Thanksgiving was quite the adventure this year. Instead of suffering through the 16-hour drive, we decided to try flying back to the Midwest for the first time.
Our plan was to fly into Midway, where Opa and Oma would pick us up and drive us to Indiana to spend the holiday with the Vander Griends/Burgesses. Then, on Saturday morning, we would take the train back to Chicago, meet up with the Broyles/Hjelmgrens for a day in city, and then fly home out of Midway Saturday evening. At first, everything worked according to plan...until it didn't.
The first half of the plan was executed perfectly. We arrived in Indiana without a hitch and had a great time celebrating Thanksgiving and early Christmas with family.
And it was a pretty exciting early Christmas. Oma and Opa gave all the kids animal-print PJs...
...and binoculars...
...and an African safari trip this summer!!!
We are all going to Kenya in July, woo hoo!
After the big reveal, we spent the rest of our time relaxing, playing games, doing crafts, and going to the movies.
On Saturday morning, we boarded the train for Chicago to start the second phase of our trip . . . and that's when the plan broke down. A huge snowstorm blew in and we realized that a cold, icy day in the city was not the best plan after all. So Aunt Betsy picked us up from the train station and brought us to the suburbs to spend the day with family there. As the hours ticked by and the snow kept piling up higher and higher, we crossed our fingers that the rest of our plan would still work out.
But then our flight got cancelled. So we rebooked on a later flight. And then, at 11pm, that flight got cancelled too. At that point, all the nearby hotels were full and the taxi line was 100 people long. We tried to book an uber, but rideshares were only allowed to pick up from a different terminal . . . and the tram to that other terminal was closed for the night. For a brief period of time, we really thought we were going to have to sleep on the floor of the airport.
Thankfully, we stumbled across some buses that were driving people to the other terminal, got an uber to a hotel further away that miraculously had one room left, and collapsed into warm beds that were oh-so-much better than the hard airport floor. The next day, we waited hopefully by the ticket desk and managed to get standby seats home (Chris, Aaron, and Jill on one flight; Danny and I on another).
This is the only documentation we have of the drama. Exhausted in the back of an uber.
In the end, even with all the stress and cancellations, there were still things to be thankful for...including Africa, airport hotels, and the arrivals gate at DIA 😅
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