Traveling Rambling: San Jose Airport

“What? Are you insane?” a friend asked me. Call it ignorance, a pure fantasy, a delusion for being landlocked for what felt like an eternity with young kids, but I really thought it was a good idea to travel for a month with my two under-aged travelers- without my husband. Since our family is in the process of moving to San Diego anyway (hubby got a job there, and has been working there since May), why not use the opportunity to go and pay over-due visits to friends and family across the country?

So I began my cross country trip. I love to travel. I love just showing up at friend’s houses and surprising them. I love to go to places with nothing planned, and just “figure things out” when I get there. Unannounced, unexpected, and unpredicted was my style.

Now that I have two toddlers, and most of my friends have toddlers, anything “unexpected” is usually NOT a good thing. Knowing this, I arrived at San Jose Airport 2.5 hours prior to my departure time. Knowing that the evil airlines would charge me a fee for checking curbside, I got a luggage cart, and began loading 2 large suitcases, 2 car seats, my jewelry case, oversized diaper bag and a stroller. With my one year daughter in a baby carrier, and holding my 3 year old son’s hand, I began to walk towards the check-in line. Wednesday afternoon with the economy the way it is, I expected the airport to be empty. To my dismay, the check in line was packed, there were only 2 agents working at the counter and the airport was anything but empty.

“57 lbs. That will be $50” said the ticket agent. WHAT? I packed and weighted the suitcase myself just yesterday. “53 lbs, that will be another $50, total of $100. Would you like to pay it by cash or credit?” CRAZY!! I just waited 45 mins in the line so I can avoid paying the curbside fee. I was NOT about to pay $100 after waiting in line for that long. “I’ll rearrange my luggage” I said adamantly. The ticket agent rolled her eyes, and let out a loud sigh that screamed “I’m too busy to cater to you.”

I opened my over-sized and over-weight suitcases, and began to rearrange the load frantically. I can feel the eyes of disgruntled travelers behind me. How can my bags be off by 10+ lbs? Was my scale off? Have I’ve been weighing myself on the broken scale all this time? DOES THIS MEAN I AM ALSO 10+ POUNDS HEAVIER? There I was, in front of the ticket counter, with packages of Pampers, Ziploc full of wooden trains, clothes, and toiletries scattered everywhere- all eyes were on my 10+ lbs over-weight bags, and on my 10+ lbs over-weight self.

After several unsuccessful attempts at trying to magically get rid of the overweight lbs, I finally ended up with the unanticipated penalty of $50, a 67 lb suitcase, and a very visible fluorescent “heavy” tag hung like a scarlet letter on my suitcase.

The two hour flight to Denver was anything but easy. But the worst part of my trip was definitely the unanticipated $50 plus the unexpected weight gain. Sigh…

So began my month of travel. Next stop – Denver. Stand by for more unexpected, and unexpected happenings.