An adventurous holiday!

I have been away and it's been an adventure! We left town the day after my last post and spent the Christmas holiday with our oldest son and his lady. This was their first tree and I think it's exciting to have been part of their holiday; we are grateful and honored to have been invited to share their Christmas.

And then we drove home, where I tried to boot my computer only to find that it needed repairs. Called the shop that's authorized to do warranty work, dropped it off on the way to the airport on Dec. 30 and headed to New Orleans for the New Years celebrations. We stayed at a wonderful hotel, drank champagne, ate chocolate-covered strawberries, saw the musicians in Jackson Square....and then it began to rain and the wind came in off the river. So back to the hotel to celebrate indoors.



This is an immature seagull who thinks roof racks make a good roosting spot. This was taken on the exit ramp into New Orleans on New Years Eve--lots of traffic headed in to the festivities. 

Jackson Square stage

Jackson Square stage

The tree in Jackson Square. Notice the fleur de lis on top instead of a star?

Hotel exterior

Hotel lobby. Nice place, eh?

I got to the New Orleans airport on Jan. 2 bound for Pittsburgh by way of Chicago Midway Airport. The flight was late but I was assured that my connection was also late and I'd make the Pittsburgh flight. Little did I know.....

We landed in a snowstorm--these are pix of the control tower from my window seat. There's also a plane out there, one of 6-8 sitting on the tarmac because there were no gates to park us.

No control tower visible even though it's quite nearby.

See the two other airplanes?

You all heard the news reports of flights cancelled and passengers stranded--I was one of them, sleeping in airport seats, eating airport food (all that sodium!!), trying to save cell power because I'd packed my charger and checked my luggage (yeah, stupid thing to do), and standing in lines trying to get a flight to anywhere that wouldn't be cancelled yet again. I have to say that during my stay I met tons of wonderful people from Pennsylvania and Chicago. We were all in the same situation and we all helped each other and encouraged each other to stick with it, we'd get out of there some day. I finally got a flight, with Husbeast's help, back to New Orleans. I stayed there till Monday, Jan. 6 (thank goodness I keep clothing at Husbeasts apartment down there) and flew home to -27F temperatures. Took over 30 minutes to de-ice the car and get it to a temperature where my fingers didn't freeze just trying to hold the steering wheel.

It took another week before Lenovo deigned to send their technician to replace my hard drive. I've spent the past week trying to convince companies that yes, indeed, I have purchased their software, and re-installing that software when they send it. Carbonite has been wonderful in downloading all my files again and I'm grateful to them because I actually have the photos to post on this blog.

Will I fly through Chicago again? Yep! But not in the winter......