Plane travel.

First of all, as the years go by I get more and more fretful before each plane trip. We just got home from Florida today, and I'm relieved that I won't have to get on a plane again until sometime in the spring.

Two children do not make the trip easier.

Elisabeth's ears start hurting before we even get on the plane. Just thinking of airplanes seems to cause her to start complaining about her ears. And she's stubborn. She is convinced that nothing... NOTHING will help them pop. Not swallowing. Not yawning. Not pinching her nose and blowing out. Not eating a bag of M&Ms (I was getting desperate). Strangely, just wearing her headphones without them being plugged into anything helps the most. Probably because it somehow muffles my pleas to yawn, swallow, pinch nose and blow. I guess maybe she dislikes flying with me as much as I dislike flying with her...

Truthfully, Elisabeth is a delight to travel with. She plays with her Leapster or watches a dvd during the entire part of the flight that takes place above 10,000 feet. She makes no noise and rarely bothers her parents. Her sister, on the other hand, is a menace. She is unhappy being held in any situation, but especially so on planes. I think that turning 2 and getting her own plane seat will make travel much more enjoyable... and expensive. Not the least of the enjoyment is that I will figure out a way that I get Elisabeth and Doug gets the little pipsqueak and they sit like 6-10 rows ahead of us.

Our flight today was not without excitement. As we were landing, I asked Elisabeth if she wanted to sit in my lap (seatbelt sign, be damned!) We were descending - probably about 2,000 feet up. I was pointing out landmarks to Elisabeth - Costco, the mall, Route 7, the Dulles Toll Road, the school where I used to teach, on and on. All of the sudden, the plane started going back up. This is something that I don't really like.

Maybe 13 years ago, I was landing in Tampa. The plane touched down and immediately took off again. I nearly passed out with panic. Turns out there was another plane at the end of the runway and we couldn't possibly stop in time. Whew, crisis averted. So, today, when the plane started going back up, I tried not to panic. At least we hadn't touched the runway yet, right? Doug tried to convince me that it was because we were so early that we had to circle until they had a spot for us to land. I bought that for awhile until I thought, well --- then why did they let us get so close the last time?? What, the air traffic controllers all of the sudden said "nope - sorry, we were just kidding. USAirways flight 772 really got here faster than we expected and now you have to start circling?" So I was a little nervous.

Then they turned on the big jets. You know, the ones that make all of the loud noise on takeoff. I'm not a pilot, but they don't usually turn those on and leave them on. It was loud. For a long time. We circled once and went for another attempt at landing. No word from the cockpit on why we're circling.

As we're close to touchdown, with the runway beneath us, I see a few firetrucks with their lights on on the runway. As we pass they start speeding towards us. Then more firetrucks. And ambulances. Definite panic in my mind at this point. And then we stop and pull off of the main runway onto one of those diagonal roads that go between runways. All of the emergency vehicles circle the plane.

The flight attendant comes on and says, "Welcome to Washington's Dulles International Airport. The temperature is 49 degrees. We'll be taxiing to the gate for the next few minutes. You'll see some emergency equipment surrounding the plane. Please don't be alarmed, this is standard procedure." About fifteen people around us muttered "standard procedure for what??"

Then the pilot came on and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is the captain speaking. Sorry for the delay. As we approached, we had trouble getting the landing gear down. But everything is ok now. The fire equipment is just a precaution. Sorry for not letting you know earlier, we were pretty busy up in the cockpit trying to get it figured out. Oh and we lost our steering capabilities too, so we have to wait for a tow truck to come and tow us to the gate."

Let's just say that it is a good thing they were "too busy" up in the cockpit to let me know that the landing gear wouldn't come down. They would have needed one of those ambulances to haul me off of the plane. I would not have handled that well. We're talking worse than 'Elisabeth picks up a dead mouse' reaction.

I was secretly hoping (after I knew everyone was safe) that we'd get to go down the emergency slide. It seems like it might be kind of a fun adventure. So then we had to wait for 30 mins on the tarmac with two hungry, tired, and agitated girls. Make that three. But we're home now. And hopefully later this week, I will tell you all about our fun visit with Grandmommy and Grandaddy, Aunt Elisabeth, Annaleis and Jacob. And of course the goats, donkeys, dogs, pool, and trampoline.