During the wait

So, you may ask, what do you do with two teens (ages 13 & 17) while waiting 10 hours at an airport with no Starbucks to give you caffeine sustenance?  First you give thanks that the kids are no longer toddlers.  You smile benignly at the young parents with screaming babies.  Teens are much easier to travel with.

 Mostly you play cards.  I learned several games they play during lunch at school, most of which have names that aren’t suitable for publication.  But the games themselves are harmless fun and pass the time.

And when you’re tired of playing cards, you troll the shops looking for expensive junk food to buy.

And when you’re full of junk food, you read for awhile, or (in my son’s case) play Gameboy until the battery dies.  Or (in my daughter’s case) you stand in the bookshop and read all the magazines.

And then you play cards again.

I sure hope this counts as quality parenting time.

After the trip

Well, I shouldn’t have bragged about my packing skills.  It didn’t jinx our luggage, but it sure jinxed our air travel!  For the first time in all our travels we were stuck in airports for hours, both going out and returning, missing flights, waiting to board delayed flights, and enduring knuckle-biting standby.  And, no, it wasn’t Atlanta’s own Delta.  It was American Airlines.  I understand that financial pressures are making the airlines repair old planes with bobby pins and duct tape.  Apparently the duct tape slipped on our flights.

 So here’s my travel tip for today.  Be sure to pack your glasses and medicines and your kid’s retainer in carry-on luggage in case you get stranded overnight.  Until Delta stepped in with red-eye seats it looked like my kids and I were going to be treated to a stopover night in Dallas… not my idea of fun.