Finally in the air

 Well, a late checkout and another breakfast in a motel, we should get used to this somewhat….we marshal our strength and walk to McDonald’s and Krystal (John only there) for lunch because we’re not taking a taxi this early in our trip.  We get the shuttle to O’Hare at 2pm and find out that two of our carry on bags can’t be carried on our overseas plane flight because they are over 10 kg with our backpacks put with them.  Well, shit.  This doesn’t bode  

 well for our European flights which are notorious for wanting only a purse as a carry on.  We are allowed free checked bags though and check two of them, they let Oscar’s carry on through, probably because it has monsters on it.  Then O’Hare shocks us again, by us breezing straight through security.  No wait at all, we showed our passports, our boarding passes and put the bags on the security belt and that was it.  Except a bottle of medicine in Oscar’s bag had to be swabbed for chemicals…..but still.  Maybe I don’t hate this place anymore….John finds some scotch in duty free and Oscar 

 finds someM and M’s in duty free, but nothing for me.  We go to the bar to watch the game and have a drink, but they have half of their menu missing because of the flight delays the day before.  Oscar and I then walk up and down the entire International terminal a couple of times.  I have met my step goal of 10,000 and we haven’t landed in Europe or been out of a hotel room most of the day.  But, if it helps us sleep on the plane, I’ll take it.  There was a cool 

 mosaic from Jordan that the country sent to Chicago in the sister city program that I had to get a picture of and it was fun to see all the cool paint and designs on the foreign planes.  Oscar and I voted for New Zealand’s as best that we saw.  We boarded and had great entertainment on the plane, which made it so Oscar didn’t 

 want to eat or sleep.  We had no one in the 4^th seat next to us in the middle aisle which was awesome.  Especially since Oscar only kicked me and shifted all over John instead of falling asleep.  Bad plane food and 5 hours later, we were getting breakfast and the kid was waking up in a good mood.  Which was shocking for only 3 hours of sleep at best.  John and I barely got one all together.  We’re trying to figure out if we’re going to make our connection in Lisbon because we only have an hour and a half after landing.  That was before we

realized that Lisbon is old school.  We went down stairs and on to a bus to get off the plane and to the terminal.  Oscar froze on the stairs because he got scared with a huge plane looming over him and these slippery, unsafe looking stairs to go down.  John and I are both carrying multiple bags, so he has to hang on to the rail on his own.  Everyone crams on the bus, I’m thinking that John is going to get left behind waiting for the gate checked stroller, but he makes it and then we sit there for a good 5 minutes 

 after they wouldn’t let anyone else on the bus.  Do they know that we have connections?  Also, the bus then drives all over hell’s half acre, it’s hard to tell if we were just going in circles or what because of the fog, but we do go through a tunnel and through several buildings to enter, customs.  So, now we’re in a line of many people and are told that we’re not special, but John hears someone calling for people going to Barcelona as we snake halfway down the line.  We get to go to a special line, get through customs with Oscar’s first stamp in his new passport  

and head through security.  The medicine gets checked again, John is tangled in the stroller straps and without a belt and we are running through the airport following the fastest walking lady I’ve ever seen.  We check in for our Barcelona flight with several others from the Chicago plane barely making it and go to another bus.  But, at least we made it.  We get out to the plane and walk up the stairs, get on and get situated.  They’re playing nice classical music and you can just feel yourself relaxing as the captain comes on and says that we’re going to sit on the tarmac for an hour and a half because of fog.  But the music makes you not care that much (and the fact that we made this flight at all).   Also, they serve us water and open up the cockpit for all comers who want to come see the front of the plane.  Oscar wasn’t first in line, but the stewardess talked the older man in front of him into letting him go first.  Oscar was the only kid in line, the rest were middle aged men of all things.  Oscar was so excited because he got to “sit on the dials” and the pilot let him wear his hat, make airplane arms and act like he was flying.  It was the most enjoyable time sitting and waiting for a flight to take off that I’ve ever had.  Southwest should take note.