Travelin' Day

It was a travelin’ day, for sure.  We didn’t fly out of Philly until 10am, but I was worried about the rush hour traffic and morning rain, so we were up at six and out the door soon after.  We ended up two and a half hours early for our flight but at least we missed the traffic jams.  We used the time to play cards and sip coffee so it wasn’t a bad way to start the day. 

Our flight left nearly half an hour late due to rain, so when we landed in St. Louis (photo below - you can almost made out the Arch right behind the big white dome) we were a bit worried we’d miss our connecting flight to Seatle.  The gates were right next to each other so we made it just fine.   I don’t really like Southwest Airline’s policy of no reserved seats, especially when there are three people traveling together.  We got the last row of three on the way to St. Louis, but since we were so late in boarding on the flight to Seattle, there were no seats together.  We asked a man if he’d mind moving, and he did, so we were able to get a row to ourselves, but it caused Kaleb much grief as to what he should do if he couldn’t be by us.  It all worked out but it easily could NOT have.  We asked God to intervene, so we have to give Him the credit, but next time, I’m taking a different airline.

We flew over a lot of wildfires in the Montana/Wyoming area (see photo below), which was sad to see but made for some interesting contrasts in the landscape as the smoke settled in the valleys below.

My step-mom picked us up at the airport and after a stop at her place to drop her off, a stop at our apartment building in Seattle to pick up rent checks, a stop at Trader Joes to load up on groceries, a stop at Costco to get gas and a stop at a Thai restaurant for a yummy dinner, we walked in our door about six hours after we landed.  Hard to believe it took that long to get home.

We are now faced with a yard that needs mowing, a pile of mail that needs sorting, a bundle of laundry that needs washing and a few suitcases that need unpacking.  I’ll treasure every minute of it.  It’s good to be back.

I know I’ve been gone a bit too long when my welcome home was a spider web in my face as I walked in the door.  At least there weren’t any inside the house.  I love where we live, spiders and all.