Airline Adventures – Getting to Exuma

For the most part, I blog as a way to remember things because I include a lot of details in my posts.  Details, of course are the things that would first be forgotten so you could think of this as sort of my diary, but wide open for the world to read.  {Your welcome}

I also blog about certain events because I find them either completely ridiculous {in a funny way} or because my life is completely nuts.

This falls under both of those categories, ridiculous and nuts.

This post is about last Sunday, the 26th of April.  The day that was to be the first day of our vacation…with no kids.

Last Saturday was Reynolds’ 2nd birthday party.  My parents came from GA and after the party was over and our kids {didn’t} have their naps…..we loaded up Grammy and PopPop’s van with clothes, diapers, wipes, food, bottles, sippy cups, and the “bag of tricks” {which included favorite toys, books, etc.} and off they went, back to GA for the week.

Andrew and I were slightly nervous…for them, for us…we’d never been away, the both of us, at the same time, from our kids.  Our kids have never spent a night away from our house without us…

This had the potential to be disastrous, and even more so since Andrew and I were about to leave the country.  {I was sure to send mom a copy of my ID and insurance card…}

I’m happy to report that my parents and our kids were perfectly fine with us gone. :)  Praise the Good Lord.

So last Saturday evening we packed and I guess it was around 10 or maybe even a little before, Andrew got a text from US Air saying our 7:35 am flight from Columbia to Charlotte had been put on a delay, until 8:45 am.  I don’t even understand how there can already be a delay the night before.  We took guesses, well Andrew did, about why the delay was already present….and then we went to bed.

We were at the Columbia airport by ten after 6 the next morning.  Plenty of time to get checked in, through security and well, wait.

I think it was around 8:15 that Andrew went and stood in line at the terminal counter to talk to someone.  Just about 15 minutes later he was talking to the representative and waved to me to come over.  Uh, oh, I thought.  I got to the counter and he said, “Just in case we need you or your passport.”  Great.

Turns out that our 7:35 am flight was delayed even longer….9:45 was the new time, which mean we would miss our flight from Charlotte to Miami and then Miami to Exuma.  {I’ll provide more details on Exuma later….you’ll want to go.}

What to do.  What to do.

We were getting this ho-hum, sigh, sort of response from the representative.  And I’m standing there thinking, what about all these people that are going to miss connecting flights?  Don’t they care?!?!?!?!?  Where’s the dang shuttle?!

Next thing I know she’s telling us that we’re rebooked on a flight from Charlotte to Fort Lauderdale, then Fort Lauderdale to Exuma.  We just had to get on the plane from Charlotte, that was leaving at 10:50 am.  It was 8:35.  We’re never going to make it I thought.

She called to baggage and asked them to return our suitcase to the ticket counter.  We took our new boarding passes and ran for the doors.  “I’ll get the car if you get the bag”  Andrew said.

We got to the door and the bag was there.  Thank you, Jesus.  We grabbed the bag and out the door we went, running for the parking garage and our car that had just been parked a few hours earlier.

We jumped in the car and Andrew called his parents.  As we paid the fee for parking {seriously?!}, he asks his dad to meet us at such-and-such exit, at the old seafood restaurant.

We were there in about eight minutes.  His dad pulled in just a couple of minutes later and after hopping in our car, we were off to Charlotte.

“How’s the traffic?  What’s the time?” Were the questions I got from Andrew.  I had become the navigator.

I sat in the back seat, with my heart racing, thinking there is no way on this green earth that we will ever make this flight.  But.  I pulled up google maps, there was one accident and on incident reported.  1 hour and 35 minutes it said.

We’re never going to make it.

“An hour”, I replied.  “Looks good.”

I mean, why am I going to bust my mans shins when he’s done so much to try to get us there.

I just prayed that we wouldn’t get pulled over.

We pulled up to the US Air sign at 10:25 am.  Andrew said, “You go thru security while I check the bag.”  I’m just doing as I’m told at this point.

I went to security where the nice TSA man said, “Are you priority or special class?” In my own mind, yes, yes of course, I am BOTH!  “No, sir, but I’m going to miss my flight, it takes off at 10:50.  My husband is trying to check our bag…”  He said I was “fine” and motioned for me to get in line.  Only about 25 people in front of me.  Which I felt like was sort of amazing.  We just might have a shot at this I thought.

Then I looked over at Andrew and he has his hands about even with his chest and he’s waving them not crazy, kind of calmly, but I could tell by his face that he wasn’t pleased with what he was being told.  He called me and said, “We may have to get on another flight, she is saying we didn’t get here in time to get the bag on the plane.  But go on thru security.”  Just as I was about to hand my passport and boarding pass to the TSA agent, the one I’d talked to when we first arrived came up and said, “There’s a guy in a green polo trying to get a bag on a plane.  I told him he could come thru priority.”  “That’s my husband” I smiled.

On the other side of security I waited.  And paced.  We had about 8 minutes to get on the flight.

Text message….”New flight.  Come back.  Need your passport.”

You’ve got to be kidding me.

I walk to the ticket counter and the nice lady won’t look Andrew in the face.  I could tell he was upset and I’m not sure what the issue was, all I know is that we were no longer going to Fort Lauderdale.  Now, we’re flying direct from Charlotte to Nassau, Nassau to Exuma.

I’m totally ok with this, as long as we WILL be on a plane.  The flight was leaving at 11-something, but we had time.

Back thru security.

For those keeping track, this was my 3rd time thru security in less than 5 hours….same country.

Andrew says that the conversation with the ticket counter lady went something like this:

• Her: You didn’t get here in time to get your bag on the plane.  You have to be here 30 minutes before your flight to get your bag on the plane.
• Him: Yes, I realize that, but my original flight was delayed by two hours and I was going to miss my plane, so I just DROVE from COLUMBIA to get on this plane.
• Her: I’m sorry, but you didn’t get here in time.
• Him: In the name of SERVICE, is there NO ONE who can come get my bag and put it on the plane?  What are you doing for the next 15 minutes?  Can you not take my bag to the plane?

I love that man.  He would have done it.  If he was working the counter and some random dude rushed in like he did, he would have taken the bag himself to the plane.   {If he’s allowed, I guess…}

I posted a picture on Instagram at this point, stating that Andrew was going to sleep and that I needed a doughnut and a cocktail.

You would too.

Thankfully we got to Nassau with no problems.  We got off the plane, went through customs, got our suitcase and then was supposed to go thru some other form of customs, but instead we received stickers saying that our bags had been checked when really, we were just welcomed and waved through.

Hilarious.  What now?  We were to walk outside the building we were in, take a right, and go in the building for domestic flights.  Because now that we were in the Bahamas, Exuma was now a domestic flight.  Great!

Bahamas Air.  Ticket counter.  Check the bag, new boarding passes….new security line.

Side note, people in front of us LEGITIMATELY put a pizza on the security scanner.  I’ve never seen such.

Andrew asks, “How many times have you been through security today?”  “This makes number four” I laughed.

We went up to our gate and sat.  It was deserted.  Is anyone else flying on this plane, I wondered.

3:15 pm was boarding time.  There were a few other couples that had come over by that point, but there was no sign of any crew-members.  Certainly no one to man the desk.

Um…..

“We’re on Bahamas time now, Babe” Andrew stated….”everything is -ish.  3:15-ish.  You know?”  Ah.  I wasn’t aware.  I’m more of a prompt-ish kind of girl.

Shortly thereafter the crew showed up.  A pilot got on his personal cell phone and called someone, “….Yeah, there’s no one here….We can’t get on….we need someone to open the door.”

“This should be interesting” I said to Andrew.

Andrew had already warned me in the beginning of the day that we would most likely be on a prop-plane to Exuma.

Not so much.  We boarded a jet.  Someone asked how many people were boarding….16.

Sixteen people on this huge jet.

Just so you know.  If you board a large jet with only 16 people.  That doesn’t mean that 1. it will take off earlier than originally scheduled or even 2. that it will take off on time.

Nope.  Not here where everything is now “-ish”.

“We’re taking on more fuel, please unbuckle your belts” we were told a couple of times by an attendant.  The first time she said it I guess her accent was too thick because not a sole of us 16 knew what she was saying, or what it meant.  Why were we UNbuckling our belts?  We’ve been conditioned to buckle them…

“Ooooohhhh, yes, more fuel”, we finally got it.  Un-buckling is in case the plane bursts into flames.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!!?!?!?!?!

“So, what does that mean?”  I said to Andrew.  I mean, are we going to be here for an hour?  Will the plane really catch fire?!  Good grief!!!  Just get me to Exuma for crying out loud!

I’m tired, I thought.

I always sit by the window, even if Andrew’s boarding pass says he has the window.  Here’s my perspective: If you’re going to sleep, which he will, you don’t deserve to have the window seat.  The views are wasted on your closed lids.

I got the window seat.  It was insane what I saw.  I couldn’t believe the colors.  Breath-taking.

The couple in front of me and the couple across from Andrew both had large cameras with fancy lenses.  I just have a great Nikon Coolpix.  {Works great for me, and I can handle it with one hand.}

Anway, so at one point the couple across from Andrew is going nuts taking picture after picture and the guy in front of me is trying to shoot thru their window – across the plane.  I’m looking out my window in complete awe.  I see what’s happening in front of me and I say, “Hey, um, I’m sure it’s great over there, but take a look out of your window.”

“OHMYGOSH, THANKYOUSOVERYMUCH” He said.

I mean….it was closer…

So we landed at the Exuma International Airport.  It was smaller than my house.

Probably not really, but it was seriously small.

We passed it while landing on the runway and I said to Andrew, “Is that the airport?!”

“No, that’s probably something for those private planes over there.”

Ha. WRONG.

We were told no photography.  I’m not sure why.  Were they embarrassed by the size of their airport?

We exited and took a picture next to the welcome sign.

Then there was a sweet lady telling us to come this way and make this turn.  “Wait there”, she said.

Wait?  Where?  On the sidewalk, next to the road.

Wait.  What?

No waiting room.  No baggage claim.  No, all of that is WAY overrated.

“Sooooooooo, what are we doing?” several of  us were confused.  One guy walked across the street to get a beer from Kermit’s restaurant.  I’m not kidding when I tell you that it was called Kermit…and it was green.

There was a lady in a red shirt…holding a clip-board, who had ours and several others’ names on it, as going to Emerald Bay Resort.  She checked us off and said to wait for our bags, “They’ll come right here.”  And she pointed to the walk way from which we’d just come.

……..

“Seriously?  Our bags are just going to come right here?”

They did.  A golf cart brought the baggage cart to the walk way and it was like a “here are your bags! come and get ’em!”

We did.  The lady in red hailed a Taxi.

“Do we just get a Taxi?”  I asked her.

“No, I’ll call them up” she corrected me.

Oh.  Okay.

Janet was our driver.  Born and raised in Exuma.  The most beautiful place on earth.

We shared a Taxi with Matt and Jessica who’d just gotten married the night before and were running on very little sleep.

It was a short, 15 minute drive {on the wrong side of the road} to our resort.

And it may have been a crazy adventure getting there, but man, was it ever worth it.

Here are some pics from the air…flying from Nassau to Exuma.  Imagine the colors more bright and beautiful…a camera just cannot capture the brilliance of real life.

Tomorrow I’ll share with you pictures of the actual resort.  Right now, I have pictures on my phone, the ipad and the camera…and I need to organize them a little, but I promise, it’s worth the wait.

 

 

We found out that we were on the jet because the sailing regatta had just ended and they needed to “get all these people off the island”.  And also the reason for all the {tiny} sailboats in the pictures above!

And here’s the going past the airport while landing…..don’t blink, you’ll miss it :)