2004-02 Gran Canaria: The Journey is the Reward

The taxi picks us up at 0700, and our plane is to take off at 10:10. The check-in line is mercifully short, and we're ready to enjoy the airport before boarding.

We start our trip at SFO, San Francisco Oakland. Here's the family posing at trip's start, in the domestic terminal, under one of the planes hanging from the ceiling. Isaac has been sitting on one of our suitcases, which we've chosen to toss in the overhead compartments rather than giving Iberia another chance to lose our bags (as they did last year). Even the stroller is going into the overhead.

At the departure gate Isaac finds a baby with which to play, one of his favorite things. The parents are very thankful, as the baby was a bit anxious.

We pick up what passes for an onboard meal, given to us in a paper bag, and find our seats and stow our gear. I've decided to put us behind each other, so both kids get a window seat. The parents get an aisle seat, so all is well.

We arrive at Chicago O'Hare, an airport we loathe for routinely overbooking planes, resulting in incredibly long delays and seemingly endless circling of the airport. (Recently the federal government heard about this and started an investigation.) Isaac takes his turn pushing Lila's stroller.

The connection agent points us to our next plane, across the huge "U" which is the airport terminal. She mentions that we have three hours, so we take our time. We check the departures monitor, which show a plane leaving for Madrid-Barajas in a half-hour, but it has a different flight number. We stroll on. Here we see a maintenance team de-icing a plane.

Further on the kids enjoy looking up at the flags. You can see Rose at left, Lila in the middle, at Isaac at the right. I stroll into the bookstore, hoping to find a copy of Neal Stephenson's "Quicksilver" tome. Just as I get to the correct shelves, I hear our name being paged: "Passengers Rose and Michael Sattler, please report to gate L8. Your plane is waiting for you."

Argh! Isaac and I sprint across half the "U", with Rose and Lila doing their best to keep up with us. We dive into the gate just as they close the doors and de-ice. A half-dozen others have just arrived from delayed planes. The gate staff explains that not all the departures are displayed together on the main screens; code-sharing flights are hidden on another monitor labelled "Partners". For my convenience, I'm sure.

Sweaty, but relieved to have made the once-a-day flight, we get the kids to sleep for most of the flight.

Rose probably has had two hours of sleep at this point, Lila a few more (which she gets at the end of each flight).

As promised, I wake Isaac at the first sight of daylight. He's slept most of the night, and I probably got five hours of sleep, albeit interrupted by Lila's occasional checks.

Here we finally catch up with dawn, shortly before landing at Madrid-Barajas.

Finally we're at Madrid-Barajas. (At this airport we really have three hours between flights; I carefully checked.) Here's a café on our way. I enjoy two properly-made cups of caffè con leche. It tastes so different than Roman espresso machiatto caldo, both of which I love to drink.

Here's my darling wife, exhausted, sitting on the floor nursing a hot cocoa (for the kids) and freshly-squeezed orange juice (several glasses drunk by us all). The kids were a few feet away, playing on a mechanical car with another child and parent. The kids are really good travellers, and just getting better all the time. Isaac really understood that if he slept the trip would feel like it was over in no time, and slept. I love having globetrotting kids.

Here's a very happy Papa, waiting to board the last flight. I personally have a lot invested in getting the family through the trip without complications, and at this point it looks as though it'll all be smooth to the ending. I relax.

Isaac is thrilled to be back on a plane, on his way to Omi Marga.

Isaac: Papa, when we get to Omi's house in Gran Canaria is that where we're going to live?

Papa: No, we'll stay there for a month and then go back to San Francisco, to our house and your pre-school.

Isaac: No, Papa, no. I want to live with Omi Marga. I love her. I don't want to go back.

Lila takes her drawing paper and miniature pencils and finds the main aisle of the jet is a wonderfully comfortable place to create art.

Here we are flying by the southernmost part of the island of Lanzarote. Gran Canaria is next.

We've lost a day. We started on the morning of the 5th, Thursday, and here it is the morning of the 6th, Friday. Very disorienting.

We land at Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (LPA) airport, find that all of our luggage has arrived with us, and make it through customs. Heinz Kluger and Omi Marga meet us. Lila is deliriously happy to see Omi, but Isaac bonds to her just as strongly as did I. He gives here a bear-hug, buries his face into her mid-section, and proceeds to take her walking stick in one hand and Omi Marga in the other hand. With the swirl of passengers around us we chat as we make our way to the new parking garage.

All our bags fit beautifully into Heinz's Mercedes-Benz. Heinz takes us at 120 kph, the speed limit, along the autobahn to Playa del Inglés. Less than a half-hour. We're in our room by late afternoon.

Our plans for dealing with jet lag are to to keep the kids awake and in the bright sunlight until the local evening, hoping to reset their body clocks. (This works for me.) It almost works. The kids fall asleep a bit earlier than we wanted. Lila awoke in the middle of the night, asked "Where's Isaac" and not finding him next to her in bed (he was asleep on the fold-out sofa, as he'd asked to sleep in his own bed), and she was awake. Here she is having an 0200 snack on the porch, dressed in Papa's hat an a hotel towel in her "Superman" style.

Here's the late-night view from the porch.

Tomorrow is our first full day in Playa del Inglés.

Have you found errors nontrivial or marginal, factual, analytical and illogical, arithmetical, temporal, or even typographical? Please let me know; drop me email. Thanks!

What's New? • Search this Site • Website Map
Travel • Burning Man • San Francisco
Kilts! Kilts! Kilts! • Macintosh • Technology • CU-SeeMe