Tag Archives: American Airlines

travel day

August 2, 2023 Andi Leave a comment

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

April 19, 2023 Andi Leave a comment

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.

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Last day in NJ

August 14, 2022 Andi Leave a comment

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!

Bloggings, Reviews, Reviews - Travel, Travel

On our way to Isla Mujeres, Mexico!!

August 22, 2015 Andi Leave a comment

I will start off by saying it has been a long time since we have been on a proper vacation! Our last one was in Puerto Rico over a year ago, so it felt really good to get back into it again. So today it was nice because our flight from Chicago to Cancun did not leave until 12:30, so we were able to sleep in a bit. It was a direct flight on American Airlines. We arrived in Cancun around 4 pm and the process of getting through customs was pretty fast compared to most places we have been. Then it was the moment of truth–how would the transfer to the port be that I purchased? We are staying on Isla Mujeres so I had been researching ways to get from Cancun airport to GranPuerto, I found a company called CARM Tours and Transfers. A guy was there waiting for us at the airport and the van was nice, clean, and air conditioned. The transfer to the port was so smooth and I think we only paid about $30 USD (round trip) for the both of us. Totally worth it for the price and the piece of mind. The drive to the port was great we got to see some of the Cancun resorts and pretty much decided we never need to stay there.

Once we got to the port we got round trip tickets for the ferry to Isla Mujeres. I think these were about $11 USD per person. I was worried about getting sick on the boat because I am always getting seasick, so I went to the convenient store to get some chips and soda. I really wanted pretzels because those have been really good at keeping seasickness away but there were none so we got Cheetos and some weird pizza flavored chips. I also found Dr Pepper here so of course I had to get one and take my picture with it because that’s the tradition in every country we travel. Of course at the port I saw my first of many cats.

The ferry ride was great, very smooth. We sat on the top and a man was playing music.

Once we got to Isla we walked to our hotel, Ixchel Beach Hotel. Ixchel was about a 10 minute walk from the port and it is situated on the best beach of the island, Playa Norte. The walk was so hot, I was sweating like crazy! The check in process was easy and fast so we got settled in quickly.

Then we were hungry so we decided to get some food at Mamacita because we got a 10% discount there with our hotel stay. It was not that great. I got a beef burrito but it was mostly filled with a weird variety of vegetables. Don accidentally ordered a cheeseburger because he thought the waiter said it was a steak or something haha. But his cheeseburger looked pretty good. We each had our first of many drinks on the island, a Sol. We also had a few furry visitors while we ate.

Next we went to a bar called Kokonuts. We had giant margaritas there and some tequila shots. We talked to the bartender about American football and Fireball. They actually have Fireball here on Isla. After Kokonuts we walked and got some ice cream. And this was our first night in Mexico.

Bloggings, Reviews - Travel, Travel

Leaving for Puerto Rico!

December 14, 2013 Andi Leave a comment

Today we left for a week vacation in Puerto Rico. We were going to meet our friends, Judy and Steve, in San Juan. Our flight left O’Hare at 8:30 am. I was really excited to go somewhere warm because Chicago had been bitterly cold for the past couple of weeks with highs in the teens. The weather wasn’t so great when we were leaving so we were getting worried that our flight would be delayed or canceled.

Luckily, our flight was on time. The flight from Chicago to San Juan was pretty good. We bought the flight with our American Airline points. I sat next to a guy that kept falling asleep, but when he fell asleep he moved around a lot and ended up hitting me in my side a few times. He was really annoying. One thing cool about this flight was I believe it was the first time we have had a woman pilot. Oh, I almost forgot though…note to self, never agree to sit in the “bulkhead” seating. We switched our seats before the flight because they were not together and the attendant asked us if we were okay with sitting in bulkhead seating. We just agreed to it. It is the row right behind first class. There is no under the seat bag storage and the arm dividers do not move. The seats felt very cramped but we did a have a little more leg room. But never again, if we can avoid it.

We got to San Juan around 3:30 pm. They are 2 hours ahead of us in Chicago. We took a cab to our hotel, the Condado Plaza Hilton Hotel. The cab fare was about $20 from the airport. Our cabbie was cool, he was very proud of his automatic van doors. The lobby of this hotel was beautiful, it had a big aquarium and the whole place was just nicely decorated. Once we checked in we decided to venture out for some food and to check out the pool. It felt so good to be in warm weather! The grounds around the hotel were beautiful and they had a great pool area and their own beach.

We were going to eat at the hotel but then we decided to walk around outside the hotel. We saw so many restaurants. We decided on a place that had Mexican and Puerto Rican cuisine. It was okay…I had a steak and was expecting a delicious steak like I had last time in San Juan but it was not very good. It was too well done. The rum punch there was excellent though. I wish I could remember the name of this place but I can not find it on google maps right now. Maybe it will come to me later. Here’s some pictures of the view from the restaurant and our food. Don really enjoyed his meal, it was a fried pork chop.

After dinner we walked around more. We were right next to the ocean so the views were amazing. It was funny to see Christmas decorations and be in a such warm weather. We got some ice cream at Ben & Jerry’s because neither of us had actually been to one before.

We got back to the hotel around 8:30 pm and we were so tired. We fell asleep and around 1 am Judy and Steve arrived. They had switched their flight to avoid the winter storm Electra. They stayed with us in our room the first night. Slumber Party!

GarbledSyntax