Up in the air, junior birdman!

Alarms at 4:45 for a 7:15 flight. Several alarms set on two phones, one iPad, and a robo wake up call from the hotel system. Baron woke with the first alarm and was ready to get dressed and out the door. He has to be persuaded to sit down and have some yogurt while we re-packed. He is provided with dry cereal and fruit roll-ups for once we are on the plane, and we made a communal project of peeling and sectioning and bagging several tangerines last night for the flight as well.

We made a project of trekking down to the lobby and fetching the luggage cart, which he pushed all the way up the lobby ramp, onto the elevator, and down the hall into the room with any damage to himself, the cart, or the building. Once loaded, however, the cart proved more than the fellow could manage, and Poppa was called into draft horse service.

The early morning is frigid, with wind chills in the school-canceling range, and the car makes reluctant twitters under the hood as the belts warm up. The Humphrey terminal is our exit point, about a rifle shot from the hotel, and the car hasn’t time to warm up, so we’re pretty chilled driving into the parking ramp. We eschew park and fly this trip, looking toward a rapid return to the car and getting the youngster home in shortest order for bed and return to school next Sunday.

“Value parking” at MSP at Terminal 2 is in the Purple Ramp, and is relatively open at this hour on a Sunday, so the hike to the elevator (and heat!) is short, but brutal, nonetheless. We leave winter coats in the car, put on our California jackets, assemble the rolling luggage, and make for the automatic doors, old bare hands and small young hands protesting the cold for the whole fifty yards.

Lines at security are long and daunting as we walk into the terminal, but the lines at check-in look longer, positively Disneyesque. Paula expresses some concern that an hour and 45 minutes will not be enough time to get to the gate, but we clear it all in good time, and board the plane without event. Baron’s excitement is palpable as he slides into his window seat. The plane is slightly delayed as the baggage handling equipment expresses its own pique at the cold and the early hour, and even the de-icing seems to proceed at a glacial pace. Soon we are taxiing at a good clip, positioning on the runway, and accelerating to take-off. Baron’s cries of “Awesome!” punctuate the acceleration, rotation, lift-off, and first views of the city from above.

Settled into the three hour plus flight, we each turn to our respective tablets. Baron has his own family Samsung tablet, and Angry Birds seems to keep him satisfied and amused once the ground and clouds are far below and the endless sky provides no further entertainment. Descending into San Diego should prove interesting, as the plane has to come in low over the mountains and then drop down quickly to the airport at the edge of the ocean; we expect more awesomeness.