Our last day+ of vacation was going to be a long one. We had to pack, check out, drive ~2.5 hours back to Fresno, and make the 3 flight journey home to Buffalo.
FRIDAY:
The day started out….bizarrely? We woke to the sound of a very rude and inconsiderate hotel neighbor chanting out on his patio. As it was summer time and the hotel did not have air-conditioning, we (and I’d guess everyone else in the building) had their windows open. It woke us from a dead sleep and based upon the other hotel guests looking out their patio doors at the rude person, it woke nearly everyone in our building. Thankfully, we have a pretty good sense of humor about such things. LOL
http://youtu.be/HA9n49QMXyI
“meow meowering gay cow meow meowering gay cow”
That went on for 45 minutes. LOL
After everyone was up, we turned on the TV and got ready for the day. While we packed our belongings, we saw a mom and baby deer out in the meadow outside of our room.
Right above the balcony railing/at the base on the evergreen tree.
Momma walking away…
Little baby between the bars of the railing…
Check out time was 10AM so we got on the road shortly after that and headed back to Fresno.
Pulling out of the hotel parking lot
Leaving the park
It was a quiet ride to Fresno. We were all pretty tired. You know it has been a long vacation when Ian naps in the car. LOL
After we got to Fresno, we drove around trying to find someplace for lunch. We caved and took the kids to Olive Garden. So much for one last Californian meal. LOL While we ate lunch, we strategized what we would do for the rest of the day. Our flight wasn’t scheduled to leave Fresno until about 8pm so we had about 8 hours to blow. We initially thought about taking the kids mini-golfing but it was about 105 degrees out so we had to figure something out on the fly. We finally decided to take the kids to see How to Train a Dragon 2 at a local theater. After that, we took them to a mall and wandered around a bit.
Hanging out in an indoor go-kart place at the mall to keep cool and blow time. LOL
With about 4+ hours to go before our flight left, we decided to just drop off our rental car and check in at the airport. The boys were really good at the airport and kept themselves occupied with the cars from Downtown Disney, video games, and a book for Ian.
Reading at the airport
Unfortunately, things got a little crazy at this point. Our incoming flight was delayed and having mechanical problems. United started delaying our flight but not until after the Fresno airport was completely closed up (our flight was the last of the day). Because there were no other flights leaving that day, all of the restaurants closed up and we weren’t able to get food for dinner. We had planned to eat dinner during our 2 hour layover in San Francisco but it started looking like that wasn’t going to be a possibility.
Eventually our plane arrived but they decided they weren’t going to fly the plane to San Francisco due to mechanical issues. The airport staff had to call United headquarters to get approval to use another plane at the next gate. Eventually that got approved and we boarded quickly. Unfortunately, our flight left so late we were in danger of missing our red-eye, cross-country connection.
Boarding our Fresno flight. Praying we make our connection.
What initially was going to be a 2 hour layover in San Francisco turned into an absolute sprint across 2 terminals to make our connection. I still can’t believe we made it in time.
Literally the last ones on the plane. Ian and Matthew were amused by the running. Mike and I? Not so much.
Happy to be in our seats. Not so happy to not have time to eat dinner.
Soon our flight was in the air and we were heading back to the East coast.
Mike, mid-flight, lit by the electronic devices.
I was worried about how the boys would handle the red-eye. I worried for nothing. Both boys went to sleep pretty easily and slept until the flight crew turned the lights on right before landing. Neither Mike nor I slept much but the time passed quickly with iPads and television shows on the seat back in front of us.
SATURDAY:
Soon we began our descent into Washington DC.
(Funny story: as we began our descent in San Diego at the start of our vacation, Ian kept exclaiming “we’re going down!” in response to the decrease in altitude. Mental note: tell your children that saying “we’re going down!” in an airplane is not the best way to express their excitement about landing. LOL)
Lights up! 2 sleeping kids and 1 daddy pillow.
Soon we were on the ground, taking the shuttles to another terminal, and sitting at another gate. Yay for no running!
Can you believe how perky those boys look with having not eaten since lunch the prior day and having only slept about 5 hours on our flight?
Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to get through a fast food line at the Dulles airport so we had to wait even longer for food.
The worst part of our Dulles layover was listening to CNN on the television over our heads. They did a lengthy segment on the 2 Malaysian Airlines plane crashes which was super awesome. Grrrrr.
Soon we were boarding again!
Only one flight to go!
Happy to be almost home!
Soon we were back in Buffalo and home. It was a great trip and we all had a ball!