alleymon 10/30/04
Well, we’ve been home over a week now. I’m finally getting this off. It is a lot longer than I expected. Read the trip highlights if you don’t want to read it all. Kevin performed his first wedding last Saturday and preached on Sunday. He did a great job at both, and that’s not just my opinion. J We have 657 Main Street (small group with kids) here on Friday nights and Friday School here with 3 other families on Friday mornings, so those two events have kept me busy the past two weeks. MOMS Club has had several activities this past week. My favorite was going to the Retirement Home for a “parade.” All the kids were in costume and the Retirees gave out candy. I was delightful for all involved. I’ve attached a couple of our favorite trip photos.
Our love to you all,
Sara, Kevin, David, Elizabeth and Hannah
Sara and David’s Adventure – Trip to Michigan to visit Steve and Georgia and meet Zoe – October 2004
Saturday, October 16 – Day One
Our flight was to leave Ontario airport at 2:32pm. We finally departed at around 4pm. The plane hadn’t arrived from Baton Rouge? until 3pm. (mechanical difficulties) They told us upon arriving at the airport that we would have a close call in Denver as we only had a one hour layover. We could stay at home and take the same flight tomorrow, OR try to make it and be put up in a hotel in Denver if we didn’t. We thought we’d try to make it, but by the time we took off, it was fairly apparent we wouldn’t. They even put us in the front of the plane so we could deplane and run faster! Turns out we didn’t need to. TRIP HIGHLIGHT: David saw the GRAND CANYON for the first time as we flew over. We arrived in Denver at 6:41pm, the exact time our flight left. United held no flights, but instead put 100 people up in a hotel that night. (Of course, if you have ever been to DIA, changing gates rarely takes under 20 minutes.)
We went to two United Airlines desks to find our hotel voucher and were told if we wanted our luggage we’d have to wait another 2 hours. I decided we could do without it and they promised they’d have it on our flight the next day. We were not given food money or ticket vouchers like the other inconvenienced travelers as we were redeeming “reward travel.” They scheduled us on the 10:21am flight leaving Denver the next morning. David was in tears and I was pretty upset by the time we called Aunt Georgia and told her we wouldn’t be in until tomorrow. So.. we decided we could be upset or embark on a GRAND ADVENTURE. I told David that an adventure is a “trip gone crazy.”
We headed outside to the curb with our hotel voucher and carry on luggage. (all David’s school books, and our toiletries, but not a stitch of clothing. Good packing, Mommy.) We were to catch the shuttle bus to the hotel. By this time we were hungry. The flight had only had a “complimentary drink” not even a measly bag of pretzels. I had packed several snacks, but by this time they were mostly gone. So.. we had a chocolate bar for dinner while we waited and waited and waited. Appears we must have just missed the previous shuttle as we waited about a ½ hour and they say one comes every ½ hour. We didn’t have to wait to stow our luggage J , we just hopped aboard and David picked the back window seat. By now we had taken several pictures of our “adventure.” We ate our last Hershey bar for a second “dinner.”
DIA is quite some distance from civilization, so it was 8:30pm by the time we reached our hotel. Once again there was a long line, all of us with vouchers. David was getting quite tired of lines, but I assured him that is what flying is all about. We stayed at the Doubletree Hotel and the warm cookie they gave us upon check-in we called our third “dinner.” While waiting in line I was talking with other stranded travelers and we were bemoaning our situation. The subject of toiletries came up and I was thankful I had ours with me. David said, “What are toiletries? Trees that grow in toilets?” That made everyone laugh!
TRIP HIGHLIGHT- A very nice hotel room and David was thrilled with his own “two pillow bed.” We took our few belongings to our room and then we stopped at the service desk for directions to someplace for dinner. David was glad to be free and went tearing down the streets of Denver. Plane flights involve a lot of sitting. About 2 long blocks away was a shopping center. We found a Ross and bought us each a new shirt and pair of underwear. Then we headed over to McDonalds for a happy meal. Again we took pictures and the others in McD’s thought we were a bit looney. We had left our jackets in the hotel room, the one thing we DID have with us, and we leave them in the room. It was a bit nippy, but we were moving FAST. Who knows what part of Denver we were out running the streets in at 10pm! Once back at the hotel, we went straight to bed after calling Kevin/Daddy.
Sunday, October 17 – Day Two
We awoke early, dressed and caught the 7:30am shuttle to the airport. We arrived plenty early and got breakfast at Burger King. We had been told DIA can be very busy on Sunday mornings, but we had no trouble getting through. TRIP HIGHLIGHT: Our flight was there plenty early, so the boarding was not rushed the pilot was very nice and let David sit in the cockpit and took his and our pictures and let David push the button to power up the cockpit. Our flight left DIA on time and we arrived in Detroit at 3:30pm. We went to get our luggage and it was not there. After talking to the United person, we found out ours and the other traveler stranded the night before, had not been put on our flight. It was still in Denver. I was kicking myself for not spending out 2 hours waiting in the airport nagging them about checking for our luggage. They then told us the next flight arriving from Denver was arriving at 11:30pm and they would NOT deliver our luggage until the next morning. I tried to convince them they needed to deliver it tonight, not matter what time, but obviously I was not very convincing.
TRIP HIGHLIGHT: Georgia met us at the curb and we got our first look at CUTIE ZOE. David buckled himself right into the middle seat so he could entertain her on the way home. It is sure nice to not have to travel with a car seat! We went to their house and were just checking out their neat house when Steve arrived back from his backpacking trip. He smelled like smoke and had been rained on for much of the two days. We were all hungry, so Georgia fixed some sandwiches. We took one of many walks and Uncle Steve and David played Frisbee in the yard. David learned about cold, mittens, and stocking caps. Our kids hardly know how to put them on and I had to pull out all his pants for this trip as he rarely wears pants. That night we had a delicious dinner at Steve and Georgia’s favorite Lebanese restaurant. It was a stretch for David’s palate, but he loved the pita bread. I thought it was great and we had enough leftovers to eat again at home.
Monday, October 18 – Day Three
David and I had the priviledge of watching Zoe while Steve was at work and Georgia was teaching English at the Arab-American Friendship Center. Zoe was angelic for us, I think she was showing off. David has a ball playing with her and making her laugh. She desperately wants REAL food and gives Mommy and Daddy a hard time when they are eating. I just enjoyed cuddling her and tried to get my fill.
David and I played Frisbee until the rain started that afternoon and we all went for a walk before dinner. Steve got home a bit late and Steve, Georgia, and I enjoyed staying up late and talking once Zoe and David were asleep. We must have been wearing David out as he fell right asleep each night.
Tuesday, October 19 – Day Four
We all slept in pretty late. Uncle Steve had arranged to have the day off. He fixed a nice French toast breakfast. We ate very well the entire time we were there. Later that morning we went on a drive around Dearborn and Steve told us about the area. It was still pretty cold and drizzly, so we didn’t get out of the car. We went back to the house for lunch and Zoe’s nap. Then Steve took David and I into downtown Detroit. TRIP HIGHLIGHT – We got on the People Mover and rode it around downtown. David thought that was just grand, so we went around twice. He memorized each of the stations and manned the map. We got on at Greektown and got off once at the Stadium. David got his first glimpse of Canada across the water. We walked along the waterfront to the next station, and boy was it cold. We returned home from there and had a nice dinner thanks to Aunt Georgia. We were enjoying her homemade bread on our trip. Mmmm. That night was their small group, which met just down the street, so we enjoyed meeting a few of their friends.
Wednesday, October 20 – Day Five
Uncle Steve and David had Zoe duty while I went with Georgia. She teaches English two days/week. I was her “visual aid” as the subject happened to be family relationships. It was fun to see what she does and meet lots of these neat ladies. We stopped on the way home at the market for me to buy pocket bread and a couple of other treats to take home with us. We had lunch and then Steve took David and I to the airport. Thankfully, our trip home was fairly uneventful.
TRIP HIGHLIGHT – Seeing what the pilot and crew believed to be AIRFORCE ONE traveling next to us in the air. We arrived home a few minutes late, and Kevin and the girls met us at the curb. It was an awesome trip.