Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

On Monday our day started out at 3am in Columbia, South Carolina. We awoke that early to pack and prepare for our flight back to England. We got to the ticket counter around 4:25 and waited until it opened at 4:35. I checked in with minimal problems, but apparently Matt's itinerary was cancelled by the airline. We had a bit of trouble coming out and it appears that whoever was handling that issue dipped into the return arrangements. Unfortunately the flight from DC to London was overbooked and there was no chance Matt was getting on that flight. We were presented with a few options, none of which we really liked, and 45 minutes later we left the ticket counter. Our original flights were a 6:09am out of Columbia to D.C., a two hour layover, and then flight to London which had us getting in around 9pm. What we ended up with was a 9:30am out of Columbia to Chicago, about a five hour layover, and then flight to London which now had us getting in at 6am the next morning (Tuesday). We were not looking forward to that at all.

The customer service agent gave us meal vouchers for the Columbia airport. I decided to use mine at a Bar & Grill for a hot breakfast. Matt passed on the voucher all together. He decided to try to get a bit of sleep on the floor in a quiet seating area. I on the other hand was very uncomfortable as it was very cold in the airport and I did not have a jacket or anything to keep me warm.

We arrived in Chicago around 10:30am. Knowing we had five hours or so until our flight, we were curious as to how long it would take to get into town. We asked a nearby shop attendant how to get into town. She said that it would be about 30 minutes by taxi (and about that in price) or 40 minutes by train and $2. We decided to try the train and soon discovered it was the slow and rickety way into town. It actually took us an hour and the stop we were told to get off at by the shop attendant was no where near where we wanted to be. We had to walk at least a mile and take some wrong turns to get to the Hard Rock Cafe. Of course I had to get a HRC Hurricane glass for my collection! During our walk we came across Maggiano's, one of our favorite restaurants back in Denver. We decided to have lunch there and man did we enjoy it! Too bad we forget about dessert and the wonderful cheesecake they serve in our concern to get back to the airport in time. Unfortunately we did not get to see anything else in the city. We hailed a cab instead of worrying about the train. We arrived in plenty of time for our next flight - which was delayed.

One positive thing about the flight from Chicago to London was that Matt and I had a row of five seats to ourselves, which meant that we could spread out to sleep. It wasn't the most comfortable, but we had it better than others. We arrived to chilly London weather. Our ride home was at least an hour. I was a bit out of it, so wasn't paying that much attention. Within 10 minutes of arriving home (around 8am) we were both in bed and slept until 3pm! After taking showers we went to pick up Cheyenne from where she was staying. She was very excited to see us and even waited by the door while we were talking to our friends. She was a little impatient to get home, if only she knew what a long two days we had. (Overall we were awake and traveling for almost 24 hours!) After falling asleep on the couch, we finally went to bed around 10pm, I think. Matt was up and down the rest of the night between the livingroom and bedroom trying to get some sleep. I tossed and turned due to a headache and body aches. The traveling really took its toll on us.

Matt had to go to work, but here I am groggy and weak at home. It seems as though I can't recover from the jetlag as quickly as before. Hopefully we'll both be back to normal by the end of the weekend. I know this post wasn't that exciting, but just wanted to share the "joys" of our travels. I love flying, but could do without the long delays on top of the long flights. I'll post more about our South Carolina activities later.