Tag Archives: American Airlines

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First Day In San Francisco

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Yesterday was Lucas’s last day of school. He rode his bike there. When I picked him up he wanted to ride around the playground with his friend Matti a few times. I can’t believe he’s done with kindergarten. When we got back to the house my parents were there. We went to dinner at The Ivy, which used to be The Piggery. It was pretty good. Then we got ready for bed and watched the cubs for a bit. They were losing bad but somehow made a miraculous comeback in the bottom of the 9th.

Kelsey, Jared, and Adeline were staying the night in Austin because they are flying out of there tomorrow. Adeline had a tough time sleeping in her tent they brought, and they eventually had to get a pack N play. Hopefully she sleeps better for the rest of the trip.

We woke up around 4:30 am. Lucas watched the cubs highlights with Papa and Gigi. Then we made our way to O’Hare at 5:30. The airport was crowded! By the time we made it thru we only had about 50 minutes to eat. So we went to the food court. Our flight was delayed by 20 minutes because of air traffic control in SFO. When we eventually boarded we were on the runway for probably an hour. Lucas was so tired and cranky. He couldn’t get comfortable to sleep. When the plane took off, he finally got to sleep.

The plane ride was ok but it felt long. Lucas slept for maybe 40 minutes. Once we got off the flight, we easily got a taxi to our hotel, Comfort Inn By The Bay. Kelsey, Jared, and Adeline had been here for a couple of hours already, so we met up with them. We were really hungry, so we went to a Pizzeria across the street called Chico’s. It was pretty good.

Then we walked over to Fisherman’s Wharf. The walk felt long but we made some stops and we were tired. We made our way over to Pier 39 and saw the sea lions. There were so many of them. Then we looked at some shops. Adeline and Lucas rode the carousel. Then Lucas and I watched a short magic show. I was holding a balloon sword that Lucas got and one of the balloons popped. It made me jump and say, “oh my gosh!” the magician stopped and said, “are you ok?” 😂😂

We ate dinner at Pier Market Seafood Restaurant. It was pretty good. Lucas and I had fish and chips. Don had clam chowder. Of course we had calamari. Then we made the trek back to the hotel. We made it back around 7 and got Lucas to bed. He did very good for waking up at 4:30 am, having a 40 minute nap, and gaining 2 hours.

11/21/25 I got the day off last minute today. As I was about to walk out the door Becky texted me and said I could be off. Later Lucas and I were sitting at the dining room table and we heard a big bang and he was like “what’s that noise” and I said “that’s someone hitting a car, a car accident” so there was a fender bender in front of our house. It was the highlight of the morning. Lucas went into Don’s room, (he was on a work call) and said “there was a car accident outside!” people on the call were like “oh no I hope it’s ok”

Bloggings, Travel

On Our Way To Seattle

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We woke up around 5 am for the trip we have been waiting for, the Alaskan Cruise. I drove my parent’s car to the airport. It wasn’t too bad, even though their new jeep is huge. Our usual exit for the Kennedy was closed so we had to use a different route.

Getting thru security was fast and we got breakfast at the food court. We made our way to the gate and got a good spot where we could watch planes. Our flight was on time, and we were ready for a good trip.

Kelsey and Jared’s flight was delayed by 2 hours. They made it to Seattle a little before us.

Seattle Airport was a little crazy with construction. We got a taxi van to our hotel. We stayed at the Hyatt Regency Downtown. We are on the 30th floor with a very nice view of Pike Place Market, the water, and the Ferris wheel.

Once we got settled in, we went to get some lunch. We settled on Yard House. It was OK. We met up with Kelsey, Jared and Adeline in Pike Place Market. The market was pretty cool. We saw the first Starbucks and walked around. Lucas was extremely tired with no nap and the 2 hour time gain. With traveling we were all a bit tired so we went back to our rooms.

We relaxed and Don’s mom got here around 6:30. Her and Don went out while Lucas and I stayed in and went to the Market on the 2nd floor. Lucas got some Mac and cheese and I got chicken fingers. We had a nice little dinner at our table overlooking the city. Then we read some books and Lucas fell asleep at 8.

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?”

Bloggings, Family, Travel

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.