Thursday, April 22, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Having a Great Time in CA!!
We arrived in Los Angeles around 11am this morning, rented our car, and headed to Ft. Irwin to visit my sister, Heather. It was so good to see her and see her house!! I also had the opportunity to meet my "God-daughter", her cute & adorable basset hound, Georgia Bell-check out the pic below!. You can see some pictures below of the landscape around Ft. Irwin. As Casi said, Heather fixed us a wonderful dinner (steak)-she's a great cook! We are now watching Blind Side. Our plan is to leave tomorrow early afternoon and head to Palm Springs for 2 nights and then to San Diego on Friday night!! Fun Fun! We'll keep you posted. This isn't quite Ireland, but we are so glad to be here in California!
Ireland was a no go....so we went to California!
Well we didn't make it to Ireland. We were supposed to fly out on Sunday night. As I was going to bed on Saturday night I had a feeling that we weren't going. I received a call at 5 am telling me it had been canceled. We decided to not try to go at this time. Aundria couldn't stay up here indefinitely waiting to see when we would be able to go. Plus we were afraid that if we did get over there that it would be a lot of gray ash and not the pretty green that we were going to see. I think we made the right decision, as of today they were still not allowing flights into Dublin airport. We are hoping to get over there either in September of this year or next spring.
Since we were already in vacation mindset neither of us wanted to go back to work. We wanted to go on vacation...somewhere! Sunday night we booked a last minute trip to California. We flew out early this morning. We flew into Los Angeles, rented a car and drove to Fort Irwin to visit Aundria's sister, Heather. On the way I was able to make my first visit to In-N-Out Burger! Although the landscape is very different than Ireland (we are in the desert) it is still beautiful- just in a different way. We have enjoyed spending the day with Heather and her adorable dog, Georgia Belle. She gave us a tour of the base and made us a delicious dinner. Tomorrow we are headed to Palm Springs for a couple days and then to San Diego.
Since we were already in vacation mindset neither of us wanted to go back to work. We wanted to go on vacation...somewhere! Sunday night we booked a last minute trip to California. We flew out early this morning. We flew into Los Angeles, rented a car and drove to Fort Irwin to visit Aundria's sister, Heather. On the way I was able to make my first visit to In-N-Out Burger! Although the landscape is very different than Ireland (we are in the desert) it is still beautiful- just in a different way. We have enjoyed spending the day with Heather and her adorable dog, Georgia Belle. She gave us a tour of the base and made us a delicious dinner. Tomorrow we are headed to Palm Springs for a couple days and then to San Diego.
Friday, April 16, 2010
will the Emerald Isle be gray?
Yesterday our concerns were about travel details, reservations and work schedules. That is all now settled. Today our concern is whether the beautiful green scenery we are going to see will in fact be that- beautiful and green or whether it will be gray and dreary. I hear it will depend on the rain. No rain! No rain!
Yay!! All Lodging Confirmed for New Itinerary!
So, I bought a calling card yesterday to call all the Bed & Breakfast places, our hotel in Dublin as well as our rental car company to tell them of the delay in our travel plans... All of them were more than understanding about the situation and have availability for our new dates and have adjusted them accordingly! I am so glad to know we don't have to scramble at the last minute to find somewhere else to stay. The Irish are so laid back and wonderful to work with-I can't say that the businesses in America would return the same favor!
I am sitting in a coffee shop working today and will be hanging out here in the Chicago area this weekend until we leave on Sunday! We'll keep you posted. My next post probably won't be until I arrive into Ireland!
I am sitting in a coffee shop working today and will be hanging out here in the Chicago area this weekend until we leave on Sunday! We'll keep you posted. My next post probably won't be until I arrive into Ireland!
Thursday, April 15, 2010
We aren't being punk'd, it's for real! We are in training for the Amazing Race!
"We have all heard about flights cancelled on account of weather, but have you heard of flights cancelled on account of volcano?!" These were the words of Charlie, the NBC News 5 guy.
When I saw the call coming in from American Airlines to my cell phone (since I have them in my contacts), my heart skipped a beat because this happened one other time to Casi while we were visiting New York City. She was to fly out and received the phone call 3 hours in advance that her flight had been cancelled. So, it's something that happens when you travel with Casi! Just kidding Richard! At least this time they gave us about 8 hours notice and that we were home. When the American Airlines customer service rep told me that we are being delayed because of a volcano in Iceland, I quickly asked her "why does a volcano in Iceland affect us flying into Ireland." Well, we all know they are geographically close, but since I live in the Midwest, I don't really know a lot about the impact a volcano erupting can have on the surrounding areas! including Ireland! Anyway...
Casi has a good perspective to keep-while we are kinda bummed and it seems like a pain, we are safe and will pray for those it has affected. I'm thankful we aren't sitting at the airport right now having to bug the poor American Airlines agent about when we can get a flight out. Instead, I am having a home cooked meal in Karen's kitchen (Karen told me to put on here to call her for reservations).
As soon as we heard about the news, I bought a phone card to call Ireland and began calling the bed & breakfast places & hotel to inform them of our news! As of right now, I have confirmed with 4 of the 5 places we will be saying and they are completely understanding of our situation and have availability for our new itinerary. PTL!!! (that means Praise the Lord for those that don't know). :-)
So, I am spending a few extra days in Chicago working during the day, hanging out with Casi, the Mattox family & Alivia of course in the evenings! I just hope the volcano stops erupting soon, so we can fly out on Sunday with success! :)
This is all we have for now! Thanks for joining us on our journey to Ireland (We will get there eventually)! Yay!
When I saw the call coming in from American Airlines to my cell phone (since I have them in my contacts), my heart skipped a beat because this happened one other time to Casi while we were visiting New York City. She was to fly out and received the phone call 3 hours in advance that her flight had been cancelled. So, it's something that happens when you travel with Casi! Just kidding Richard! At least this time they gave us about 8 hours notice and that we were home. When the American Airlines customer service rep told me that we are being delayed because of a volcano in Iceland, I quickly asked her "why does a volcano in Iceland affect us flying into Ireland." Well, we all know they are geographically close, but since I live in the Midwest, I don't really know a lot about the impact a volcano erupting can have on the surrounding areas! including Ireland! Anyway...
Casi has a good perspective to keep-while we are kinda bummed and it seems like a pain, we are safe and will pray for those it has affected. I'm thankful we aren't sitting at the airport right now having to bug the poor American Airlines agent about when we can get a flight out. Instead, I am having a home cooked meal in Karen's kitchen (Karen told me to put on here to call her for reservations).
As soon as we heard about the news, I bought a phone card to call Ireland and began calling the bed & breakfast places & hotel to inform them of our news! As of right now, I have confirmed with 4 of the 5 places we will be saying and they are completely understanding of our situation and have availability for our new itinerary. PTL!!! (that means Praise the Lord for those that don't know). :-)
So, I am spending a few extra days in Chicago working during the day, hanging out with Casi, the Mattox family & Alivia of course in the evenings! I just hope the volcano stops erupting soon, so we can fly out on Sunday with success! :)
This is all we have for now! Thanks for joining us on our journey to Ireland (We will get there eventually)! Yay!
A Volcano.... seriously?!!
So, we were supposed to fly out tonight but we received a call from American this morning saying that our flight has been canceled because of a volcano erupting in Iceland. What?! Are we being punk'd? That seems so crazy! But it's true. The smoke and ashes have caused all flights going to western Europe to be grounded.
American put us on a flight on Sunday delaying our trip for 3 days. That wouldn't be so bad if we were staying in one place once we got there, but we have an itinerary route that we spent a lot of time on that has us in 5 different places that we have already reserved. So while I went to work today Aundria spent time calling all of those places to see if they have availability 3 days later. At the time I left for work she had confirmed with 2 of the 5 and was still waiting to hear back from the others. We are praying that things go smoothly, that we are able to transfer our reservations and that we are able to fly out on Sunday with no problems.
As I am typing this I am realizing how blessed I am- for even being able to take this trip in the first place and that I was not in any harm's way because of this natural disaster. We've been so consumed about how this affects our trip that I haven't given too much thought to whether there are people that have been affected by this volcano eruption. So although today has turned out differently than I expected, I can't complain.
American put us on a flight on Sunday delaying our trip for 3 days. That wouldn't be so bad if we were staying in one place once we got there, but we have an itinerary route that we spent a lot of time on that has us in 5 different places that we have already reserved. So while I went to work today Aundria spent time calling all of those places to see if they have availability 3 days later. At the time I left for work she had confirmed with 2 of the 5 and was still waiting to hear back from the others. We are praying that things go smoothly, that we are able to transfer our reservations and that we are able to fly out on Sunday with no problems.
As I am typing this I am realizing how blessed I am- for even being able to take this trip in the first place and that I was not in any harm's way because of this natural disaster. We've been so consumed about how this affects our trip that I haven't given too much thought to whether there are people that have been affected by this volcano eruption. So although today has turned out differently than I expected, I can't complain.
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