A bad travel day (but we got there in the end)

After getting to the airport on time and having no trouble getting to our plane and settling into our seats, we got the dreaded announcement over the PA system in the airplane: "Umm, Ladies and Gentlemen, we are having some maintenance issues that we can't fix and we are going to have to go back to the gate and de-plane the aircraft. We are going to cancel the flight and there will be 2 Customer Service Agents to help all 120 of you get rebooked onto another flight."

Reading in Newark

Reading in Newark

Well, that was terrible news for us because we were trying to get to Peaks Island off the coast of Portland, Maine and the next flight with AirTran that would have gotten us there or even anywhere close to there was not until 10:35pm or later. And it was now 7am. We waited in line for a lonnnng time and finally around 9:00am we received information that they couldn't do anything for us and they also didn't have ANY information about any of the other airlines leaving from the same airport. So the kids and I effectively went door-to-door asking the various other airlines if they had any flights that would work for us. In the end, I went online and booked us a flight on United via Newark which got us to Portland at 4:45pm. It turned out to be half the price to book online compared with having the desk agents book us a flight. Anyway, once we had our new flights and were underway, things went much smoother.

I have to say that the people we met and dealt with along the way today - starting with the other passengers when we were waiting for 2 hours in line to speak with a stupid agent who knew nothing anyway - were really friendly and kind and helpful to us.

Anyway, we got to Portland finally and were VERY happy to see Jackie in the parking lot waiting for us! We were able to catch the 5:35pm ferry to Peaks Island and Jackie seemed to know everyone on the boat.

Looking back at Portland as we head to Peaks Island on the ferry

Inside seating area of the ferry, with a bunch of people Jackie (red jacket) gave a hard time to

Finally we got to Carol and Jackie's house!