Traveling to North Carolina

Our trip to get to North Carolina was full of adventure and lasted a LONG time.

We woke up to snow on the ground and cold cold temperatures.  We got on the road before 7 AM to give us some extra time to get to the airport.  We made it to the airport by 8:15 AM, checked our luggage, went through security and walked to our gate.

Then we waited

Finally, our plane arrived and then we got on.  Then we waited and waited and waited for 2 hours for the plane to take off.  I knew as the minutes passed that we probably wouldn't make our next plane but I kept that to myself.

We took off 2 hours and 20 minutes late.  We landed in Charlotte for our layover, missing our flight by 25 minutes.  When we walked off the plane, we were handed new tickets for our next flight.  5 hours later.  Our new flight to Wilmington didn't leave until 10:30 PM.

We decided to explore the airport since we had plenty of time.  We got yogurt, walked by all the shops, found our new gate, watched a movie on the computer, ate dinner and watched another show and made a friend.

Finally, it was time to get back on the plane.  Easy peasy flying to Wilminton....but then the pilot comes on, "we are about 30 minutes out of Wilminton, but there is sea fog over the airport which is causing zero visibility.  The winds are calm but we will fly around for 20 minutes to see if the fog will lift."

30 minutes later, the pilot comes back on and we are flying back to Charlotte because we are running out of fuel and the fog is staying put.

We arrive back at the Charlotte airport at 12:30 AM, find out our plane out the next morning is at 9:40 AM.  The airline was nice enough to give us a hotel room for the night since I have 3 young children that couldn't stay in the airport all night.  It took us an hour to get to the hotel.  Finally, at 2 AM, we were in bed.

I woke up at 7:15 AM with a start.  I hurriedly got the kids out of bed, dressed and downstairs to breakfast.  We were supposed to have a wake up call at 6:30 but it never came.  We made it to the airport, through security and to our gate with 15 minutes to spare.  Once again, the plane left late because of the rain but we finally arrived in Wilmington at 11 AM on Thursday after leaving our house at 7 AM Wednesday morning.

Uncle Mait picked us up and took us straight to the beach where the kids proceeded to get wet from head to toe.  Uncle Mait didn't think they could handle the cold water but they did and wanted to stay the rest of the day.  After the kids played for a bit, Mait took us to his favorite restaurant, Tower 7 for lunch.

After lunch, we went to Mait's house to take showers, get changed and a little sleep while Mait went to work for a few hours.  Mait had plans for us that night to get a Christmas tree.

We found a tree and then headed to dinner for pizza.

After dinner, we headed home for bed.  I was exhausted and so were the kids.  The kids were amazing though for the last 2 days.  There were no temper tantrums, little meanness and lots of lots of patience.  The kids played on their Ipods, played magnetic games (tic tac toe, hangman, and checkers), colored, did crafts and watched a couple shows.  We would rather have made the trip as scheduled but we handled the changes well.  I was/am super proud of the kids and how they handled everything.

We fell into bed and were asleep by 9 PM but not until after a bedtime story by Uncle Mait.

The last thing out of everyone's mouth, "Can we go to the beach tomorrow?"