I’m happy to say that Chase and I survived our trip from Minneapolis to LAX. To be honest, I had been somewhat nervous about flying by myself with an 11 month old. I’ve flown many times with Chase by myself, but he is now so much more active. Josh dropped us off at MSP and helped us get all of our luggage checked in. You should have seen us with all of our bags. Since we are spending a week in Palm Springs and a week on the Big Island in Hawaii I needed to bring a carseat and stroller. Chase and I said goodbye to Josh and then made our way through security. Thankfully I had pre-check so going through security was pretty smooth and uneventful. I have to say that MSP does a great job with their pre-check line.
Traveling alone with a baby is challenging and Josh kindly booked us in First Class. The seats are bigger and there is a bathroom nearby that is typically easy to access. Our flight left on time and Chase did quite well until his unfortunate midair diaper blowout. The unfortunate part was that at the time this was going on the pilot had everyone seated due to the turbulence. I was forced to wait to use the bathroom to change him. Once we were finally allowed to get up I made my way to the restroom. I have to admit that I was a bit shocked when I found that our cabin’s lavatory lacked a changing table. I made my way to coach and was horrified to learn that none of the bathrooms on the huge plane had a changing table. A less than helpful flight attendant gave me a red Delta blanket and told me to try to change Chase on the toilet with the seat down. I think this may have been the worst experience I have ever had on a plane. Chase cried and cried like I have never heard him cry before. He obviously didn’t fit on the toilet seat and was so scared. By the time we finished I was nearly in tears. I felt so awful about the entire situation and that I had to put Chase through all of that. I changed his clothes once we got back to our seat and then was able to calm him down. The guy next to me commented on how well Chase did on the flight. He is such a good little traveler and did a great job.
Upon landing at LAX we were able to meet my mom in the baggage claim area. She had flown down from Oregon on a flight that landed about an hour prior to ours. Chase was very happy to see his Gramma!
Look who Chase found at LAX
All of our bags made it and we made our way to the airport shuttle. The Hertz shuttle driver was very nice and lifted all FIVE of our bags onto the bus for us! We lugged all of our stuff to the back of the car rental lot to space 873 and found a Jeep SUV. They had told us we were supposed to have a Chevy Impala, but allowed us to keep the SUV since we had already installed the carseat. We barely fit all of our luggage into the car! Upon exiting the lot they informed us that since the reservation was under Josh’s name that he had to be present. They sent us back into the main office to take care of further paperwork. Thankfully the guy at the desk was helpful and understanding. He got everything figured out and we were on our way!
Luggage, luggage, and more luggage
After a pretty full day of travel we figured we should eat before driving to Palm Springs. It was an easy decision to head to the In-N-Out right next to LAX. The place was packed and we were lucky to find a parking space after driving around the crowded building. Gramma Suze gave Chase his first little bite of a french fry and some bites of her chocolate shake. He shivered and made a funny face with the french fry and seemed to make a face due to the coldness of the shake. After a few bites he seemed to like the shake and kept trying to grab the cup and the straw!
First In-N-Out Chocolate Shake
Visit to In-N-Out in Los Angeles
We started driving towards our resort in Palm Springs and hit horrible rush hour traffic at 2:30 PM! A drive that should’ve taken approximately 2 hours ended up taking almost 4 hours! All three of us were exhausted, but extremely happy to finally be in Palm Springs!
lucaslife 