Day 23-25 Addendum: Final Fun!
Final Fun #1:
Final Fun #4:
Friday's 4pm flight to Chicago's Midway Airport arriving at 5, a 4 hour layover providing enough time for dinner, followed by a 9pm flight to San Diego arriving at 11:30pm then an Uber to Coronado and boom, in the house Friday night at midnight to enjoy the patriotic 250th weekend events, ie. Parades, fireworks etc., with Kevin, CJ, her dad, Dave, and 3 of our grandkids. Pretty sweet and straightforward? Nope!
The Buffalo flight was delayed for 3 hours due to weather. No problem given we had a long wait at Midway anyway. Many folks were stressed, we relaxed.
Their 9pm Midway flight kept announcing weather delays as well until we finally boarded at 11:30pm. Lightning was all around and the radar map showed continued storms, but they sounded encouraging and loaded us on the plane, set out for the tarmac and we sat for an hour.
Yep, they announced air traffic had put a hold on flights taking off and so we taxied back to the gate and deplaned.
Not to worry, the confident gate agent said in about ten minutes it would clear and we'd be back on the plane heading to San Diego.
You know where this is going. A 1am gate announcement was made informing us that the crew had "timed out" and they were looking for another pilot and first officer, but don't worry, in a few minutes we'd have updated information and we'll get on our way.
I was surprisingly chill.
The official announcement that all flights were canceled came at 2:30am. By then, all local hotel rooms were booked, early morning flights out were booked and we were on our own.
The customer satisfaction desk told me that Southwest would reschedule our flights and seats, but no vouchers for rooms, food etc because the delay was weather related, not Southwest's problem. We decided to stay put for a few hours before boarding. Freezing cold gate area, no couches, filthy floor, 300 of our closest friends and an active cleaning crew. Lemons into lemonade time!
Our plush stateroom:
After a refreshing 25 minute nap and much tossing and turning, we maintained our peace and joy, by God's grace, and looked forward to a few naps on our upcoming flights, which we got thankfully, as we were beat!
Our rebooked flight out was from Midway to Denver at 7:30am (not a direct flight) and then Denver to San Diego, arriving at 1pm.
The parade was from 10am to noon, so that was missed! But loading our heavy large suit cases upstairs at Dave's house when we arrived at 2pm was made simple. Let's take the elevator!
No surprise to many of you, seeing the grandkids when we arrived was worth it all!
Final Fun #2:
While we missed the grand parade, we bbqed burgers for dinner and then walked at sunset to the local golf course to have front row blanket and chairs for the local fireworks show. A great time with the family. The fireworks were solid and our location was unbeatable.
Final Fun #3:
Sleeping like rocks, I managed to get up early and walk to our favorite breakfast spot called Night and Day. I picked up Peggy's favorite breakfast burrito (the Coronado), and it was large enough to let everyone have some bites. These guys are great!
Whenever the First Baptist Church of Coronado hears that CJ will be in town, they love having her sing a worship song or two. That's happening in a half hour and we can't wait to worship.
Comments
Post a Comment