Kids' Visit

My niece (who is almost 9) and nephew (who is 11)flew back home yesterday morning. It was nice that they got to come visit for 2 weeks - especially because they live in Colorado and we don't get to see them that often. Their dad (my brother) just went to Afghanistan and we wanted to give them a change of scenery before their school started. It was the first time they flew by themselves (although I flew across the Atlantic several times by myself when I was their age and we lived in Europe.)

They flew on United from Denver to Manchester via Washington-Dulles. I would have preferred to use Southwest but they only allow unaccompanied minors to fly on direct flights and there aren't any to Manchester from Denver. There was no issue picking them up. My mom and I got our passes to go through security and meet them at the gate (no issues with the TSA.) Their plane was on-time.

While they were here we took them to Upstate New York for a few days. We stayed at the Great Escape Indoor Water park Lodge in Lake George (it was my first time going there.) It was a nice, although small water park. The kids had fun and I got to have my Dippin' Dots. There was a Johnny Rockets restaurant inside the Lodge and we ate there for dinner one night (and for breakfast twice with our pre-paid lunch coupons.) They didn't have the smartest people working there. It took some time for them to figure out where we could sit - even though the place wasn't crowded and then we had to return the Caesar Salad twice because they used Iceberg lettuce instead of Romaine - yet they had Romaine.

While in NY we took the kids to see my grandparents (their great-grandparents), my great-aunt (their great-great aunt) and my other great-aunt and great-uncle (their great-great aunt and great-great uncle.) It was a few days after my great-aunt's 89th birthday so we had the kids make cards and brought cupcakes from the Schuyler Bakery in Watervliet. It was really cool to see everyone and I took a bunch of pictures.

We also took the kids to Fort Ticonderoga for the day. My mom went there as a kid and she took my brother, sister and me there when we were kids. It lightly rained off and on, but we still got to see gun and cannon demonstrations as well as the fife and drum playing.

When we got back from NY we took the kids to a nearby Planetarium. It was pretty interesting. We saw a movie called "Ice Worlds" and the kids had fun using the hands-on exhibits. There was one exhibit where you could pretend you are a TV weatherman.

Another day we took the kids to Funspot (an indoor arcade.) We gave them a bunch of tokens and they had fun on the games. I even played Skee Ball - which I loved as a kid.

We also took them to see two movies on two different days. We saw "Despicable Me" one day and "Dinner for Schmucks" the other. It was a good way to kill time and have fun.

Yesterday we had to get up at 2 am and head to the airport. The old woman, Pat, at the United check-in counter wasn't the smartest person. I told her we had two unaccompanied minors that we needed to see to the gate and she kept asking if my mom and I were flying while the kids stayed here. Then I had to remind her we needed the kids' boarding passes and also our passes to get through security.

When we went to the security line the guy at the metal detector started shouting at my nephew to take his belt off - and we were still at the x-ray machine. Another TSA guy at the x-ray machine told us we could keep the belts on, but I told him the other guy told us to take them off so we did. Then the first guy was pretty rude when the kids went through the metal detector and just plain nasty when I went through. My mom had a female TSA search her and she was nice and professional. When I went through a female TSA person told me that the guy at the metal detector was always like that. I asked to speak with the supervisor and it seemed everyone was helping and encouraging me to complain about the guy - I guess none of his co-workers like him. I complained and the supervisor took him into a separate room right away and let him have it.

Then we went to the gate where Pat (from United) and a guy were working. The guy boarded the kids and my mom and I waited for the plane to leave the gate. When 20 minutes went by I asked the guy what was going on and he said there was a dent in the wing that they had to fix before the plane could leave. Then shortly afterwards he said there was a ground-stop in DC and they unloaded the plane. Pat gave me a piece of paper that had a new flight number and time for the kids to fly from DC to Denver. I called and told their mom. Shortly after that a ground crew guy came to the gate and said the wing was fixed and then all of the sudden the ground-stop in DC was also over with (I don't think there was a ground-stop in DC.) They started re-boarding the plane and I asked Pat if the kids could be put back on their original connecting flight and she was very rude and nasty to me and said it was only a backup plan (of course I'm a mind reader and am supposed to just know that.) Pat kept going off on me and I finally told her that I was done dealing with her and that I would talk to the guy. She didn't want to hear that and walked up to me and kept complaining. Finally I had to tell her to shut up so that I could say good-bye to my niece and nephew. After that I just ignored her completely. We watched as the plane left the gate and then left. I have never had any problems all the times I flew out of/into Manchester airport. Yesterday I had several with the TSA and United. It will be a long time before I use United from Manchester again (the TSA lane was a separate one from the main lane and is used only for United and US Airways flights.) My dad is the only one who used United when he flies back home from Iraq because his tickets are already paid for. I will stick with flying Southwest from Manchester since I have never had any problems with the TSA or Southwest when I did.

On a side note: my niece and nephew made their original connection in DC and got to Denver on-time where their mom picked them up. All-in-all their trip here was both fun and exhausting.