Keeping up with the Bragassas: Family Vacation in the Sunshine State

A few months ago, Brian's family started planning their summer vacation to Destin, FL. Sadly, Brian wouldn't be able to make it due to work, but I could! I decided that I would try to get down there on Sunday, June 12 by flying stand-by from San Francisco. Boy oh boy was that a bad idea! It was such a nightmare of a travel experience, but I guess that's what you get for trying to fly stand-by during the summer months!

My journey started off with Brian dropping me off at the San Francisco Airport on Saturday night for a 10:30 flight. Unfortunately, I didn't get on that flight...so I waited around until the later flight at 11:40 that same night. Same thing happens again...I didn't make it...but of course my stuff did:( Before I went into the airport we had planned that Brian would just wait for me in the parking lot until I got on. Thank goodness he was waiting because obviously my plans for flying all night and getting to Pensacola on Sunday morning did not work out! Our next option would be for me to try to get on the 6 a.m. flight out of San Francisco to Atlanta, and the to connect in Atlanta to Pensacola. So Brian and I got a hotel in SF at midnight, and then I woke back up at 4:15, went to the airport thinking that security and all that would be a breeze at 6 a.m. but was I ever wrong! Seriously, who flies at 6 a.m.?!?!?! What a terrible idea! The security line was longer than I've ever seen it...ever! Not to mention everyone either had to go through the full body scanners or opt to have a full body pat down...luckily, some guy came through security and said that everyone on a 6 a.m. flight could go up to the front of the line...so that's exactly what I did! I finally make it through security and submit myself to the "harmful and deadly" rays of the full body scanner for the 2nd time in 2 days, only to find out that I didn't make the flight. Brian had gone back to the hotel to sleep until it was time to check out, so I had some time to spare. I decided to try some other options, but to no avail.

After a few more attempts, I gave up and called Brian to come and get me. I decided that I wanted to go home, sleep, and then spend countless hours on end checking flights from any and every airport within a 60 mile radius...that includes San Francisco, Sacramento, San Jose and Oakland. To my disappointment, nothing looked good! Eventually, I settled on the fact that if I went back to the airport Monday night, I could finally make it out...at least that's what the computer made it look like. At this point, my luggage has been sitting in the Pensacola Airport since Sunday, and the earliest I can make it to Pensacola is Tuesday morning. I was kinda of in a panic about this because I thought that Pensacola might try to send my luggage back to SF and then I would get to Pensacola and it wouldn't be there...blahblahblah! I tried not to think about it!

So my journey continued Monday night...again submitting myself to the fun full body scanners and the crazy anticipation of waiting to see if I got on a flight. The situation at the airport was kind of ridiculous! On the screen, the numbers kept changing and I couldn't tell if I was going to make it or not. It looked like it but I didn't want to get too excited just yet! While I'm sitting there, I must have looked on edge because this older married couple next to me asks if I'm traveling stand-by. I tell them that I am, and they enlighten me that their son works for Delta so they were too...and unfortunately for me, they were the people right ahead of me on the stand-by list. When it comes down to the wire, the gate agent actually couldn't tell how many seats were open on the plane, so she had to run into the plane, count empty seats and then run back out and tell us. The older couple kept telling me that if there was only one seat, they would let me go because they weren't willing to split up. But if there were two, then they would take them. So here I am, palms sweating, practically shaking with anticipation to see if I will get on or not when the gate agent come running back up the jetway yelling that there are 2 seats open so whoever wants to go should get on immediately!!! Obviously the other couple took the seats, which left me the ONLY person who didn't get on:( To make things worse, not more than 2 minutes after they shut the doors to the plane, some guy comes running up saying he was supposed to be on that flight. Of course he was!!! That would have left only one seat open which means I could have got on!! The moral of this story is if you're flying, always be on time!!!!

At this point, I was so upset and didn't know what to do, so I did what most girls would do and I started crying...right there in the middle of the SF airport at midnight! Brian was at home because he had to work in the morning, I was going to go and get another hotel when the gate agent came up to me and told me to go to Minneapolis. The gate behind me had just began boarding a flight to Minneapolis that would take off at 12:50 a.m. Long story short, the gate agent didn't really know how to work the computer, so I was on the phone with my dad (3 a.m. his time!) and I was behind the desk relisting myself on the Delta employee computers. It was such a big mess, but it all worked out! My dad did the rest of the work behind the scenes and listed me on a flight from Minneapolis to Atlanta, and from Atlanta to Pensacola. The only problem was that my flight to Minneapolis landed 20 minutes before the flight to Atlanta took off. Luckily, my flight landed about 5 minutes early, so I literally was the first person off the plane and I booked it through the airport. They were closing the gate as I ran up screaming that I need to be on that flight! I MADE IT!!! Same thing happened when I got to Atlanta but it all worked out in the end, and lo and behold, my bag was still in Pensacola:)

When I finally made it, my aunt came and picked me up, and we went to lunch at Olive Garden (mmmmmmmm!!) and then headed over to the house where Brian's family was staying. We ended up having a great time...including one night where Kim, Chris and I were able to go out to a bar and live it up! Funny thing was that Kim didn't have her wedding ring on, so everyone thought that Chris and I were married and she was single. We got a kick out of that one:) I had a great time with my little nephew and niece who are both growing like weeds!