at least 10 minutes.

They got in the line next to us and Lucas and I attempted to go there but we were told no kids so we had to go back. Don and my parents were done quickly. It took Lucas and I at least 30 minutes. Once we got done there, we looked for our driver from USA transfers. That was pretty easy. It was a good transfer.

Upon arrival we were greeted by a man who took our bags. Then we went inside and checked in. The check-in process was long. It also did not feel like the man wanted to tell us anything. After about 20-30 minutes my parents had a room but ours was not ready. So we went to the buffet.
 
The food was ok. Once we were done eating Lucas, my mom, and I went up to their room and Don and my dad went to check on our room. Mom and dad’s room was nice, but it was a king with a Murphy bed which is what the guy said we had. So we were confused. Also, their luggage wasn’t there yet despite the man telling us it would be there in 5 minutes.
 
Don got our room, and it was also a king with another bed so I guess that’s cool. After getting our rooms Lucas wanted to check out the pool. The pool was nice but there were no towels available. The swim up bar was cool. I am not used to all inclusive, it feels weird just getting a drink with no payment haha. We finally got towels and then we got out to dry off and walk around.

We looked at the beach. Then we decided to check on getting dinner reservations. You need a reservation for pretty much all restaurants for dinner and the website says you can’t book them until you’re here. You have to talk to a person at the desk. Long story short, there’s basically no reservations. We have one reservation for Thursday night at 9 pm and one at 5pm on Friday at the Italian restaurant. The buffet line was so long, but we eventually got in. The food was ok, nothing great. Then we went back to the room for bed.

Bloggings, Travel

travel day

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We woke up, had breakfast and finished packing. We left the house at 9:15. I thought our flight was at 1:10 but that was the boarding time! The real flight time was 1:45, so we were pretty early. We wanted extra time for parking because last time all lots were full.  

So we made it with plenty of time. We decided to leave the stroller behind since we didn’t need it for anything other than the airport. So far Lucas is doing great walking. 

We had lunch at burrito beach then we went to our gate. Lucas practiced drawing his letters for a long time. Then I showed him the surprise transformers book we got him. It has little figurines. 

We learned our flight was delayed due to waiting for the captain, who was coming from another flight. 

The flight was over an hour delayed. Lucas fell asleep before we took off. I don’t know how he slept because a family who sat across from us had 2 screaming kids. One was maybe a little younger than Lucas and he was just plain loud. The other was probably 4-5 months and he would just let out these loud screams. Lucas woke up with about 20 minutes left of the flight. 

Then the baby really started screaming, screamed the whole descent. Thank God this was only a 2 hour flight. 

We could see NYC as we landed. It looked cool. Lucas looked slightly distressed during the landing but he was worried about his movie Cars which had stopped, not the actual landing.  

Lucas did great walking thru the airport to our rental car. We have a Ford Escape, which I believe is what we had last time we flew into Newark. Spacious car, but I don’t love things about it. However, we were able to connect our phones to the screen and use the GPS this time so maybe this car isn’t so bad!

Then we went to Don’s mom’s apartment. We had dinner and hung out for a bit. Lucas found a box of old binoculars and Lola gave them to him. That is funny because on the drive over he said “oh no, I think I forgot something. My binoculars!” 

We got to the hotel Home2 around 9 pm and Lucas did not want to go to bed. After bath and bribery he finally fell asleep around 10:30. He started coughing about 20 minutes into sleep. The coughing was pretty bad and at one point around 12:15 he puked. Luckily, he only got the pillow and a small portion of the sheet. I felt so bad for him and I really hope his cough gets better soon. 

Bloggings, Family, Travel

ORD to LGA

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Today we left for O’Hare around 9 am. We are heading New Jersey/NYC to visit family and go to Miguel and Tracy’s wedding. The parking was full again at O’Hare so we got lucky and got to park in the close garage again.

It was my first time using my TSA precheck and it was amazing, not having to take anything out of your bag or take off shoes is a game changer.

We had a nice window seat at our gate and got some McDonald’s for lunch. Lucas really enjoyed watching our plane get ready. He waved at the workers outside and some of them even saw him and waved back!

We did get a little surprise when we opened the stroller bag and prepared it for going through security—the combine from the movie Cars. We had given it to Lucas as a gift on our last flight last Labor Day and we hadn’t been able to find it since. He would ask about it from time to time and we would just say we think we left it at the airport, but turns out it had been in the stroller bag this whole time! Lucas was happy.

Surprisingly, Lucas did not sleep at all on the flight. It was weird because it was nap time. I think it was because we let him sit by the window and he couldn’t get comfortable. He was good though, he watched Cars, colored, and read books. He enjoyed the apple juice and cookies provided by American Airlines.

We arrived at the new terminal in LaGuardia. It was very nice, super impressive. They had this really cool fountain. It was mesmerizing and Lucas did not want to leave it. We took our shuttle to Hertz. Then we made the mistake of loading the car seat into a Chevy Equinox before adequately checking the trunk space—it’s non-existent. So then we switched to a Ford Escape. It feels old and everything on the dashboard is annoyingly placed but it got the job done.

Lucas slept all the way from LGA to Pearl River. We are staying the first 3 nights with Khris and Jess. Before going to their place, we picked up a few things from the grocery store.

When we got to Khris and Jess’s house, Lucas wanted to play outside immediately. We went to the yard and Lucas got a kick out of Khris showing him how to pick up sticks. Khris made an excellent dinner of steak, chicken, sausage, broccoli, Mac and Cheese, and mini corn dogs. Lucas ate pretty good and Jess gave him an Easter Pez Dispenser. He was really excited about it and wanted to try it out. I forgot how terrible Pez smelled, like medicine. But Lucas enjoyed it.

After dinner Khris made a fire and we roasted marshmallows. Lucas had fun gathering sticks for the fire. He said a few times, “I can’t believe we are here at night making a fire.” I think he had a lot of fun.

It took a lot for Lucas to calm down for bed. We are using his travel air mattress for the first time. He finally fell asleep around 10.

Bloggings, Travel

Last day in NJ

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Despite not having a nap yesterday and going to bed a little late, Lucas was still up at 6 am this morning. During the morning we packed because we are leaving today. Lucas pretended he was doing work in the “basement”, which was the closet in the hotel room. He kept running in and out of the closet. We tried to get breakfast at the hotel but it was too slow, so we went to a Dunkin Donuts near Newark Airport. On the way to the airport Lucas repeated everything the GPS (Karen) said. That was pretty funny. When we got on the flight Lucas asked for the “heart pretzels”, which are the in flight pretzels. He fell asleep before take off and it was a good flight. Overall, Lucas did amazing traveling on this trip and we are ready to go somewhere else!