Planes, Trains & Automobiles

On the descent into Phoenix's Sky Harbor Airport,

with Chase Field in the background,

September 6, 2006.

Our little air travel rookie, enjoying some in-flight entertainment

Toy Story 2 style.

Headed to Phoenix today, with the whole family in tow, for a three-day conference. I'm a pretty savvy traveler, with several dozen flights under by belt. This trip, however, was the first for my wife and I with our two little children. Quite the different story traveling with the family as opposed to flying solo, so to speak.

Preparing for the trip was quite the adventure. I believe the run-up to the first Persian Gulf war probably had less logistical issues. Flow charts. Diagrams. Schematics. Supply lists. Cost analysis. And that was just to get to the airport.

On a good traffic day, we're about 70 minutes from O'Hare. Today was probably middle of the road as far as traffic was concerned. Took about 80 minutes to actually arrive at the terminal. Did a drive by just to figure out the drop off and then swung back around to drop off Jen and the baby, while Alex and I headed to long term parking.

Made it there fine. Saw only a couple of cars with the "boot" on them; a device the Chicago police use to immobilize your car when you've had too many parking tickets. It's only my second time using long-term parking to think about what might be stowed in some of the trunks in those cars.

Took the train to the terminal and hooked up with Jen for our trip through security. Have to give some props to America West; our check-in was very smooth and the staff was very accomodating considering the amount of stuff we were transporting. Curious to see how long the America West name hangs on though. Following their takeover of U.S. Airways, I think the conventional wisdom is that the latter name will survive and the former may fade away.

Made it through security just fine, thank you TSA, despite the small line that began to form as we were shoving everything through X-ray and attempting to corral Alex who had his own ideas about metal detection. Overall, though, the process went well and we entered the terminal with plenty of time to make it on board.

Couldn't have asked for a better flight. Got Alex's car seat hooked into the seat just fine; he was very excited to see the other planes and made it through takeoff just fine. He watched most of Toy Story 2 and then had some lunch, followed by an attempt at Shrek 2, before sleep took over and he dozed the last 30 minutes of the flight.

Kristen was incredible as well. Was perky for a while, had a bottle, slept for a while and was not a problem at all. Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix is modern and clean, though the walk to baggage seemed longer than some races we've run.

Alex and I left J & K at the baggage claim and we headed off to claim our rental car. PHX has obviously built a new rental car facility since our last visit. It's like a small mall with a centralized facility and numerous rental car companies all under one large roof. Shuttle ride was about 5 minutes or so and the lines were short.

They were out of full size cars, so we're driving a mini-van for the same price. Not bad, considering the amount of gear we're traveling with on this trip. Have to continue to sing the praises of Enterprise for car rentals. I've been renting from them for several years now and the Web site is excellent, prices are great and I've always had good customer service. Today was no exception and I'd highly recommend them on your next journey.

Alex and I grabbed the van, headed back to the airport and snagged the rest of the family with only one missed turn, which was quickly rectified thanks to a good guess on my part.

Somewhere the travel gods were smiling at us today. . .