Monday night – start of a lonnnnnnnng day…

Our italy trip starts today,.. (or it was supposed to !).. Jen picked up linda, david, diane and me around noon and took us the the airport for our flight to Italy . Our plan was to fly form Burlington to Dulles, then an hour and a half later catch a flight to Rome. 

 

That was the plan at last .. *sigh*.. 

We boarded the plane on time.. then just before taxing we got the news that there was a ground hold on all inbound flights to IAD.. no reason was given.. but the weather there was fine.. so it must have been staffing (grrrrrr) .. `15 min passed, then a half hour, then and hour.. and then we knew we wouldnt make our 5PMish rome connection. As soon as things started slippig I started workign on an alternative connection with united.. but no luck.. with the groudn hold .. so may folks flights were disrupted that all the outbound conenctiosn got messed up too. ALl the flights to rome or anywhere close were already full. United automatically rebooked us on a flight the next day or the day after (!).. no way we were doing that. I managed to grab the last 4 seats on a Turkish air flight to room with a stop over in Istanbul  paying full cost.. that left at 10:45 pm…Eventually I got United to pay for those flights and refunded…  so we hunkered down in the very delicious Turkish air lounge and waited for that much later flight .. 

So.. we got aboard that flight.. none of us sitting together.. none of us with the better seats I’d used points to procure.. but at least we were on our way..

 

 

 

That was the plan at last .. *sigh*.. 

We boarded the plane on time.. then just before taxing we got the news that there was a ground hold on all inbound flights to IAD.. no reason was given.. but the weather there was fine.. so it must have been staffing (grrrrrr) .. `15 min passed, then a half hour, then and hour.. and then we knew we wouldnt make our 5PMish rome connection. As soon as things started slippig I started workign on an alternative connection with united.. but no luck.. with the groudn hold .. so may folks flights were disrupted that all the outbound conenctiosn got messed up too. ALl the flights to rome or anywhere close were already full. United automatically rebooked us on a flight the next day or the day after (!).. no way we were doing that. I managed to grab the last 4 seats on a Turkish air flight to room with a stop over in Istanbul  paying full cost.. that left at 10:45 pm…Eventually I got United to pay for those flights and refunded…  so we hunkered down in the very delicious Turkish air lounge and waited for that much later flight .. 

So.. we got aboard that flight.. none of us sitting together.. none of us with the better seats I’d used points to procure.. but at least we were on our way..

 

That was the plan at last .. *sigh*.. 

We boarded the plane on time.. then just before taxing we got the news that there was a ground hold on all inbound flights to IAD.. no reason was given.. but the weather there was fine.. so it must have been staffing (grrrrrr) .. `15 min passed, then a half hour, then and hour.. and then we knew we wouldnt make our 5PMish rome connection. As soon as things started slippig I started workign on an alternative connection with united.. but no luck.. with the groudn hold .. so may folks flights were disrupted that all the outbound conenctiosn got messed up too. ALl the flights to rome or anywhere close were already full. United automatically rebooked us on a flight the next day or the day after (!).. no way we were doing that. I managed to grab the last 4 seats on a Turkish air flight to room with a stop over in Istanbul  paying full cost.. that left at 10:45 pm…Eventually I got United to pay for those flights and refunded…  so we hunkered down in the very delicious Turkish air lounge and waited for that much later flight .. 

So.. we got aboard that flight.. none of us sitting together.. none of us with the better seats I’d used points to procure.. but at least we were on our way..

Nite all, nite sam

-me

Sunday night – Mark and Kathy, Dave and Linda

We leave tomorrow for italy.l. spent the day cleaning up from all the prep we’ve been doing on the house. MId morning my cousin’s Mark and Kathy came by the house.  They were in town for a freinds daugheters wedding. 41 years ago Mark showed up at our house and introduced himself as my cousin.. His grandmother Keenie was my great great aunt (she’s top left in this picture alonmg with my two other great aunts gussie and freydie.. amd my grandmother in the bottom left.. not sure wh that is in the upper right).  

  She’s second from  left in  bottom row here.. my sister and grandmotehr in teh upper left. 

We had a good time marveling at how liong we’ve known each other.. we went to their wedding.

 

They came to ours (editors mnopte.. I was just trying to find a picture of them at our wedding and ended up spending a half hour looking at our wedding pictures.. got so wrappewd up in them I forgot what I was doing.. so great looking at those pics with all that family.. I realllllly love diane 🙂 

 


Anyway.. very glad to see  mark and kathy  

Great catching up !

 

Later on in the day.. Linda and david showed up. THey drove up to vermont so that we could start the Italy trip together . We’re leaving tomorrow and are so excited !

nite all, nite sam 

0me

Saturday night – prepping

Ran around like crazy today prepping for our next trip (my third in a month).. which includes the last prep days before max and becky’s visit.. So much good stuff in such a short time !

I did take a moemnet to get the car washed.. I love going through the machine .. a few moments of peace

And topped that off with a memorable sunset.. 

 

Nice colorful day before the craziness of travel.

nite all, nite sam

-me

Friday night – Joanne and Pat head west

Today Deb, Tim. Jen . Diane and I went to say goodbye to our friends Joanne and Pat who are moving to Sedona. Joanne is a fantastic ophotographer.. we have several of her photos in our house. Today she was giving away or selling  most of her remaining photos. 

 

SHe’s done many photos in sams memory.. including this one in her collection

We ended up buying 4  of her framed photos. 

I love talking to Joanne… she has such an interesting mind. She saved a book for me !

 

We’ll miss joannes creative spirit

Nite all, nite sam

-me