We are home...

We got home last night at 9:30 p.m.

It was quite an adventure getting home. Tamarah did really well traveling, but we hit a lot of "little snags" on the way.

Because the aiport in Port-au-Prince had closed down on Sunday because of the hurricaine, about 1,000-1,500 travelers were left stranded. Most of them go rebooked for later flights, but it seems that most did not get tickets out until almost 5-7 days after their originally booked flight. Their other option was to go via stand-bye...thus the large crowd of people trying to trample their way into the airport! I had to carry Tamarah's stroller when trying to get into the airport, otherwise she would have been trampeled. It was absolutely crazy. Fortunately, we had decided to go VIP into the airport (it costs $15 per person plus luggage fee) when we had seen the crowd the day before. With VIP, we were able to get in without standing in line, but people in line saw us going in and tried to get in as well...it was like a stampede.

In Fort Lauderdale, we ended up standing in line at immigration for over one hour! Once we got through the passport control and were sent to the little side room to process Tamarah's IR3 entry visa, etc. it only took about 15 more minutes.

However, then we hit a snag in Customs. I was not aware that U.S. citizens coming from PAP were only allowed 2 bottles of rum (I had 10 bottles that I had declared on the customs form). Instead of just telling me that I had to pay $18.50 of custom fees/tax on the rum, they made me open my suitcases, etc. Of all times traveling, this is the time that they had to do this to us! I was really mad because that delayed us for another hour.

Fort Lauderdale airport is a PAIN in terms of rechecking luggage once you exit customs. Most airports have a re-checking for luggage after customs right outside of customs...but not FLL... We had to walk to another terminal altogether and get upstairs to re-check. (I had forgotten about that part and so I was not too happy pushing heavy luggage, three kids in tow, and rushing to make our connecting flight.) Thus, we did not get to stop to eat lunch.

However, I was able to upgrade/stand-by to first class on the next flight from FLL to DFW (Dallas). Tamarah and I were in first class where we were fed a nice lunch. Joshua and Teddy remained in economy class, but had three seats to themselves. Being able to travel first class on that leg of our journey allowed me to 'recover' from the previous mess! :-)

We had a two-hour layover in Dallas and then continued on to San Diego. This time, I was not able to upgrade my ticket since I am only a lowly "Gold Advantage Member" on American Airlines and was 'bumped' by the platinum members....but that was okay because I had recovered by then. :-) We got home at about 9:30 p.m. (after having been on the road for 16 hours).

We were able to take some beautiful photos from the plane... The Carribian Sea is absolutely beautiful...