Let them eat cake

Yesterday we had our return flights, and we'd learned from our outbound journey to not underestimate the value of a smooth start. Thankfully, BWI was practically deserted -- check-in took about 5 minutes, and the security line was nonexistent as well. As we walked toward our gate, we were met with a fairly unusual sight at an airport: a gate decorated with streamers, balloons, a giant table with cake and cookies, a trio of classical musicians, and a small press contingent. Apparently, JetBlue now serves Baltimore, and we were witnessing the arrival of the maiden flight, full of $19-paying passengers. Why can't we get deals or service like that out west? Meh remarked that airports should always have live classical musicians, and I agree that they and free cake would certainly make travel a little easier!

Zachary's sleep schedule was totally out of sync with our itinerary today -- he fell asleep 10 minutes before we arrived at the airport, 20 minutes before our first flight landed, and 25 minutes before our second flight landed. Despite being woken up every time (unlike our last amazing experience with multiple sleeping man transfers), he really did quite well; it was just exhausting trying to keep him entertained! We attempted his headphones (he'd dissed them on previous trips), and this time they actually stayed on and elicited a small smile and some music listening for a whole two minutes before he was done with them:

We had a decent layover in the Twin Cities, and Zachary spent much of it running from window to window, watching the planes and commenting on them like so:

He also frequently said "ah-pah!" [airplane] and talked about their colors; he particularly likes the blue Southwest planes. Another flight, and we were back in Seattle; we grabbed our luggage, had another happy (but clearly tired) shuttle ride back to our car, and headed home. Zachary was very happy to see his own bed, and was practically asleep as his head hit the sheets. We had such a wonderful and fun trip with bubbie, aunt I, uncle S, Meh's friend C, and my friend J. But it's good to be back in our own home and sleeping in our own beds tonight.