Flying high

Sometime early last week, Nacho looked at his schedule and realized there was a trip to Washington, D.C. he could pick up that would include a long overnight. He asked if I would be interested in flying down with the girls on his flight and then we could rest up in the morning while he did the first flight out and then boomeranged to come and get us. We could even spend that day to check out some sights in the capital and enjoy a mini-vacation. Knowing that this will be his last summer with his current airline, I thought it was a great idea. He has been there 9 years already, knows the plane like the palm of his hand and was really excited to have the girls visit and see Papa at work. Considering that they know he's a pilot and don't really associate it with any type of danger or excitement has always been a plus in my book. I was only momentarily worried that it might bring up bigger questions about how safe are airplanes and if they could crash. But really, that's kind of to be expected at some point. What I hoped they would gain from this trip was a sense of what their papa does at work and how important his job is so that people can travel safely. We started thinking about the timing of the day and how to pack. And with just one night in the hotel, it sounded like a perfect little hop in the middle of the week. 

And the girls had a total blast. Before I could even hand my boarding pass to the TSA agent at the security line, Elisa blurted out, "My dad is the pilot and he's going to fly OUR PLANE!" "Oh, really?" the guard didn't seem too impressed or maybe he just didn't believe her. But yes, in fact, we were treated like VIPs at the gate. The agent let us board a few minutes early, the flight attendants allowed us to play photographer in the cockpit and then we grabbed our seats and a few extra treats onboard (wing pins and goldfish count, right?). The girls were on their best behavior and I was really happy to see their faces when Nacho announced a special welcome to them inflight. Elisa was beaming and Carolina kept shouting, "that's Papa!" It may have taken us 6 years to get to do this, but I hope we won't wait 6 more to do it again. Even after getting bumped on the way home (more on that later), we had a great time on our trip and D.C. proved a formidable challenge for these two troupers. More pics to follow!