Change of Plans

Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans.  Our meticulously planned trip began with a bit of a hiccup.

We were scheduled to fly into Baltimore on the red-eye flight after connecting in Phoenix.  Our layover was a very short 29 minutes, so I'd already spent a fair amount of time worrying about whether both our bodies and our luggage would make it on the Maryland-bound plane.  Jon called the airline in advance and though the agent could obviously make no guarantees, she assured Jon that they were in the business of getting people and their luggage where they needed to be, according to the schedules on their tickets.

The girls and I shared a suitcase that measured exactly 50.0 pounds on the check-in scale.  Jon and Caleb planned to carry their luggage on, but due to our flight being very full, were asked to check their suitcases at the last minute.

The flight to Phoenix was uneventful right up to the moment of final decent.  It was then that a strong thunderstorm decided to settle directly over the airport.  We witnessed massive lightning rods striking the earth through our tiny airplane window.  Then came the captain's explanation of the situation.  We would have to fly in circles for what was predicted to be about 20 minutes or until the storm moved past the airport.

Oh no!  We only have 29 minutes!  And we knew this was the last flight out until morning.  The flight attendant was annoyed by my pressing of the call button and when he came to my seat, he beat me to my question by asking dryly, "Your connecting flight?"  We knew there were at least 20 people connecting to Baltimore, so I wanted to know if they would hold the flight.  He told me in a rather condescending tone that no flight would be held.  But then he gave just a smidgen of hope by saying, "But if we can't get down, the other flight can't get up."

So we impatiently flew in circles for what seemed like forever.  When we finally landed at the gate, Jon noticed that the airline's website was showing our next flight to be 30 minutes delayed. Furthermore, a know-it-all passenger nearby was telling everyone within earshot (the majority of the plane had connections somewhere) that from his experience, if the flight crews know their connecting passengers are on the ground, that they will hold the flight.  We were at the back of the plane and it took forever to disembark.  Still, we thought we could make it.

You know that scene from Home Alone 2, where the family is racing through airport?  That was us. We were as near a full sprint as we could be, with our backpacks bouncing wildly while we dodged other slower moving passengers.  When we got to our gate, our plane was nowhere in sight.  We later learned it had left on time after all.  Boo!  Phoenix was not where we wanted to be!  It was not on our itinerary to stay the night in Arizona.

We were even more irritated when we learned that because the delay was weather-related, we would have to pay for our own hotel accommodations for the night.  The kids actually suggested we just sleep in the airport, but we decided a good night's sleep was a better option.  So while Jon got on the phone with the airline to solidify our reservations for the first flight out the next day, I got on the phone to find a hotel.  We had no luggage.  No toiletries.  No pajamas.  Not much of anything.

We crawled into bed with unbrushed teeth around midnight.  We would get about 6 hours of sleep before returning to the airport the next morning.

We were relieved to finally touch down in Baltimore at 4:30 p.m. and even more relieved to find that our luggage had made it as well.  The race was still on, however.  We had dinner theater tickets at 6:00 p.m. and we still needed to pick up the rental car and drive 30 minutes to our hotel.

We'd missed a whole day's worth of items on our itinerary, but we managed to check into our hotel, do the slightest bit of freshening up and arrive at Toby's Dinner Theatre on time.

The musical, 1776 was playing, which I thought was a most perfect historical preview to the sites we would soon be visiting.

I borrowed this next picture from the internet.  It shows what the theatre looks like.   The buffet dinner was set up right on the stage.  After dinner was served, the buffet was quickly and efficiently dismantled and transformed into the set representing Independence Hall in Philadelphia.  The actors were also the servers.

It had been quite some time since we'd had a real meal, so we dove into the all-you-can-eat buffet and got our money's worth.  Caleb devoured ribs, Nat favored the mac and cheese, Lys loved the salad bar and all three kids enjoyed specialty drinks in souvenir glasses.

The show was fantastic.  I love the music and the way it brings history to life.  This dramatized version of the signing of the Declaration of Independence was an excellent precursor to our viewing of the actual document the very next day.

The cast of 1776 

It was a great way to end a rather frustrating 24 hours.  Now, with overstuffed bellies and catchy tunes repeating in our heads, we were officially ready to get this party started!