Sarah had been asking this question for weeks: “How can we go to Minnesota with just one parent?” But today, we did. And not just any one parent, but me, her Dad, the one parent she had never travelled with alone. It started out smoothly, but then the wheels started falling off, literally.
We arrived at the airport in plenty of time to park and catch a shuttle to the terminal. But alas, every park-and-ride lot was full! We went way out to the farthest lot, and it was closed, even though we could see some spots through the fence. I felt a bit of panic, which of course Sarah could feel as well.
“What if we don’t find a parking spot?” she kept asking. We drove back to the terminal, made the loop again, and I pulled into the more expensive “walking” lot a couple blocks from the terminal since I didn’t see a “lot full” sign. Surprisingly, we found a spot, and we were on our way, with Sarah asking every couple minutes if we were going to miss our flight.
Part way to the terminal, my roller bag ran over something, then something else, then wouldn’t go. I saw a bunch of debris on the sidewalk and eventually realized that one of my luggage wheels had disintegrated. In the terminal, the other wheel fell apart, leaving a trail of pieces.
Luckily, it was the outer “tires” that fell apart, much like the retread that flies off a big truck on the freeway. Once free of these outer wheels, the inner wheels worked fine the rest of the trip, even though not designed for direct surface contact.
The rest of the outbound journey was rather uneventful. The plane was crowded, but they offered to check our bags for free, and we arrived in Minnesota on time. We then started the long trek to get the rental car (walk, escalator, walk, tram, walk, paperwork from hard-to-understand agent, and walk some more).
We had fun picking out a good model car and color, but in the end picked a loser. It was a Corolla that turned out to be pretty dinged-up with a lot of stains on the seats. By the time I decided we should go take the bright red Corolla we saw first, someone was driving off with it. We shrugged, loaded up, and took off for Rachel’s a few miles away.
At Rachel’s we unloaded, and Sarah closed the back door on her thumb. Luckily her thumb is small which minimized the injury. She was a trooper with the temporary pain! That night we had dinner with Rachel (a crock-pot chili) and then walked to Menchie’s for our customary serve-yourself frozen yogurt. Sarah went a bit overboard, and I believe her bowl weighed in at 5 pounds.
Sarah and I decided to sleep together at Rachel’s on the queen-sized bed rather than move a bunch of furniture to set up the cot. I learned anew that Sarah is an active, flailing sleeper. At one point in the night I woke up with a foot on my head.
On Saturday, Sarah and I split up. I went to my parents to spend the day with them, do their taxes, and do some minor chores around their apartment. Sarah spent the day with her sister Rachel, and they went to the Mall of America and had a blast! They made crayons at Crayola, visited the Mirror Maze, rode the Ferris wheel and log chute, and rode the escalator (repeatedly).
We all joined up at 5 p.m. at my parents, including Matt, and had a wonderful take-in dinner from Boston Market (for 6 they said) which included 2 chickens, mashed potatoes/gravy, mac and cheese, veggies, Caesar salad, sweet potatoes, and corn bread -- all for just a budget-busting $60. We eat big in America! It was very good, a treat for Mom and Dad, and provided some leftovers the next day.
Dale and Pattie came to visit after our dinner, and we had a nice group chat. Sarah entertained us with some sidewalk chalk art and a gymnastics demonstration on the lawn. We headed back to Rachel and Matt’s at 7:30 p.m. for another restless night with “Kicking Sarah.”
Sunday found Sarah and me up early, dressing quickly in nice clothes, and driving to Vadnais Heights to go to church with Grandma. She was delighted to have us there and show us off. After brunch in the apartment with Mom and Dad we headed back to St. Paul and spent the afternoon with Rachel and Matt.
We decided to take it easy and do some local sights. So, we went to Minnehaha Falls, but it was so packed with people we never got out of the car (the whole weekend was gorgeous weather with temps in the 70s). We then tried Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge, but the visitor center was closed! We did walk around the trails and had fun trying to reconcile the trail map on the kiosk with the actual trails we saw in front of us. Nothing seemed to match!
At 4:30 p.m., Sarah and I were off again to Vadnais Heights to stay overnight with Mom and Dad. We ate at the usual old-people-dinner-time of 5 p.m., then played cards and chess and watched some TV. Sarah slept on the floor in Mom’s room using a sleeping bag from Rachel, and it worked much better for all.
On Monday, we spent the day hanging out with Mom and Dad since our flight was early in the evening. We left for the airport in late afternoon and had dinner at the airport, which was kind of fun. By now, we knew just what to do to return the car, use the tram, and make our way to security. We felt self-assured and relaxed. Then we went through security.
Sarah got randomly picked for further screening, which was basically swabbing her hands for any bomb-making residue. Yes, if anyone looks like a terrorist, it is eight-year-old, perpetually smiling Sarah.
The plane was on time and less crowded, so all looked great for the trip home. But soon after take-off, Sarah declared: “I’m gonna throw up.” I don’t know how you talk a kid out of throwing up, but I did. The nausea eventually passed, and we arrived at the Hartford Airport about 11:30 p.m., found our car in the dark, and arrived home tired but relieved at 12:45 a.m.
See Sarah, you really only need one parent to travel cross-country and that one parent can, at times, be Dad.
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