Getting to Dominica

Getting to Dominica was an adventure all in itself. Our best laid plans were immediately thrown out the window upon getting to the gate at Salt Lake International, our flight had been delayed 3 hours. At that point we would miss our connector from Atlanta to San Juan, with no other flights to San Juan out of Atlanta that day. We would then miss our connector from San Juan to Dominica the next day, and there is usually only one flight into Dominica a day. We spent the next few hours trying to rebook flights, going back and forth between terminals (Delta said they had us booked on an American Airlines flight, we got to American and they had no record of us, back and forth, back and forth). We finally got flights book on American Airlines that got us to Miami that night. We went to uncheck our bags from Delta and recheck with American, only to find that Delta had already lost two of our bags. (Seriously?! We hadn't even left the airport yet) We rechecked the bags available (Ben's suitcase and Chase's pack n play, my bag and Chase's have yet to be recovered, as of right now, no one knows where they are), got through security for the second time that day and headed out. We almost missed our connector in Dallas, barely made it, then through a computer glitch they wouldn't let us on the plane because they said they couldn't check us in. We finally got on the plane (we were seriously the last people on) and landed in Miami around 10. We found the Delta people who said they'd put us up in a hotel that night and got to said hotel just after midnight. End of Day 1.
Day 2: After sleeping for three hours, we got up at 4:45 to catch our flight from Miami to San Juan. When we got to the airport the lady checking us in said that Chase wasn't on their records and we couldn't take him on board unless we bought a ticket for him. We showed her our official itinerary that listed Chase as a lap rider and our original Delta tickets with him listed. She refused to accept that. I started crying. Ben stayed calm, and asked to talk to a supervisor. The supervisor was actually helpful and found that Chase was listed on our tickets and let us continue to board. We made it to San Juan and then on to Dominica without any problems! The school picked us up in Dominica, helped us file a claim for the lost bags, gave us water and drove us to the school. What a beautiful drive! This island is gorgeous! We are seriously in the middle of the rainforest and I love it! Once at the school our really nice landlord picked us up and brought us to our little cottage we are renting. I love this little house! The view from my window right now is so lush and gorgeous. She took Ben grocery shopping while I got Chase settled. Then our super nice next door neighbors had us over for dinner and loaned us some stuff to get us through until the rest of our luggage makes it. All in all, day 2 went much better than day 1.

Even though this was a very stressful voyage, there were several bright spots. I just know Heavenly Father was helping us get here safely and in one piece!

• Although some of the luggage didn't make it, all three Hugos did!
• When we were trying to rebook flights in Salt Lake Ben left me with all the carry-on luggage (2 suitcases, 2 personal bags and the stroller) and Chase and went to figure things out. I could see him further down the concourse trying to talk to the Delta representative on the hotline phones and our travel agent on his cell. I knew he needed help, but there was no one I could get me, Chase and all our stuff down there. Then a professor from BYU's college of nursing sat down by me! I introduced myself, she said she remembered me and was kind enough to watch all our stuff while I went to help Ben. Without both of us there on the phones I don't think we could have gotten rebooked in time. I was so grateful to see a friendly face!
• Chase was an ANGEL! He did so great on all the flights and all the craziness in between. My sweet little baby would smile and smile at me every time I started to lose it. I was already pretty teary from saying goodbye to my Mom and Dad that morning, then all the craziness of the flights not working out made me tear up several times. Chaser was such a sweetie and looked at me like, "Don't be sad Mom! You still have me!" (That is actually what Ben narrated for Chase.)
• Ben- he stayed calm and collected the whole time. I'm grateful for his level head in these situations. I'm sure things worked out better for us because Ben always stayed calm with the people we were working with, which I think made them more apt to help us (that, and the cute baby we were toting around)
• Awesome new neighbors! I've been corresponding with our new next door neighbor Michelle for a few weeks now. She was so incredibly helpful last night in helping get us settled!

This experience was another testament to my uncle Ron's theory of successful traveling: LOW EXPECTATIONS!