A plane, a taxi, and Trusted Tours

Filed Under (Family, Travel) by Elizabeth (Who am I?) on 20-03-2008

When my family and I go on vacation, I generally plan everything very carefully. I know where we need to go, when we need to be there, how long it will take, and it usually works out just fine. Except for the summer that we went to California to visit my sister and go to Disneyland and Legoland-that time my planning didn’t work out as well.

Our flight home left from John Wayne airport in Orange County, and I assumed it would take us about thirty minutes to drive there from our hotel. Problem was, the distance we needed to drive would have taken thirty minutes had we been in Michigan traffic, only we were in California traffic, which turns out to be a whole lot different. The drive ended up taking over an hour, and by the time we got to the airport, dropped off the rental car and got through security, we had missed our plane.

To say I was freaked out would be a huge understatement. I must have looked sufficiently panicked to the Northwest Gate agent, because he got on the phone and next thing we knew, he had transferred our tickets at no charge to another flight-leaving from LAX in Los Angeles! Fortunately for us, while the plane had been boarded and the doors locked, the baggage had not yet been loaded, so we were able to get our bags pulled off and brought back to us in the airport. I waited in the ticketing area while my husband went to find a taxi that would take us to LAX-oh, and Northwest also gave us taxi vouchers for a free ride to the airport. Since then, my husband and I have been fiercely loyal to Northwest for caring so much about us.

Anyway, I saw my husband motioning to me from outside that he had found a taxi, so I put our suitcases on a cart and went out to load them in. And then realized that I had left the taxi voucher AND OUR TICKETS on top of the counter in ticketing. I ran faster than I ever have back inside, sure that I would get there to find that someone had stolen our tickets and the voucher. But the heavens were smiling down on me that day, and they were right where I left them. We all piled into the taxi, drove to LAX, and made our flight home on time. And so far, that has been the CRAZIEST thing that has ever happened to me on vacation!

So, why am I telling you this? Because Trusted Tours & Attractions wants you to know that if you like to plan your vacations like I do, their site can show you plenty of things to do in Los Angeles (in case you ever miss a plane or anything). The site has lots of great family vacation ideas in cities like Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, and Washington D.C.

Have you always wanted to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York? Trusted Tours & Attractions has tickets available right from their site, as well as deals on lots of other great museums and sightseeing tours. Sign up for the Trusted Travels eNewsletter and enter to win an IPOD Nano! Offer ends Monday, March 31st, 2008.