Our Airport Adventure

Here was the plan:
Brandon would park his car at the closest BART station; take BART to the SanFran. Int. Airport, fly to Miami, and have a fab experience. When the fab experience with potential employers was finished, he would fly back (go figure), take BART back, drive home and arrive "in the wee, small hours of the morning" (name that song and what movie it's from!). All was planned, and all was peachy.

Then, minutes before he boarded the plane in Miami to come back, he realized that he forgot to check the BART schedule. He sent me a message to check the schedule. I --having just recently returned with the starving children from a very cold baseball practice for #1 and trying to get dinner ready so we could eat quickly before we had to pick up the babysitter because I had a baby shower to attend (say that in one breath!)--found out that his flight would arrive only minutes before the last BART left the airport, leaving him with not enough time to catch it. Doh!

After speaking with some friends about the situation at the baby shower, I came home, looked online for some shuttles, prices, etc. Then my cell phone wouldn't work. At all. I could not make a call! And our land line was "dead" (long story about our VoIP service, etc.), so I had no way to call a shuttle, call Brandon, or call a friend to ask them to come watch the children while they slept so I could drive into the city. So, therefore, and what-with, I made an executive decision.

At 10:15PM, I loaded the sleeping ("Why are we getting in the car?") children into the van, entered the address into my GPS (oh, what would I do without GPS!?), gathered my printed-out maps of the airport (hey, it's big!) and headed to the city.

Driving to San Francisco isn't hard at 11PM. No traffic. Well, "no" meaning "nothing to slow you down." The kids slept soundly, I listened to some rockin' country music, and I got there early (around 11:10PM). Hooray! I parked in hourly parking right next to his terminal (bless those online maps!) and luckily my cell phone worked. Why my house is a cell phone-black-hole is beyond me! I left Brandon a message for when he landed and turned on "Ratatouille" for the waking children to watch.

Brandon landed (11:30PM), called me back, couldn't believe I was actually there to pick him up, and we didn't have to wait much longer until he came out to the parking lot. The drive home was nice; the kids slept --we talked. By the time we got his car and back home, it was around 12:45AM. If he had taken BART, he wouldn't have gotten home until 2AM (if the train actually had something going after midnight).

So, that was our little adventure last night. I learned a couple of things from it (come on, you'd think I'd blog without a moral? Pshaw!):

1. What an incredible time to live! Brandon was able to board a plane 3,000 miles away, and still be in contact with me quickly; and even with all the problems I had (phone not working, etc.), just the fact that I could jump into my car and it could give me complex directions to a complex place...? That's incredible! Imagine if this had happened 50 years ago? Brandon would have had to...walk! Or...or...I guess, he could have...taken a cab. Yeah, okay, he could have taken a cab last night, too, but those things are just too expensive to be zipping around in 'em all over the Bay Area!
2. My kids rock. They are so used to being thrown into situations where they have to adapt easily (or should adapt easily). They didn't complain once for having to get in the car; they didn't complain having to go back to bed when we got home although they were pretty awake by that time. #4 even went right back to sleep. Seriously, I may feel guilt when I make my kids do all kinds of inconvenient things ("yes, we are waiting in the car for the entire baseball practice because it's cold outside" and "no, you can't watch a movie in the car right now, because I'm sick of hearing it. Look at the cows!"), but it sure pays off later when I need their patience the most.
3. I am more capable in "crisis" situations then I think I am (although, this wasn't exactly a "crisis", but you know what I mean!), and wow! Last night was kind of romantic --me rescuing my husband from severe inconvenience. And running to meet him in the parking lot for a passionate embrace was something that even Hollywood couldn't have articulated! ~sigh~
4. San Francisco is so beautiful at night, with a slight fog rolling in off of the Bay. I'm sure going to miss this place.