As you probably already noticed, there seems to be a slight
discrepancy in the day numbering right now. Well, I feel like I can likely
clear that up with one simple question. What's your favorite vacation ever?
For me, one in particular will always stand out. That being
the trip down the Big Sur Bethany and I embarked upon to celebrate five years
of being married. In said trip, we started our journey in Seattle before
pointing our rented Hyundai Sonata south as we traveled through cities like
Astoria, San Francisco, and Los Angeles
before heading over to Las Vegas for our flight home.
While Bethany and I have been on multiple vacations over the
years, for little Ellie, she only had one such vacation to her name. Therefore,
the choice has been relatively simple for her. That's no longer the case as she
now has to decide between that trip to Branson or her most recent excursion to
Panama City, FL when answering that question.
It goes without saying that the main point of any vacation
is to enjoy oneself. Unfortunately for young Ellie, there were a few simple
hurdles that needed to be overcome in order for her to fully enjoy herself.
Obviously, the first hurdle for Ellie was going to be air
travel. If you've never flown on a plane with an infant (doesn't matter if it's
yours or not), there is definitely a stereotype of it being a terrible
experience. If I'm being completely truthful, I expected our plane flights to
be sheer torture from start to finish. I feel like that's especially true given
how Ellie is in a state of wanting to be active from sunup to sundown which inconveniently
enough happened to be the time frame our flights would take place in.
Airport check-in and security was a relative breeze (TSA
Pre-checks will do that for you) and therefore we made it into the terminal
with plenty of time to spare. Therefore, that meant we had plenty of time to
repeatedly trot Ellie back and forth to the windows to stare at the planes
outside, all to the repeated chorus of "airplane, airplane, airplane."
Once we finally boarded and sat down, it didn't take long for Ellie to begin
looking around at her surroundings taking them all in.
Once the time came for takeoff, the moment of truth was at
hand. As the plane gained speed down the runway, Ellie watched the ground flash
by, faster and faster, until finally, we were in the air. Instead of a look of
fear, my daughter's face was covered with an ear-to-ear smile as she continued
to gaze out the window. The rest of the flight was a whirlwind of looking
through various magazines (so many pictures of rhinos, dogs, and cows) and
books, as well as eating snacks. The only thing of note is that when we began
descending, Ellie furiously tugged at her ears. However, she still kept her
composure against all odds.
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| We spent WAY too much time looking through this copy of the Angus Journal... |
The rest of our flights were more of the same for Ellie with
magazines, snacks, and plenty of staring out the windows. The only exception was
our final flight from Atlanta to Kansas City which saw Ellie falling fast
asleep on her mother's lap all the way home. Makes since when you consider the flight left Atlanta at 10:00
pm local time.
I think what stood out the most about our air travel was the
fact that Ellie continually received praises from other passengers on how great
of a traveler she was. I'm pretty sure that people wouldn't just say that
either. I mean, if a kid was horrible, you're just going to shield your eyes
and avoid any and all conversations with the people dumb enough to bring said
kid on board. I consider the fact that people went out of their way to tell us
those things means that they weren't lying. Am I right?
Tune in next time for more tales of wonder from Ellie's trip
to Panama City! #DaddyWrite
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