Things have been slow around the blog the last week (obviously), since the fam and I have been on the road in Texas, visiting my in-laws. Please accept these next few round-ups as a small amount of compensation for the dearth.
Day 1: Saturday, March 8th
Scooted over from home to my parents’ place to hop a ride down to PHL to catch our flight out of Philly. American Airlines’ check-in services was painfully slow (to the tune of 1:15), so much so that we cleared check-in with a mere 5 minutes to spare before our scheduled departure. We cleared the TSA’s gauntlet in nigh-record time and huffed our way to the gate, only to find around 30 other folks waiting to board as well. We hopped aboard the 737, took our seats and a few deep breaths later were on our way to the flightline.
We were looking forward to a timely takeoff, but the weather had different ideas apparently, as we ended up sitting on the tarmac for around an hour waiting for a line of thunderstorms to blow themselves out before chancing departure. Fortunately, we only ended up losing an hour and were aloft with very little trouble.
The flight was smooth and relatively uneventful, with Alvin and the Chipmunks being the in-flight “entertainment” (so labeled since I was able to follow the entire movie, start-to-finish, without the benefit of headphones) and the drink service minimal, but we soldiered on. The kids were wonderful for the duration of the 3.5 hour flight, so much so that we received compliments from several sets of passengers as to their behavior upon our arrival at DFW.
“Nanny” and “Poppy” met us at the airport and swung us by Whattaburger to grab dinner (I ate a chicken sandwich, and yes, I’m aware of the irony inherent in that) and then went back to my in-laws to hit the hay as soon as was possible.
