I met Julie at her house on Saturday at two in the afternoon like we agreed.  We piled into her car and hit the road, making good time into San Francisco.

Thanks to my GPS machine we found the hotel with no problems and got checked in.  The hotel was okay.  For the price and the location it was actually really good. 

 We settled into our room and Jewels called Mel.  They were down the street at Union Square getting Melissa’s race pack and checking out the freebies they could get due the the race she was going to run the next day.  Jewels told them where our hotel was and they walked down.

From there we hung out a bit while the girls checked their facebook accounts on the laptop and then decided to go get dinner…in downtown San Francisco…on a Saturday night…at six o’clock.  Yeah, every single place we went into had an hour and a half wait before we could even be seated.  So we walked and walked and walked some more, sticking our head in every restaurant along the way to see what the wait time was.  Just as we were about to give up we spotted an Irish pub across the street.  We jogged over and found there was no wait time at all!!  Glorious!!

We got seated, got beer and ordered up some grub.  Dre and I got the fish and chips, Melissa got cottage pie and Jewels got a steak.  I was very excited that they had mushy peas just like the kind I loved so much in England.

By the time we were done we had just enough time to walk back to the theater, say goodbye to Dre and Mel and hit the restroom before they opened the doors and we took our seats.

I had seen the show earlier this year in LA and of course seen the movie a thousand times but I can never get enough of it.  Especially on this tour because it has the original Mark and Roger in it.   Our seats were so much closer this time.   I sat there telling Julie over and over again how great the seats were and and we were going to be so close to see everything…aaaaaand that is when the tallest man in the world with the largest head on the planet sat down directly in front of me.  Okay, this might be a SLIGHT exaggeration but it’s not that far from the truth. 

So much of the play had me dipping my head from one side to the other to see everything but it was still spectacular!!! 

At the end we all filed out and there was a sign with an arrow that said “This way for autographs”.  I knew that Julie had no desire to stand in line and get autographs from the cast but I really regretted not getting any in LA when I had the chance.   We stopped outside for Julie to call Dre and see if they wanted to meet for a drink and when we did I discreetly popped myself into the autograph cue.  Turns out since Dre and her friend Desiree did want to meet for drinks and they were coming up to meet us we had to wait anyway, why not wait in line right?  😀

I got “Maureen”, “Benny”, and the seasons solo singer(who was also part of the original cast but had been sick during the LA show so I didn’t get to see her on that one) and Anthony Rapp to sign my program.  I was so starstruck for that one.  I saw him moving down the line and kept thinking “Tell him you loved his book.” but as soon as he came up to us I just stared at him and thrust my program in his face to sign.  Sigh.  Oh well.  🙂

I thanked the girls profusely for waiting for me to get that one and we left after I got his autograph.  I would have loved to get Adam Pascals but I wasn’t sure he was going to make and appearance and if he did I didn’t know when.  The girls were nice enough to hang around for me to get Anthony’s so I didn’t want to make them wait any longer.

We made our way back over to the Irish pub where we had eaten dinner and ordered up a round of beers.  It was around eleven or so I believe so the crowd was pretty snockered…basically it was a people watchers paradise.  The girls ordered another round of beers and I got a Long Beach because I can only drink so much beer.  Now, I’m used to ordering this particular drink in casinos.  I have never had one outside of a casino so I expected the same watered down, mostly cranberry juice drink.  Nope.  What she brought me was pure alcohol with a splash of cranberry.  By the time I finished that, I was done.  My eyes were shutting and we had to walk back to the hotel.  Heh.

We tried to hail a cab but after one cabbie made kissing noises at us we decided it was better to walk.  🙂

Once at the hotel, Julie and I called it a night.  We had to get up fairly early to meet up with Mel at the finish line of the race and it had been a long day.

The next morning there was some miscommunication on where we were meeting Dre and her friends but it all worked out okay in the end.  We lucked into a parking space only a couple of blocks from the finish line and walked down.

It was fun to watch all the racers come through the home stretch, especially Melissa.  We caught up with her as she made her way through the throngs of people.  She was understandably exhausted and since we had a closer parking space we volunteered to drive her over to their car. 

After depositing her safely with Dre we made our trek home, stopping in Morgan Hill for In & Out Burger.

It was a really fun weekend and I had a blast hanging out with these girls and of course seeing RENT.

Monday morning I woke up and hit the gym again.  I’m sorry to say this would be the last structured exercise of this trip. 

NYNY

After I was done I came upstairs to the room and showered before heading off to meet mom in her room.  I got her safely to the car in the parking garage.  This would be the very first time I was going to drive in Vegas.  As many times as we have been here, Rob has always done the driving.  He has always done the driving for the majority of our relationship but even more so for the scary places…like Vegas.  Thankfully the trip was a hop, skip and a jump from our hotel at the Orleans to the Luxor.  No freeway what so ever and it wasn’t a weekend so it was all good.

We got to our destination with ease.  Normally, I would have valet parked since I was with mom and walking is not her strong suit but it turned out that this trip the parking garage was closer to where we needed to be than the valet entrance.

Before I left the Orleans I had Rob call my Auntie Tee to see if she could call FedEx.  The location of the phone was still up in the air but since it hadn’t been delivered overnight as it was promised, we figured she could not only get her money back, but get it delivered back to her since she was the sender of the package.

As mom and I rolled up to the Luxor I got a call from Auntie Tee on my cell phone. 

“Your mother gave me the wrong zip code!”  She said after I answered.

Apparently since the wrong zip code was given for the package, they couldn’t refund any money, and since it has already been delivered to the Golden Nugget(news to us) it could not be returned to her.  I thanked Lee for trying and then promptly called the Golden Nugget to speak with the person my mother had been dealing with about the whole cell phone fiasco.

She informed me that the phone was indeed there and she would hold it for us to come pick up until the 26th as that was the day we were leaving.  A quick call to Rob and we decided we would pick it up on the 26th before we dropped mom off at the airport.

Mom at Starbucks at the Luxor

With that taken care of we began our mother/daughter day.  After a couple of stops to rest we got up to the food court at the Luxor where I got a caramel frap at Starbucks and a Strawberries and Cream for mom.  (although she is diabetic, she claims she needs to “sugar up” for the nights here in Vegas because of how much she walks…)

Once we were done, I got tickets for the Titanic Exhibit and we were off.  I had been wanting to see this exhibit for years.  I had thought I would see it at the Tropicana last year when I went with Paula but it had already been moved.  I was quite happy to finally get to see it.

The whole experience is pretty cool.  They have all of the facts of the trip written out

The Titanic Exhibit

with giant photographs but they also have a bunch of artifacts that they recovered from the ocean floor under glass.  In addition to that, they recreate the rooms in the third class and first class as well as recreating the deck and the “famous” staircase.  It was all just a really great experience.  The best part was at the end they had a giant piece of the ship that they had recovered from the ocean suspended in the air for us to look at and in addition there was a video of how they recovered it.  Well worth the money in my opinion for the experience.

Mom at the Luxor Buffet

Once we were done with that we had some time to kill and were kinda hungry so we hit the buffet at the Luxor.  I don’t have a lot of experience at buffets in Vegas but this was one of the largest and best stocked I have ever seen.  They had foods of all kinds in one place and the deserts were yummy!  We didn’t leave hungry at all!  😉

After the buffet, we hit a couple of shops and then it was time for the show!

We were seeing Menopause the musical.  I had done a lot of research on what mom may

Sign outside Menopause the Musical

 or may not like and this won out hands down.  Bonus that it was cheaper that most and started at 5:30!  I bought the tickets in advance…VIP seating so we could get front row, but they turned out to be even better.  Smack dab in the center of the row.  Mom voiced a small concern about being picked on for being in the front row but I assured her this was not an improv show so there shouldn’t be a problem.

Once the show started, my mother and I were caught up.  The show is just hilarious and it is set to the songs of my mothers generation so she was just in her element.  She laughed a lot and there was one moment where one of the ladies was singing her song and she came down into the front row and chose mom to sing directly to.  It scared my mom a little but thrilled me to no end.

At the end they call for people to come up onto the stage.  My mom was one of the first people picked but she didn’t want to go.  I forced her and we both ended up doing an impromptu kick line with the stars and more audience members.  It was classic and gives mom a great story to tell when she gets home.  The whole experience was fabulous.

After the show we got back in the PT and headed back to the hotel.  I gave mom her souvenirs of the day in the elevator and bid her ado until the next day.  Up in the room I filled Rob in on the show and my day and then I got lazy while Rob watched football.

It had been a busy day for me so that night I didn’t have any desire to go gambling.  I stayed up the room and played my new computer game while Rob went downstairs to play.  He wasn’t down there for long but ended up winning enough to pay for our dinner at TGIFridays that he brought back up to the room.  🙂

To Be Continued again…

Henderson Airport

Picking Scott up at the airport turned out to be a breeze after one small wrong turn.    When he got there he informed us that the weather was about to take a turn so he was just going to get a room at the Orleans and spend the night. 

Now, remember in part one where I tried to call mom’s cell phone and it went straight to voice mail?  And how I assumed she just never turned it back on after getting off the plane?  Umm…no.  Mother, for some odd reason, had taken out her cell phone while my Aunt Lee(Auntie Tee) was driving her to the airport and left the phone in her car.

This would have been the first trip where mom had a cell phone, thus making communicating with her a bit easier while she was gambling the night away in the casinos.  Oh well, Rob and I decided it wasn’t the first time she wouldn’t have one so it wasn’t that much of a loss.  But wait!  There’s more!

Instead of leaving well enough alone, mom decided to take matters into her own hands and told Lee to overnight the phone to her at the Golden Nugget.  She had a cell phone, and damn it, she was determined to be able to use it!  🙂

Weeeeelllll….the phone didn’t arrive at the Golden Nugget.  And now mom was checked out of the Golden Nugget.  But mom didn’t tell us any of this until we were on the freeway driving away from the Golden Nugget.  Mom didn’t appear too concerned.  She told us that she had a tracking number and it would go to the GN eventually…but she wasn’t AT the Golden Nugget any longer.

Sighing and agreeing to deal with it later, we picked up Scott and headed back to the Orleans.

When we got to the hotel Rob dropped mom and I off since walking long distances is not my mothers strong suit, and went to park the car.  After trying to check in early we were told there were only three rooms clean and they were all as far away from the elevators as possible.  Not an option for my mother.  She did however tell us that she had a room vacant but not clean near the elevators, and she would put a rush cleaning on it.  She told us to check back in an hour and she would have us all set.  Sounded good to me.

I took mom up to our room in the meantime to park her luggage.  I could tell mom hadn’t had a whole lot of sleep in the last couple of days.  Her MO is to go full force the first couple of days in Vegas and tire herself out to the point of exhaustion.  I got her situated on the couch just as Rob and Scott came in.  Apparently the hotel was completely sold out so getting a room for Scott was not an option.  We offered him our very uncomfortable couch but he said he would just check later since people were bound to be cancelling at some point.

It was almost 11:00 at that point so we decided to head down to the cafe for some brunch.  Scott wanted to try the prime rib here at the hotel because he heard it was pretty good but the Prime Rib Loft didn’t open until so the cafe it was!

Scott and Rob at the Cafe

There was a bit of a line but it moved pretty fast.  It was an okay meal.  Nothing spectacular…typical cafe food.  It did, however, kill enough time to be able to get mom checked into her room after.

We decided though that Since Scott couldn’t fly out that night, that we would be able to take him to the Prime Rib Loft after all so after depositing mom in her room we called and made a reservation for five when they opened.

After that, Scott and Rob decided to take off to Guitar Center for a bit.  With the room to myself, I contemplated a nap but decided since I was going to be eating a large meal fairly soon after the large meal I had just eaten that I should get my lazy butt to the fitness center downstairs.

Dinner at the Prime Rib Loft was nothing short of amazing!  The prime rib was just to die for.  I enjoyed the whole experience very much.  It had the feel of an upscale restaurant but you didn’t have to dress up or drain your wallet.  Definitely a place we will recommend in the future.

With The Orleans still completely booked, Scott managed to find a hotel nearby to spend the night.  I don’t blame him for not wanting to stay on our couch…it wasn’t that comfy.  🙂

After dinner we had to get ready for the show we were seeing that night. 

My husband has been a fan of Richard Cheese for a very long time.  We saw him live once, very briefly when he was the house band at a taping of the Carson Dailey show that was being filmed at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas.  This was many years ago and since they were the house band, they only played about 30 seconds at a time, leading in and out of the commercials.  Not exactly what we had in mind.  So seeing a full live show has been an eight year dream of Rob’s.  Richard Cheese plays Vegas often but it never seemed to fit in with our vacation schedules so we’ve always just missed him.

For those unfamiliar with Richard Cheese, or just to lazy to follow the link, I will explain.  What he does is take

Me at the Green Valley Ranch waiting for the show to start

popular songs, the dirtier the better, and “loungifies” them.  He sets them to a lounge song tempo and sings them with a pleasant voice.  It is better experienced than read about so go ahead and click the link above okay?

Richard Cheese!

Anyway, that night he was playing at the Green Valley Ranch.  I had heard some of the songs he does from Rob’s CD and knew it was funny.  What I didn’t know was that the guy himself is excellent at improv and plays off the crowd so well during and in between the songs.  Rob and I were crying we were laughing so hard.  The kind of laughter where after two hours you are physically exhausted from all the mirth.  Such a good show!

After the show we headed back to the hotel.  We hung out in the room for a little while and decided around one in the morning to go see about getting some food.  As we got off the elevator, we spotted my mother sitting on a bench with a Subway sandwich  bag next to her, furiously searching through her purse.  As we got closer we discovered she was visibly shaking.  She had been out all night gambling and hadn’t eaten of course.  Being diabetic, that is not a good thing.  Her sugar was low and she was running on about 6 hours sleep in the last 48 hours.  She looked a wreck and she apparently couldn’t find her room key.

We fished the card out of her purse and escorted her up to her room because honestly, in the shape she was in I wasn’t sure she could make it the short distance.  In her room we got her settled, made sure she started eating her sandwich and made her promise to stay and go to bed.

The next morning was Sunday and we had no plans.  Mom had strict rules to stay in her room and rest because Monday was our mother daughter day at the Luxor, so we weren’t worried about entertaining her.  I got up and hit the gym and then we decided to go to Fry’s Electronics.  I had gotten the new Sims 3 game but my laptop didn’t have enough RAM to play it.

After that we got back to the hotel and decided we wanted to go see a movie.  Rob had really been wanting to see District 9 and I didn’t know much what it was about so off we went.  The movie was excellent.  Very fast paced from the get go.  Another show where we were exhausted afterwards.  🙂  I recommend the movie highly.

I wasn’t feeling the gambling that night so I stayed up in the room and played my new game while Rob went down and gambled.  He ended up being up enough money to pay for our dinner from TGIFridays so that was a plus.  🙂

To be continued…

So our annual trip to Las Vegas has begun. 

Our journey began when we left work on Thursday around four and headed into Bakersfield.  The drive was not as good as when we went to LA in February because that trip was a fluke.  On that trip we had ZERO traffic.  We were the only ones on the road for most of the trip and it was wonderful.  So we made it to our hotel in a little under four hours. 

Sonic

We found the shining beacon of light that is a Sonic Drive In on the way to the hotel and stopped and got some Chili Cheese Tots, Bacon Cheeseburger, Popcorn Chicken and a MnM Blast.  I know I always say I wished we had Sonic’s in Monterey but it is really a blessing.  There is a reason I weighed over 300 lbs when I worked a block away from one of these evil temptresses.

We checked into the Hilton Garden Inn with no problems and headed up to our room.  We had stayed here last year and knew we liked it so it when we discovered we could get it with a 59.00 room rate we jumped on it.

Hilton Garden Inn

We settled in but it didn’t take long for us to get sleepy and hit the sack.  I slept sooooo good that night.  I don’t know what kind of mattress’ the Hilton uses but damn, I want one.  That was probably one of the most comfortable beds I have ever slept on.

Friday morning we were packed and on the road about ten after ten in the morning.  Already it was hotter than I remembered it being when I lived in AZ.  I know that is not true, but I guess my blood has thickened back up since moving to Monterey. 

The traffic wasn’t *too* bad and we made it to the Orleans in about five hours stopping only once for gas. 

The Orleans Room 236

Check in at the Orleans was a breeze.  We were able to verify my mothers reservation(also in my name) for the next day and got the room that we had requested.  After a couple of trips to the car for all of our crap(this is why we drive, not fly.) we settled into the room and relaxed for a bit.  I called the cell phone that I had gotten my mother back in July when I was in Maine but it went straight to voicemail.  I figured that she had forgotten to turn her cell phone back on when she got off the plane on Thursday, so I then called the Golden Nugget where she was staying and left her a voicemail there.

Rob and I spent most of Friday night exploring the casino and all that it had to offer.  The reason we picked this place was because it had a movie theater and a bowling alley…other things to keep us entertained.  The older we get the less we are all about drinking and gambling the whole trip. 

We stopped by the arcade and played twice on a roller coaster simulator.  It was fun and the only kind of roller coaster you will ever see me on.  🙂  Finally, we got some dinner at TGIFridays and came back up to the room to hit the sack.  We had a full day the next day and were tucked into bed fairly early for us in Vegas and only 20 bucks down on gambling money.

Saturday was shaping up to be a busy day for us.  Our friend Scott was flying himself into the Henderson airport to meet up with us for lunch before heading back to Phoenix.  We also had to pick mom up at the Golden Nugget and bring her over to where we were staying at the Orleans to check in for the duration of her stay.

We woke to find overcast skies.  Rob mentioned that it was supposed to rain.  This could have posed a potential problem for our friend Scott flying in, but when checked his voicemail there was a message from him stating he was ready for take off and would see us around ten.  So we showered and dressed and headed out to the Golden Nugget, arriving a little early so that I could use up some old gift cards at the Starbucks there.

Rob dropped me off so I could get in line and then parked in the GN parking structure.  While I was waiting in the massive line, Rob had come down and found my mother and brought her and her luggage to meet me.  Per her request I got her a water and a muffin, and myself a caramel frap and croissant and also a latte for Scott.  $17.00 later I was told that they do not honor gift cards.  Wait…what?  You are Starbucks, but you don’t honor your own gift certificates?  Hmph.

With our bounty paid on a debit card we loaded mom and her luggage into our car and took off for Henderson.

To be continued….

Okay, so Friday I ended up going shopping instead of going to take pictures. I found the Fashion Bug out here(it’s been moved since I was last up here) and went in search of an outfit for Sherry’s wedding. I found something and a few other somethings and then ran into Sears real quick to get an adapter to play my Ipod in my mothers car cassette player before heading back to mom’s. Once there I proceeded to try and get a nail appointment forgetting about it being a holiday weekend. No dice. I did call the gym and found out that I could sign up for a week for 20 bucks so that was cool.
I ate some leftover Red Barn food and waited for mom to call to be picked up.
Picked mom up around three or so and we headed up to Walmart. I already had my outfit and mom was kind of thinking of wearing something she had at home so it was more of a grocery run. It really shocked me to see the number of spiral perms and female mullets that are still running ramped here in Augusta. I mean, it was kind of okay when I left…it was 1999. Still way out of style but it was still almost in the 90’s but in 2009?? Wow.
After Wally-world I ran into the gym to sign up for a week and then mom was hungry so we stopped at Sam’s to get some pizza. I got mine to go since I had been snacking on the leftovers that afternoon.
Once we were home we watched some TV and I had a glass of wine that I had gotten at Wal-mart(Lambrusco!) while I set mom up with a Facebook account. I showed her how to work it and retired to my bedroom to read and upload pictures. Mom was still playing around on Facebook by the time I hit the sack. I may have created a monster.
Yesterday I woke up got into my workout gear and hit the gym. I did my couch to 5k program on the treadmill. It is SOOOO much easier to run on a treadmill. Must be the shock absorption or something.
On the way home I stopped at Dunkin Donuts. We don’t have them back home and I miss their coffee badly. I was still hot from my work out so I opted for a coffee coolatta instead. Oh. My. God. I fell in love! It is sweet coffee goodness and I will surely go into withdrawals by the time I have to go home.
By the time I had got home mom had already showered so I followed in her footsteps and we got ready to go to the wedding. My cousin Rocky had facebook messaged me the night before asking if we were meeting them at her mothers house beforehand and caravanning to the wedding. She said they would be leaving around 1:15ish since the wedding was at 2. I said we would be there but if we weren’t there by 1:15 not to worry and to leave without us.
We picked up Tammy(another cousin of mine) around noon and headed to Portland. I decided to drive because…well, my mothers driving makes me nervous. It was probably the longest I have driven in a long time. Yes it was freeway, but not the kind of freeway I am normally scared of. 🙂
We got to Lee’s at 1:05 and they were all gone. Thankfully it is Maine and no one locks their doors so we were able to use Lee’s house to take a pee break. I took a picture of the clock above Auntie Tee’s fridge to show we were on time and then all three of us stole a homemade chocolate chip cookie from the Tupperware box on the counter before heading back out to Scarborough.
We found the place no problem. It was a campground on a lake. Unfortunately, it has been raining in Maine for the last two weeks and today the rain was also making an appearance. It held out right until we all sat down outside to start the wedding and then the sky opened up.
We were herded under a tarp until it has passed and then us cousins were given a scrap of towel and ordered to go wipe off the chairs while so everyone could take their seats again. Who knew I would have to work for my dinner? 😉
The timing worked out and they were able to get through the wedding with no rain. Sherry looked beautiful in her gown. Her two sons gave her away. It was all really nice.
After we all gathered under the tarp on picnic tables while the wedding party took pictures. It was here that I learned that my cousins have not changed and that you still can’t seat Denny and Tammy next to each other. No good will come of it. It was also here that I realized how much I missed family get togethers because of the very reason that my cousins hadn’t changed.

When my grandparents were alive all the family would gather for Thanksgiving and Xmas. Every year. It was a tradition and it was fun. Once Mam and Pap passed on we didn’t do the family social gathering thing much. By we I mean Mom and Shawn and I. I’m sure we were invited to other get togethers but it just kinda dwindled down to us not doing much of anything on the holidays. I don’t think I’ve hung out with my cousins all together like that for at least 13 or 14 years.
It had been far too long. I laughed so much on Saturday it was pretty amazing. I’m not sure how my mom, being as quiet as she tends to be in social situations, came into this family. If she didn’t look like a complete cross between my grandmother and my grandfather I would swear she was adopted. The rest of my family on my mothers side is just as loud and crazy as I am and I love it! 😀
At any rate, the wedding had good laughs, good food, good company and good times were had by all.

                                
I drove us home and it started to downpour as we got closer to Augusta. We dropped Tammy off and headed home. At this point both mom and I were exhausted and sat down in front of the TV and got all giggly. I thought about having a glass of wine but realized I was so overtired I already felt like I had a buzz so I really didn’t need it. Heh!
I headed to my room, uploaded all my pictures and videos and watched an episode of LOST before reading and going to bed.
That leads us to today.
I have gone to the gym and gotten another Coffee Coolatta. That’s it. Tomorrow I hang out with Naomi and hopefully Tuesday will be Mags and Kim but Kim hasn’t gotten back to me after I left her a voicemail and Katherine hasn’t texted me back so maybe I don’t have as many people to see while I’m here as I thought. 🙂
I think I might go see Auntie Donna this afternoon and see if the Made In Maine shop is open so I can get some gifts for the kids back home.
So that is what is going on so far.

I planned my trip back home to Maine for this weekend because my cousin Sherry is getting married.  What better time to get to see all the cousins I haven’t seen in ages right? 

Wednesday we packed up all my stuff in the PT and headed to work.  My flight wasn’t until later that night so I had to put in a full day of work first.  My decision to pack lightly this year was based on the fact that I’m staying at my moms and she has a washer and drier, plus I know I’m going to end up buying stuff much like last year and since I had a hard time fitting said stuff into my suitcase last time, I would just bring a few things and buy whatever I needed here.

Rob brought me to the airport after work where we had a nice dinner of prawns and twice baked potato with clam chowder and the most delicious bread.  My goal was to overstuff myself so I wouldn’t need to buy any expensive food on the plane(it worked by the way.)  After that my nerves kicked in and thanks to PMS I had a mini melt down out in the parking lot where were getting my luggage which resulted in some tears and me smoking a cigarette.  That helped out and then we were off to check in my bag. 

As I learned last year, Monterey will shut down their security screening if there are no upcoming flights within an hour or two so Rob and I waited in the lobby for a few minutes waiting for them to open.  

  We took pics and twittered on our phones and eventually the gates opened.  Rob made sure I was all set up to go through and then with a kiss and a hug he was gone.  Long drawn out goodbyes only cause me to cry so we know we have to make it short and sweet. 

By some small miracle my bags weren’t picked for additional screening so I gathered my stuff back up and walked the 20 feet to the gate.  Rob was waiting by the glass to see me walk through so when he saw me he gave me a wave and headed off. 

The 1st leg of the trip was to San Francisco.  It was a prop plane but thankfully the whole flight was only about 20 minutes long.  I really wish I had taken my camera out too because there was a really cool shot in the air of when the clouds met the fog right before the ocean.  It will forever be burned in my memory but of course I didn’t get to get a picture of it.

At the San Fran airport I booked it to the gate for 2nd leg of the trip.  It was to the Dulles airport in DC.  Last year there was hardly anyone on this flight and I was able to lay down on all three seats in my row.  It was really great because it is a five hour overnight flight.  I was kinda hoping for the same thing this trip.  I was already sleepy from all the food I had eaten, not to mention it was around ten at night and already past my bedtime.

All hopes were dashed when they announced that the flight was overbooked and they were looking for volunteers to give up their seats.  The deal they were offering was pretty sweet actually.  They would get you on the next flight in the morning, put you up in a hotel in San Fran with transportation to and from AND you would get a free round trip ticket to anywhere in the US except HI and AK with no black out dates.  If I hadn’t had a connecting flight to catch with a ride waiting for me when I got there I would have seriously considered it. 

I had a bad experience on this flight last year so I wasn’t looking forward to this flight.  I had bought a pillow and sleep mask at the airport because I knew the first part of the flight wouldn’t be too bad and I had already seen what movie would be showing and I had no desire to watch DragonBall Z. 

The flight was surprisingly smooth.  There was about a 15 minute period where we ran into some turbulence but other than take off and landing, that was the only time the seat belt light was on.  I found a classical music station on the plane radio and was able to get about an hour and a half of sleep in ten minute increments.  I just can’t sleep well sitting up.

In DC I stopped a Five Guys again for a breakfast sandwich and then headed to my gate where I read until they announced our flight.  Once we boarded they warned us that it was raining and very foggy in Portland and they were prepared to reroute us through Vermont if they had to.  Great.  

It was another full flight.  I sat next to a very nice girl reading an electricians for dummies book.  I gave her my standard disclaimer that I was a nervous flier and not to mind me and she was fine with that.  Behind me were two chatterboxes that made me remember a pair of earplugs had come with my sleep mask.  🙂

The flight attendants were still milling about when I felt us starting to descend…very quickly.  I know that it was probably just the clouds we were going through that made me think it was going far too fast but that is when the panic started to set it.  Finally the pilot came on and announced we were making our “rather rapid decent” into the Portland airport and hopefully the turbulence wouldn’t “get any worse”. 

Yeah, it was pretty bad.  Probably the worst I have ever experienced.  And the worst part was everything outside was a haze of grey cotton candy.  You could see NOTHING else.  I don’t know about you, but when I am flying and the plane starts descending, as soon as I can see the ground I feel better.  Just knowing that it is there and we are getting closer and will be on the ground soon is comforting. 

Amid the gauzy outside view the plane was rocking and dipping and being tossed side to side.  One of the flight attendants almost took a dive as he was walking through getting the garbage.   The person sitting next to me is calm as calm can be, but she is on the lookout for the ground for me since she now knows I can’t look out the window for myself without getting more frightened.  There is a couple across the aisle from me where the wife has her head in her hands and he is rubbing her back.  I suddenly miss Rob very much.  “It’s going to be okay, I promise.”  I hear the man say.  I look over expecting to see him comforting his wife but I find he is looking right at me as he says the words.  I realize that I am rocking back and forth trying to breathe.  I smile and just say: “I don’t do flying very well.”  He nods and smiles and says: “Just think of it as a very big roller coaster.” 

I grin and say: “I don’t do those either.”   He just laughs and says: “Okay, then just trust me, it will be okay.” 

I am grateful people are so nice but embarrassed that I am such an obvious basket case.  🙂

When the treetops are finally visible both my new friends, my seatmate and the guy across look at me and exclaim: “We can see ground!”  Thank goodness for small favors.

The touch down was flawless and as we taxi to the gate we see that it is a torrential downpour outside.  I could care less about getting wet…in fact I would have gotten down on my knees and kissed the ground but I didn’t want everyone to think I was a bigger freak than I already was.  😀

On the ground I make my way to baggage claim while calling my aunt to let her know they can head out to come pick me up.  I text Rob and let him know I landed safe and after a long wait finally get my bag and head out to see my Aunt Lee(auntie tee) and my mom.

After a short drive through the streets of Portland we get to Auntie Tee’s house and move my luggage from that car to mom’s and head into the house where I get to see my cousin Rocky who I haven’t seen in at least ten or thirteen years.  She, my brother and I were all the babies of the cousins so of course I tended to be closer to Rocky than any of my other cousins.  She was Shawn’s age so she was older and I always looked up to her.  She is now living in Virginia, married with two beautiful children that I got to meet that day. 

We didn’t stay long as I was running on empty both food and sleepwise and I was in desperate need of a shower.  So mom drove us home and after dropping me off she headed out to Red Barn to get us a fish and chicken basket with fries and onion rings and a chocolate shake for me.  The Red Barn is a mom and pop place just down the road from my moms house that we have always loved.  How can you go wrong with deep fried everything??

I had planned to go to Walmart to pick up an outfit for Sherry’s wedding and get some essentials that I hadn’t brought with me but as soon as that food hit my belly I was comatose.  I changed into PJ’s and somehow managed to wait until the sheets for my bed were out of the drier before collapsing on my bed and falling into an instant slumber around four in the afternoon eastern time.

I awoke around ten thirty to thunder crackling loudly overhead.  I opened my eyes to find the accompanying lightening flashing as well.  About two minutes later I saw the living room light blink on and new that my mom had woken up as well.

I padded out into the living room and mumbled “gotta pee” before hitting the bathroom and coming back out.  Mom announced that she didn’t want me sleeping in my room while the storm was raging because there were two large trees right outside my room that could fall down and crush me in my bed.  Yikes, thanks mom!

 I grabbed my blanket and sleep mask and dragged them out to the recliner where I laid for about fifteen minutes.  I couldn’t really sleep there but thankfully the worst of the storm had passed so after taking full blame for the storm(“I facebooked saying I wanted thundershowers while I was here because we don’t get those back home.”) I headed back to my bed to fall back into my coma until mom woke me this morning at seven or so.

She has to work today so I drove her first to McDonalds for her breakfast and then to work so I could have the car. 

My original plan was to make it to walmart while she was working but she has now expressed an interest in going so I will have to wait.   However as I was driving back from her work I found myself wishing I had brought my camera with be because there are some great shots of downtown I would like to get.  So I think I might just take my camera on a little jaunt to see if I can get some good pics.  Plus I have to go to the gym down the street and see if they will sign me up for a weeks worth of membership.  I still have to train for my 10 K but I didn’t anticipate all this rain either.  Hmph.

So here I sit, on my bed with the laptop and cell phone.  I’m blogging, texting Paula and sipping a diet sprite.  Who says I can’t multi task???   I need to shower and come up with some sort of plan for the day, but I want to be lazy. 

Okay, that is all for now, I’ll blog as more happens.