Sunday, March 20, 2011

Chicago...it's like we never left!

Ahhh Chicago...how we've missed you so! (Ok...well we haven't missed the reason why we're here...we've just missed this area. We like it a lot here.)

Ok...here goes:

We got up yesterday (Sat the 19th) just before 8am cause we needed to be on the road somewhere between 9-9:30am. We got ready to go, & then went through some last minute "Cali stuff" when my mom got to our house. (My parents & brothers are staying at our house while we're gone. Their house is being worked on so they can't even use their living room...so it's easier for them to have Cali at our house...plus, it'll be easier for Cali to stay there while we're gone.)

We got on the road right at 9:30, after getting gas, & headed to Billings.

Brooklyn in her new seat. It was Cali's, but she's getting a new one. She looks sooooo tiny in it compared to Cali! She was asleep about 5 mins after we left home!

We were literally 20 miles from Billings when I got an automated call from Delta on my cell phone. It said that our flight times had changed. Originally we were supposed to leave Billings around 1pm, land in Minneapolis (MSP) just after 4pm, & leave for Chicago Midway just after 5pm. (We had a 56 minute layover at MSP.) Well the call said that our flight wasn't leaving Billings until 1:45, which would make us miss our flight to Midway. So they rebooked us on a flight at 8am from MSP!! What?! I really really really wasn't looking forward to landing at MSP, getting our bags, finding a place to stay, PAYING for that place to stay, & then getting up the next morning at the butt crack of dawn to go fly again. So we decided to go right to the airport anyways to figure things out.

This is a good time to mention that a great couple from our church as donated their airline miles to us so that we didn't have to drive this trip. So a HUGE thanks goes out to them!!!!! We appreciate it so much. :o)

So we got to the airport & went to check in. I told the lady what had happened & she went to the back to check on things. She came back out & said that the flight just after 5pm was the last one to Midway, but there was a flight at 10pm that went to O'Hare. Perfect!!!!! We'll take it!! So we were re-booked on that flight. We'd have 5 1/2 hrs at MSP, but oh well, that's ok...as long as we get in to Chicago tonight.

We went through security...& as I've said on here before...if you're a potential terrorist...NEVER GO THROUGH THE BILLINGS AIRPORT!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL Seriously. Or I guess I take that back...go ahead & go through Billings cause you'll get caught! I knew security was going to take forever cause it takes forever when you're by youself...much less when you have a baby! We ended up with 6 bins full of stuff to go through the x-ray machine. Things were going great until they literally had to dump out the diaper bag cause there were so many liquids in there. Oops. There was her antibiotic (which I'd mentioned before I went through the scanner), 2 bottles of milk (which I had told them about), plus all of her Tylenol (2 bottles), Ibuprofen (3 bottles), gassy drops (2 bottles), & Benadryl (1 bottle). I come prepared. Oh, and we had all of her diaper cream too. So they got all that, put it back through the x-ray machine, & I thought we were good to go.....until the big bad supervisor guy came over. He told the 2 ladies that were working with me that if all that stuff didn't fit into 3 baggies that I was "eluding" & I'd have to be hand-searched. Well thanks to the nice security lady, she got it all packed into 3 baggies (since there were 3 of us travelling). You'd think that medicine wouldn't count, but apparently it did.

Anyways, got that done & then we went up to the gate. I immediately got out our car rental paperwork & called Midway to change our reservation. Unfortunately, you can't just change a reservation you have to do a completely new one. I got nervous cause I'd gotten a really good rate out of Midway, but I had to call the O'Hare people to do a new one. Well thank the Lord cause it was $5 cheaper for the same size car! Ahhh...that made me feel good.

So then I went to the lady at the counter & told her that we needed seats for that flight. She looked at the computer & then printed out our boarding passes. She said that she put us in first class because she wanted to make sure that we got off the plane first so that we could make our second flight. HUH? I was confused now, not about the first class part----that I understood perfectly...but about when she said we had to hurry to get to our second flight. I showed her the boarding passes that she'd just printed out for us & showed her that we were on a 10pm flight to O'Hare & she was like "huh...ok" & then told us to just keep our seats! NICE! First time I'd ever been in first class! And Brooklyn's very first flight she was in first class. Can't beat that.

We got on & were just in awe that we were sitting there. I tell you what though...it was so nice being there with Brooklyn. We had plenty of room to hold her & let her go between us. Before we even took off I got a tap on my shoulder...coming from the guy sitting across the aisle from me. He asked what was going on with Brooklyn. It was nice, as you other nevus families know, to have someone actually ask instead of stare forever...& I told him that. We spent most of the flight chatting...very nice man! He's a beer distributor from Glasgow so him & Dustin got along great. LOL

In the middle of the flight the flight attendant came up to us & said that we'd get in at 4:30 pm so we could still make our first flight. She cut out a page in the Sky Magazine of the MSP airport & showed us a shortcut on how to make it to our next gate. But then I'd realized that our carseat was one of our checked bags & we had to have a carseat for Brooklyn. We thanked her so much, but said that we didn't really have a problem waiting the 5 1/2 hrs.

We got to MSP & decided to walk around a bit, then we decided to eat at Chili's, Too. (Like a mini Chili's.)

Brooklyn - eating her food off the table at Chili's, Too. She would push the food to the edge of the table, WITH HER HANDS, & then eat it off the table!!

When we were almost done eating Dustin asked if we wanted to go to the Mall of America. That was one place that I've always wanted to go. We were going to go there if we drove to Chicago this time. But we didn't drive so we weren't going to go. But there's a tram that goes right from the airport to the Mall. We asked our waitress how to get there & it sounded very complicated. But we were bound & determined. We weren't about to take all of our stuff out of the airport & back in (with the "eluding" comment the other security guy made I wasn't about to get arrested in Minneapolis!)  So we found lockers & were just going to take the essentials. Unfortunately they were full. So we went to the information desk & asked where other lockers were. The very nice gentleman told us where the others were....on the total opposite side of the airport. I'm glad we had our walking shoes on. On our way to the lockers we told ourselves that if the lockers were full, we wouldn't go. But if they were available, then we would.

We finally made it to the lockers, got one that was available, put stuff in it, & then made our way through the maze - up the elevator, down the long hall, down the elevators, got the tickets, & went to the train. Whew! Just about 15 mins later we got to the ghetto...oh, I mean to the Mall of America. We made our way into the zoo...oh, I mean inside. This place was a crazy madhouse from you-know-where! I guess, we WERE there on a Saturday, but come on. It was terrible. I guess I'd always expected it to be more "upscale" than it was. But no, I was dead wrong. Everyone & their dog told me that I'd be disappointed but I still wanted to see if for myself... Ummm, yeah, slightly disappointed. But I still would like to go back when we aren't pressed for time. I'd like to be able to go on the rides too. It's like a flippin carnival in there. Holy cow.

 Daddy letting Brooklyn walk around to stretch her legs!



Inside the Mall of America

So needless to say, an hour after we got there I was ready to leave! We re-traced our steps all the way back in, through security, & to our locker, got our stuff, & trotted along to our gate, where we just had to sit for about 20 mins before it was time to get on the plane. I could tell, by the amount of people sitting at the gate, that it wasn't going to be a very full flight. The plane had about 6 rows of first class and then probably a good 30+ rows of 3 seats on each side. And there was probably a grand total of about 50 people, at most. Across our row was a family (mom & dad with 3 kids) who we got in a conversation with. They were from Peoria, IL & were on their way home from Japan. They'd moved there for the husband's job (works for Caterpillar) & had lived there for 7 months. They actually lived about 350 miles from the hardest city hit in Japan & about 500 miles from the epicenter of the earthquake. The mom hadn't felt the quake, but the dad had felt it in his office. Even 350 miles away they were running out of food in all the stores. They said that all the bigger stores were sending a lot of their food up north to the towns that needed it. So their company sent all their workers home so that it lessened the amount of people that needed food. When we landed, they'd been travelling for 27 hours...so they were glad to get home!

We went to baggage claim & all of a sudden a lady came up to us & asked us if we had a ride. She said that she heard on the plane that we were going to the North Shore & she said that she was willing to take us there if we needed. We are about 1/2 hr to 45 mins north of the airport so I thought that was the nicest thing that any stranger could ever say to us! We told her that we were renting a car & we had GPS so we were fine, but thanked her profusely. Ever since we were here in January we'd always said how nice these people are...& it's SO true!

We found the rental car bus, got our car, got upgraded for just $10 total, got our Hyundai Santa Fe, & made our way to our Home Sweet Home...after stopping at the store to grab some milk for Brooke. Hahaha it was funny walking in the hotel cause I didn't even have to tell them my name! They recognized me from January! I checked in, we unloaded all our stuff in our room, took showers, unpacked, & then went to bed...at 2:10am!
Our room...it's totally opposite of the room we had in January, so it's taking some getting used to!!

This AM we woke up cause my phone rang. It was pitch black in the room so I figured it was like 3am...nope....11:30!!! HA! Thank the Lord for blackout curtains. I guess we needed the sleep, though. Plus, Brooklyn didn't wake up even ONCE last night. It was, by far, the best night we'd had in weeks!

We got up & decided we needed to do something productive, so we got lunch, & went to Super Target for a weeks-worth of groceries, got a coffee, & then came back to the room to lounge! Dustin was able to do his homework for the day & now I'm off to proof more recipes....

More to come tomorrow!!!

3 comments:

  1. Sounds like the three of you had quite an adventure. How wonderful that so many people were so kind and generous to you. My heart is so encouraged each time I read one of your posts. You and Dustin a fantastic parents. All of you remain in my prayers.

    Dennis

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  2. I sooo missed hearing from you when you were sick! I pray regularly for your sweet girl. I go to church with your grandma and knew your mom back in high school. I love being a part of this adventure thru the internet and prayer!

    Marena (Little) Sheffield

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  3. God is good! Your adventure ~~ journey ~~ is really special and we are so grateful that you send off these blogs for us to rejoice with you. You were/are remembered in prayer. Keep up the good work. We love you and look forward to more good news! The Dustin Vance's are great parents! Thank you, Lord!

    Jeanne & Dave

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