PARRUSSELL: Kirkwood Mountain, California

Summer Vacation - Kirkwood Mountain

Joined by Aunt Cheri & Uncle Luke for a few days of fun!

Yesterday we returned home, safely and uneventfully, from a pleasant week of adventure and play at Kirkwood Mountain.

I purposefully mention "uneventfully" because the trip down was a perfect storm. Everything went terribly wrong, yet worked itself out smoothly and flawlessly in the end. Does that even make sense? Basically, with the help of some kind people in the airline/rental car industry, a horrible travel story worked itself out smoothly in the end. Peyton was a terrific traveler throughout the whole messy, eventful, travel day.

We also earned $$ for our troubles. So, thank you Alaska/Horizon Air. Is this really worth it to overbooking all your flights from Seattle to Reno? Compensate those who get totally screwed out of their travel plans AND those who try to help those in need. I mean it's really entertaining for all the other weary travelers waiting to board the plane to watch all the drama unfold. Irate passengers vying for seats that aren't available, but for which they paid. Airline employees who have no say in the matter other than to put out the fire AGAIN and AGAIN. Good times. Hey Alaska/Horizon, you might want to revisit your business model.

Thank you to the ONE kind gentleman who saw a family in need and wanted to help. Too bad it didn't do us a lick of good. 3 of us. 1 seat. Hmmm. Try as we did, we just couldn't make the math work in our favor.

We were generously compensated, rerouted to Sacramento departing only an hour later than our original reservation, worked long and hard upon arrival to determine where our checked luggage ended up (Reno, it turns out) and then scrambled to make a new, one-way rental car reservation. A kind, but desperate smile and traveling with a baby seemed to work in our favor. Everyone wanted to bend over backwards to help us. We arrived in Kirkwood, not even all that much later than we had planned on with our original itinerary - with everything BUT the checked luggage (which was our baby backpack and the one bag that had everything Steve and I packed). All in all, this traveling tornado went smoothly.

Wanting to go the extra mile, the airline promised to deliver our 2 pieces of checked luggage at the mountain before we were even scheduled to arrive. To be extra efficient someone, somewhere, decided 2 separate trips from the airport to Kirkwood Mountain was the best way to deliver us our luggage. So, the backpack was there waiting for us when we arrived. The bag was not. Several calls and a few hours later (now 2 am) Steve woke up to meet bag delivery person #2 with luggage #2. Once again, I gently remind the airline to review their business model. No sweat off our back however, just a little lost sleep and we were set to vacation bright and early the next morning!