A Whirlwind Trip

On By AngeliaIn Wee Wee Wee all the way home!

I’m back already (barely).

We missed our flight.

That’s right, three travel agents traveling with six other travel agents, myself and two others scheduled to depart first missed the flight. And I’m not saying we didn’t try.

I ran down the Terminal K concord with my boots unzipped. I ran (well scuffled with my boots unzipped). I heaved my heavy jacket, my ziplock baggie of liquids (didn’t have time to put it back), and my suitcase down O’Hare’s crazy LONG terminals dodging the masses of travelers, gasping for air and looking like a crazy person (which I was am).

I was that desperate. Why? Because earlier in the week I had looked at the flight schedules for later in the day, in case I wanted to explore Chicago and stay a bit longer. Yeah. They were FULL.

So missing a flight? Not good. And we did – by mere minutes.

Timing is everything. Luckily an earlier flight had been delayed. A lot of people moved to a different flight (probably the one we missed!). It was delayed long enough for us to jump right on and get home only an hour later than we would have.

Thank-you American Airlines for not blinking an eyelash and getting a sweaty, disheveled traveler on your next flight. I am still a little crazy-eyed from the whole thing.

I just uploaded my pictures, and you know? Apparently, when it’s cold, I don’t take very many (ha).

But I will give you a few to sum up the highlights.

Airport corridor from the back of a fast-moving golf cart. We got to tour two planes, the Admirals Club, Executive Center, Flagship lounge, and flight tower.
This was plane #2 that we saw. I actually can't remember what the equipment was, all I know....it was nowhere near as cool as 777. You have to fly on one of those in your lifetime..soooo awesome.
AA's traffic tower for runways H & K. We are IN the tower.
A live picture representing all the planes in the air at that moment. It details where they are, their path, speed, and distance. Pretty amazing.
Kimpton Hotel Room at the Hotel Allegro. It had a reflective desk. The hotel was very boutique(y) and art deco. I had a two-room suite in the corner with a jacuzzi tub and a spa kit (complete with leopard print robe). Heaven!
The shiny lamp gave me a great perspective on my living area of the suite with Sally standing by the TV in front of the mirror desk. She and I have worked together and been friends 15 years. She works for the same company as I do and went on the trip as well.
Chicago Theatre off State Street.
The beautiful Methodist Church in downtown Chicago by our hotel. I took it this morning walking to our last hotel tour before we left.

We packed a lot of things into this short trip. The airport tour, and the blue line train to downtown. A great experience for me since my city has zero public transportation (Arlington). We got to see four hotels and hear the story of their original buildings. They were all very quirky. I was impressed with the history of Chicago. I really would have liked to tour more sites (and take more pictures). It was cold, but I think I would have gotten more used to it. This morning I was too “hot” to wear my gloves. See? My blood turning bluer by the minute (ha).

I do have more pictures, and more stories, but I am two-seconds away from jabbering nonsense. An adrenalin-rushed-miss-your-plane-kind-of-day will do that to you.

Plus, I have to work tomorrow.

Did anyone get the day off? Have you ever missed your plane?

20 thoughts on “A Whirlwind Trip”

  2. The first time I was to go on a plane, I sat in the waiting area.. and I was the only one there. Just me and my husband. Waiting. And then it was down to the last five minutes before the plane was to leave, and I finally asked someone, why no one else was where I was sitting ..(yes, we were in the right spot accourding to the ticket) but they changed it. Changed it, and we didn’t know. because we were so early.. we were the first ones in.. and then all the rest of the folks got put in the correct spot. We had to RUN down the terminal to make our flight. It was crazy! Took away some of the nerves of first time flyers though.. because we were distracted for a minute.

    love the pictures in this post. I absolutely want to go to Chicago

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  4. EEKS! That’s one of my fears!
    We actually got stuck in hurricane Wilma in Mexico and were stranded for a week. My manager at the time was very understanding and gave me the time off to regroup 😉

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  5. Great angle on the Methodist Church shot, and the old theater looks so elegant. It’s funny, like everyone else, I dread delays, but when they actually happen they turn out to be fun. I wind up having wonderful talks with people I otherwise wouldn’t have engaged, as we commiserate over our transient dilemma.

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  6. Nope. Never missed a flight. But I don’t do that much travelling by air. My goodness. Chicago and its airport looks way way more scarey than Atlanta. And Atlanta scares the heebie-jeebies out of me.
    I love flying though. ‘specially the take-offs and landings. I often look up at planes overhead and wish I was on there. It doesn’t matter where it’s going.
    Welcome back. It sounds like a fascinating trip.
    Weezer

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  7. Beautiful photos!

    I am so very thankful that we have never missed a flight before. We travel a lot between our home here in Japan and our hometown in Texas. I think I’d go nuts if I missed a flight considering I am always flying with two kids. Oye!

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  8. Maddy

    Loving the shots! I even recognized some from the airport from the various layovers we’ve had to do 🙂 But I’ve never been to Chicago before…on my list of things to do.

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  9. I’ve had several cancel or postpone flights on my while I waited for HOURS in the terminal… NOT fun!

    We stayed at a Kimpton hotel in Philly (hotel Palomar) and are thinking of staying at one of the Kimptons in Dallas in March. Which one would you recommend keeping in mind that we will need to go to the Anatole both days and to the convention center on that Saturday? Is either of them convenient to them?

    I enjoyed this post so much. You’re doing a great job keeping up! 😉

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  11. Rod’s worst movie is “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles” because for years he was always chasing planes when he was a salesman. He was sooooo glad to retire. I have never missed a plane, but there have been some I wished I had missed!!
    Have you thawed out yet?
    xoxo

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  13. Beautiful captures there, Angelina! I missed a flight once while transferring from Cozumel to a connecting flight in Huston. We ran that looooong terminal for what seemed hours. Exhausted, I ran up to the window just in time to see the plane taking off. I started crying – lol!!! And then they upgraded us to 1st class 🙂

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  15. I’ve never missed a flight, though I have come close. My mom, sister and Oma (mom’s mom) though are notorious in our family – they are either always late and thisclose to missing their flights or have missed them (my Oma once missed her flight when she didn’t realize she was flying back to Germany a day earlier than she had thought she was!)

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  17. Angelia –

    Just looking at that Air Traffic control screen makes my heart race. Crazy!!!!!

    Ok, and now —– HIGH FIVE!!!!!! Look at you go!!!!!!! Bloggging on the road, blogging after a “An adrenalin-rushed-miss-your-plane-kind-of-day”. I am going to put my pom-pons away because you don’t need anyone cheering you on. You need someone bowing down to your AWESOMENESS!!!!!!!!!! Wahooooo you!!!!!!!!

    Ok, I did NOT have the day off on the Holiday, in fact instead of my ONE Nia class, I taught TWO (even with my injured toe). The studio that hired me to teach was having an open house and so we did free classes throughout the day. It was awesome.

    Yes, I missed at least one plane I can remember. We were coming back from Europe . . . . so we had been travelling for hours and we were delayed because of a fruit sniffing dog. I had put a banana in my suitcase I totally forgot about, but he found it and we were delayed. We missed one of our connecting flights. But at least we were in the states and it was YEARS ago. We almost missed that re-booked flight because we (my husband and I) were so tired be fell asleep at the gate and no one woke us up. So bizarre. If I would have seen a couple asleep at the gate after waiting for hours. I would have nudged them or something. I mean, c’mon we were sleeping bent over our suitcases, it was obvious we had been travelling for HOURS.

    Anyway . . . . . my comment is longer than your blog (so whatelse is new).

    YAY you!

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  19. I have never missed a plane and I am obsessively over early. I’m so glad it worked out for you.
    It is intriguing to see your shots and your take on things. You have a lovely sensitivity.

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  20. I’ve never missed a plane in a cool “run down the terminal” sort of way. My first flight just didn’t even get there in time for me to bother trying to make the connection. The bummer is being on standby for the next flight and stressing if you are actually going to get on, or have to sit there for days and days waiting to get home.
    I love the pictures, as always. You always show such a striking view of the world around you. Thank you for sharing with us.

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