Poor Pablo

Traveling is always an adventure. Add to that traveling with the Flanabrood and you get high adventure. Last week my daughter and her family were traveling by plane from Utah to California and back again. Somehow they missed their 7 am return flight. The next flight out was 12 hours later. Everyone in their group of 11 was working on only 4 hours sleep, the rental car had already been turned in and they had given up their hotel rooms. There were 7 children 8 and under on the trip. They were stranded at LAX.

Yesterday I met up with them in Baltimore. My flight landed 20 minutes before theirs in a different part of the airport. I went and waited for the bag that had the car seats I brought. Strapped them to my carry-on and wandered the airport to find their concourse. Soon all of us were together and we headed to baggage claim for the mountain of luggage and baby gear they checked--more car seats, a double stroller and I don't know how many bags. It was a funny sight to see the two little ones strapped to their parents carry-ons still sitting in their car seats. When you travel with this many little ones you do what ever works.

We got the luggage and put the pile on the curb then waited for the shuttle to the car rental depot. We load all of the children and the mountain of bags onto the shuttle. Get to the depot and unload the children and the mountain of bags onto the curb again. After 4 attempts they finally find the rental companies contracted for the two cars we needed, all the while I am trying to keep the little ones entertained on the curb while keeping watch over the mountain of bags and car seats we have assembled. Eventually we are given the two cars and piece by piece we load the luggage into the two cars, strap in the 4 car seats, load up the children and head out.

After a quick stop to feed the hungry children we finally head to the hotel only to find that they have no record of the reservation and the hotel is full. So are all of the other hotels in the area. After about an hour we find a vacancy and head out. Now it is nearing 10 pm. I landed at 4pm.

We take the children up to the room and try to figure out how to make beds for the 8 of us with the two queens and a sofa bed the room has to offer. No porta crib, but we do have a chair and an ottoman--we will manage. We bathe the children, make the beds and my son in law carries up the bags and puts them in the room one by one--that huge mountain of bags. We start looking through the bags to find pjs and undies for the freshly bathed little ones and my son in law asks "why do we have my brothers clothes in here?"

WHAT???

He looks closer at the bag and realizes that accidentally, while loading up the mountain of bags we brought, we picked up an extra bag. Poor Pablo. He is naked in Baltimore and we were lugging around extra baggage that we did not need. We call the airline to let them know, say our family prayer and ask a blessing on poor naked Pablo.

Note to self: Black bags look the same, check the name tag.