6.9.22

Something that Loral and I have been trying to take advantage of over the last 6 months, is the time away from work we have each been afforded, specifically by traveling as much as possible. As I am currently completely off from work and Loral is on a 3 days per week schedule, we have 4 day weekends throughout the month of June, where we are both off and can take small trips. Usually this means spending a few days on Long Island, to hang out with our families, but we have also ventured further - Florida in March and Colorado in June - which obviously have required air travel. We want to travel with Julia as much as possible, but the inclusion of an infant presents new challenges that we are still figuring out how to overcome. But based on how rocky the travel portions of those two trips have been, its hard not to be a little discouraged. Let me elaborate…

Our trip in March to visit Loral’s parents in Florida was a great time - we went to the beach, out to eat, I played golf - but getting down there was an exercise in planning. Coordinating airport pick ups, drop offs, dog care, etc is a lot to consider, but with an infant, the complexity increases significantly. Our plan for Florida was to: drop the dog off at my parents on Long Island on Wednesday, pack the car seat and fly out of Newark on Thursday, rent a car and drive the hour from West Palm Beach to Sebastian once we arrived in Florida. I would return the rental car on Monday, fly back to JFK, pick up the dog on Long Island and drive back to Hoboken Monday evening. Loral would spend a few more days with her mom and dad in Florida, and then I would pick her up at Newark on Saturday.

Me, planning the logistics of this trip…

For the most part, our journey down south was relatively smooth. We definitely over-packed (a lesson we took to heart for our Colorado trip) and aside from a minor hiccup with the car seat, we were able to arrive in Sebastian Florida before 2PM. Not bad.

Unfortunately, the same could not be said about the return trip, specifically, Loral and Julia’s. Having returned home to work, I was prepared to pick up the girls from Newark airport on Saturday evening. Loral and Julia made it to the airport on time, only for their flight to be delayed an hour. Then two hours. Then four hours. Finally the 4PM flight, which had been delayed until after midnight was cancelled. As the West Palm airport is more than an hour drive from Loral’s parents house, and because they were able to get on a flight the next morning at 9AM, it didn’t make sense to drive the hour back, only to sleep for 2 hours and turn right back around to the airport. So Loral decided to book a hotel room right by the airport, and try and sleep for a few hours before boarding a Sunday morning flight.

Only that flight was now delayed as well. And before lunch time on Sunday, the flight was cancelled. To recap, Loral and Julia spent almost 24 hours between the airport and a trashy airport hotel, only for two flights to be cancelled and no clear picture on how to get home. Ultimately, they rented a car, drove back to Sebastian and booked a flight for Tuesday morning - an additional 3 days after the initial return. Thankfully, the third attempt at getting home to Hoboken went smoothly, and I was able to pick them up Tuesday morning, only slightly worse for the wear.

Finally Home!

Having put this awful experience behind us, our attitude quickly became: how could air travel get any worse? If we can survive this, everything hereafter will seem easy. Not exactly…

Last week, we flew out to Colorado to visit my sister Liz and her boyfriend Craig for a long weekend. Our departure trip was super smooth - our flight left on time, our checked bags arrived as expected, Craig was able to pick us up and help get the car seat in his car with relative ease. Our travel confidence was increasing. We had a great time over the next few days - hiked with Liz’s Weiner dog, spent the afternoons by the pool, brought Julia to her first baseball game at Coors Field. By Sunday night, we were pretty tired, and decided to take it easy, and rest up for the return trip on Monday.

I think the best way to tell the tale of this trip is through an hour by hour timeline, so here is is:

All times listed are Mountain West (local time)

6:00 AM - I wake up and grab Julia from her pack and play (where she sleeps when we travel). Right away, I notice that her head is super warm. She has a 101 fever. Great

6:15 AM - Liz and I hop in the car and drive to a 24 hour Walgreens, to pick up baby Tylenol. We get back and immediately give a dose to Julia.

6:30 AM to 8:30 AM - Rested on the couch and watched TV. Julia is pretty fussy (understandably so), but seems to settle down once the Tylenol kicks in.

9:00 AM: We decide to go for a walk. Pretty uneventful.

10:00 AM to 11:45 AM: Hang out at the house, get cleaned up, start packing up our things. We pick a place nearby to grab lunch before we need to head to the airport.

11:50 AM: We give Julia a second dose of baby Tylenol

12:00 PM to 1:30 PM: We grab beers and pub grub at a nearby brewery. Julia comes along and I can tell she isn’t quite herself. It was either the fever or the side affects of the Tylenol, but she pretty much sleeps the entire time, something she typically doesn’t do when we are out and about. This is where is gets interesting.

1:45 PM: Julia pukes. A lot. Outfit change

1:50 PM: Julia pukes even more. Another outfit change.

2:30 PM: We pack up Liz’s Suburu (So Rado!) and depart for the airport. Liz is driving. I am in the passenger seat. Loral is with Julia in the back seat.

2:33 PM: “Oh God”, followed by gurgling sounds from the back seat. Julia is puking again (while somehow still sleeping) and its a lot of vomit. Like an unholy amount of puke for a 16 pound baby. Liz asks if we need to pull over, to which Loral screams yes. We screech into a strip mall parking lot and I hop out of the car to grab Julia from her car seat. By the time I get back there, she completely saturated in her own puke, with more coming up. I’ve never seen anything like it. In hindsight, I can laugh at it, but in the moment, it was actually a little scary. The thought crossed my mind if we could actually take her on the flight…

2:34 PM: We clean her up as best we can with the limited number of baby wipes we have and change her into her third onesie of the day. Both myself and Loral also require shirt changes. I put on a new t-shirt in the parking lot. Liz wisely suggests that we go back to her place to clean up.

2:37 PM: We arrive back at Liz’s place. I give the carseat a quick wipe down while Loral changes. Julia is already sleeping again somehow, despite puking 20% of her bodyweight. We pack a wad of paper towels in a ziplock bag, somehow thinking this would be sufficient in the event of another puke. In reality, we would have needed HAZMAT suits.

2:44 PM: We once again depart for the Airport.

3:15 PM: We arrive to Denver International Airport for our 5pm scheduled flight and say bye to Liz. Loral puts Julia in the baby carrier (the one that straps to her chest) and we check our bags - the car seat and the travel stroller.

3:28 PM: As we are loading our carry on luggage to the conveyor belt, Julia pukes again, this time, directly into Loral’s chest. I see some trickle out the sides of the baby carrier. We put our heads down and keep moving.

3:29 PM: My backpack is selected by TSA to be screened. We have a few bottles of ready to drink baby formula, hence why it was flagged. After unpacking, testing and repacking, we are cleared to go.

3:49 PM: We reach our gate. Loral immediately strips off the baby carrier changes Julia’s onesie, as well as her own shirt. While Julia still feels warm, she also doesn’t seem too uncomfortable. As our flight is still on time, we can relax a little bit. I grab some Combos from the shop.

4:35 PM: We board the plane.

5:30 PM: We have been taxiing for almost an hour. Our flight is now 30 minutes behind schedule.

6:05 PM: Our flight finally takes off. It’s really bumpy. But at least we are in the air en route to JFK. I breathe a small sigh of relief.

7:35 PM: I get a vodka soda, Loral gets a glass of white wine. Julia still feels a little warm, but otherwise unbothered. She is asleep. I fire up a movie.

8:43 PM: I get a text from Liz. She tested positive for Covid. It doesn’t take a genius to connect the dots - Julia has Covid and Loral and I either have it as well, or will get it soon. Shit.

8:44 PM: We start game planning our next moves. Our original plan was Uber back to my parents house and sleep there, pick up Barkley in the morning and drive back to Hoboken sometime on Tuesday. Well as we do not want to expose either of our parents, we make the decision to drive back to Hoboken that night, with as little contact with my parents and Loral’s parents as possible. Thank God our texts were going through, as we were able to coordinate this on the fly (literally).

From here on out, all times are now Eastern

11:25 PM: We land at JFK, about 35 minutes behind schedule. We are sitting in row 2, so we are quickly off the plane.

11:35 PM: We quickly arrive at the baggage claim and head to the over-sized luggage area (as instructed). We need to pick up our car seat and baby stroller.

12:10 AM: Still waiting.

12:25 AM: Still waiting, but my patience is wearing thin.

12:30 AM: A worker randomly walks by pushing a cart, with one piece of luggage on it. It happens to be our car seat. I grab it, relieved, but we still do not have our stroller.

12:35 AM: Over an hour after our plane has landed, our stroller is still nowhere to be found, despite constant badgering by an increasingly agitated group of JetBlue patrons. We make the decision to file a claim with JetBlue baggage services; they will deliver the stroller to our home once it is recovered. I’m drinking Monster energy drink to keep me up on the drive home.

12:42 AM: Loral is filing a claim while I am guarding our luggage. Our stroller appears!

12:49 AM: We are in an Uber headed to my parents house. Somehow, we were able to get to the right pick up spot, install the car seat and pull off without incident. The entire 25 minute ride, I am praying Julia doesn’t puke. I value my uber raring too much (4.87, no big deal).

1:15 AM: We arrive at my parents and shuttle our bags out of the Uber and into our car, without going inside. My mom left my car keys in the mailbox. We quickly say hello (from a distance) and be on our way.

1:30 AM: We drive over to Loral’s parents to pick up Barkley. He is happy, but totally confused. Julia already asleep in the back seat.

1:35 AM: We start the drive back to Hoboken. With no cars on the road, we cruise.

2:30 AM: We arrive back in Hoboken. Of course, there are no open parking spots in the vicinity of our apartment, so we quickly unload by the curb. I drop off Loral, Julia and Barkley and head back out to find a parking spot.

2:42 AM: I finally find a parking spot about 8 blocks away, park, and head back to our place on foot.

2:50 AM: Having not eaten dinner, I scarf down a few stale cookies and head to bed. We made it. Finally.

The next morning, we take Covid tests - mine comes back positive, Julia is positive, Loral somehow comes back negative. She takes another on Wednesday morning - this time positive. We spent the day on Tuesday recovering, and more or less back to our normal schedule by Wednesday. Only minor symptoms at this point, so we just have to wait out our quarantine. But man, what an adventure…

Safe to say, it may be a while before we get back on an airplane.