Vacating

Greetings from vacation paradise!

Well, not quite yet, but I am off work this morning.  How did you engineer this, you may ask, since you just started a new job recently?   Simply put, it was a commitment from my new employer that I would be able to take this time period when I accepted my new position.  

Now that we have that out of the way....

As is so often the case before a vacation, I just returned from a business trip yesterday afternoon.  Almost didn't return when planned, either.  This trip was out of the ordinary, not for its purpose (a customer meeting) but the travel itself.

My new company requires travelers to use the "lowest available fare" to travel, and, in my case, I also have to consider not only my local airport, but also those in Louisville and Cincinnati.  So this trip required me to get myself to Louisville in time for a 6:00 AM flight to Newark, NJ, then wait two hours for an Amtrak train to Philadelphia.  Then a cab to the meeting location at a conference center/hotel.  Needless to say, my day Wednesday began around 3:00 AM and finally ended a little before 9:00 that night.

Yesterday I was due to fly out of Philadelphia thru Cleveland, and back to Louisville.  Because of bad weather in the eastern U.S. our aircraft was late in arriving, and the flight to Cleveland was delayed nearly 90 minutes.  No alternate flights were available, so the best United could do was to conditionally book me on the later Cleveland-Louisville flight......at 6:20 PM instead of the scheduled 12:15 PM.  I have not wished for a flight to be delayed very often, but was hoping that last leg would be held up....and it was.  I literally went gate to gate, leaving one plane and boarding the next.  Got home pretty much on schedule.  So my vacation got off to a nice start!

More thoughts about this trip.....I have not been to Philadelphia more than two or three times, but have to say that it is a lot like I assumed New York to be via media stereotyping and such.  An old, decaying city with many pushy, impatient people.  I suppose this depends on one's perspective, but from my viewpoint New York has it all over Philly or Boston, the next nearest  major cities.  I like Chicago, too.

But I digress.  Later today our son and his family embark on their first major journey in their new minivan, and tomorrow my wife and I will board an aircraft, as will our daughter and her family.  And we will all come together at Walt Disney World in Florida!

We have been talking about a major family vacation for some time, and things came together for it to happen this year.  Our grandchildren range in age from 8 to 2, so they're all at fun ages and should enjoy this immensely.  For my part, I am truly looking forward to watching the four of them have those "wow" expressions for days at a time!  So my next entry will most likely be about the House of Mouse and our time there!