6:20 AM - Depart Hope Church for Newark International Airport
8:10 AM - Arrive at Newark with 24 youth in tow, 18 checked bags, and over 29 carry-ons.
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| Gathering after checking the luggage |
Within the first few minutes, the adults were off misbehaving! Pastor Jami tested out the hand dryers in the bathroom with her face and Dave Ziegler took Scotty on a tour of the airport pulling him around on his rolling suitcase. Somehow, we made it flawlessly through security minus Dave's one quick pat down.
Everyone settled in for the hour long wait until boarding would begin playing games, charging ipods/cell phones, and drinking coffee. Vicky wanted to take the FedEx plane, but one of her friends was quick to point out it had no windows. "But my mailman told me it would be cheaper to fly this way!" - Vicky.
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| Now what, Pastor Jami? |
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| A game of Uno |
10:40 AM - Take off!
Devin made it through his first flight ever and Dolores enjoyed her first flight since her first flight with Amelia according to Scott. He told her this time she wouldn't need her leather hat and goggles since they have now enclosed the plane.
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| Ready to go! |
12:20 PM - Land in Atlanta and make connection to New Orleans
Due to changes in gates and flight times, we had to make a bathroom stop, make it from gate F to gate B, eat lunch, and get to our next plane in 45 minutes. Phew!
Lucky for us, they had a train that took us from gate to gate. Unlucky for us, it made VERY fast stops and gave a VERY short amount of time to get on and off at the stops. If you've ever seen the episode of the Duggars where they travel to NY and take the subways, it was something like that. Steph was the last one on and just BARELY made it before the door shut. Jon missed the memo that we were getting off at gate B and not gate E. Good thing some of the girls saw him get off and yelled for him! He made it back on before the train pulled away.
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| This train was fast! Holding on was not an option, it was a requirement |
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| David couldn't decide between Mango Chicken and Teriyaki Chicken so the nice woman behind the counter let him sample. |
We gobbled up lunch and hurried to our plane... which sat at the gate for an extra 45 minutes because the pilot was running late. Oh well! The pilot announced he would try to cut off some time by taking a short cut... ??
2:38 PM - Land in New Orleans, Louisiana!
All of our luggage made it so we don't all have to share Amber's clothes! We took shuttles to the Hotel Monteleone (the background picture of this blog). Unfortunately they didn't have shuttles big enough for our whole group to fit on. We were supposed to be in groups of 10, 10, and 9, but the woman loading the buses didn't realize she was supposed to keep all the people in blue shirts together. We ended up in groups of 10, 18, and 1. Steph made new friends on the bus full of red shirts and reunited in the lobby half an hour later.
Everyone headed upstairs to their rooms. David, Alex, and Scott were a little surprised to open their door to only one king size bed. This is a conundrum that will be worked on later this evening. Amber, Briana, and Larissa already had a run in with the ghost of the hotel. It appears he was holding their door shut because they could not open it. Amber was worried because there was cold air pouring out from beneath the door. The maintenance man came upstairs and reassured them it was indeed the ghost of the hotel and that he normally hides in the closet. The boys checked it out for them. They should be fine.
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| (Kaitlin, Marissa, Alex, Olivia, Sammie, David) Olivia throws goldfish as David catches them in his mouth |
We are about to board the trolley and head to dinner at Zea's. Having a great time already moms, dads, and other blog readers!
Check back later for updates.
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