Pix from out Indy / Chicago trip

Photobucket Album

What a week!!!

We (Suzy and I) just returned from an exciting 10 day trip to Chicago and Indianapolis. We had a lot of goals that we wanted to achieve and with a few small exceptions it feels like a great success!! We departed the Atlanta airport on Friday afternoon (6/7).


With the exception of my having spilled a gas can in the Versa the day before (leaving an awful stink in the car) the trip to the airport went fine, we arrived with plenty of time to print our boarding passes, get through security and grab a snack on the concourse before boarding. It was our first trip since my surgery last November and I definitely felt some major discomfort on the flight (mostly on departure and landing) but it was not too bad.



We had decided to fly in to Milwaukee and rent a car to drive in to Chicago which worked out great, the Milwaukee airport is small and easy to get around in which really made our arrival nice and easy. The rental car allowed us to get around easier and stop for whatever we wanted to, which was great. We stopped in southern Wisconsin to grab a bite since Suz was feeling a little low and the weather was looking pretty bad. It turned out that a huge rain storm was brewing and actually spawned a few tornadoes. We managed to side step the worst of the storm by taking a little time to walk around at a Gander Mtn. store and then grabbing a bite at a steak house right off the highway.



After eating we both felt a lot better and other then the traffic on the Kennedy expressway (ugh!!) we made it Frank and Sarah's with time left over for a little walk in their new neighborhood and a late bite at a little diner around the corner







We had a lot of fun getting to know Zane again, since the last time we had seen him he was a new born. He is really starting to explore and learn, sometimes learning a little too fast.







We had a great time taking Zane to the Morton Arboretum and there are too many great pictures to post here so I will create an album on Photobucket for them!
It was a little on the hot side that day, but it was totally worth it, seeing all the beautiful trees and plants and watching Zane in the children's garden made for a great day! The next day we went to a White Sox game (Z's very first!)



which was a lot of fun once the downpour ended. The Sox handed the Twins a serious ass whooping.

That evening we shared a Thai dinner (including fried meal worms...)






Yes, those are worms in my bro's mouth.



We spent most of the next day on a solo trip to visit my Mom and Dad's graves, which was very emotional for me and for Suzy too. It was her first time meeting them and my first time there in over 10 years. It was a lot harder then I expected to be there again but we both left with a great sense of relief and closeness. That night we decided to head down to Navy Pier for some sight seeing and a bite to eat. It had rained off and on so it was nice and sticky but we had a great time anyway.





On our last day in Chicago we took a little trip out to the Queen of Heaven cemetery and mausoleum to pay a visit to my grandparents, great grandparents and my great aunt Dolly. Suz and I were really impressed by the size of this place. It is absolutely huge and the decorations are really beautiful.



After leaving the cemetery we headed down to the city for a little sight seeing. Suzy got to take her first trip to the top of the Sears Tower which was cool but I guess not as cool as it was when I was 5.




We returned our rental car and Sarah gave us a lift back to their place for our last evening with them. Frank dug up some old documents and records that he had kept which were our dad's and some genealogy records that I had a great time reading through. It was really nice getting to catch up with him and spending time with our nephew.
The next day we packed our bags and headed down to Union Station for our bus ride to Indianapolis which was not as nice as we had hoped but also not as long as we thought it would be.
Arriving in Indy was a huge relief for us both, Suzy's Grandma Nancy is one of the most wonderful human beings I have ever met, just being around her is relaxing and her personality makes you want to be a better person. We had a nice dinner with Nancy and headed to her house to relax and get some sleep.



The next day we met up with Suzy's aunt Heather for breakfast and then went for a visit to the rehab facility where grandpa Russell is recovering from a fall he had at home. He was having a rough morning but seemed to really perk up upon seeing Suzy, I can't say I blame him, she usually has that effect on me too.



We had such a wonderful time visiting grandma Nancy, grandpa Russell, Heather and Eric that we really didn't want to come home. We did a lot there but I will say one thing for sure, we payed a lot of attention to finding shoes for Suzy and me, maybe more then we should, but then we both had a great need for foot comfort!



Grandma Nancy has made a very nice home for them in their condo, she has it decorated to the gills with beautiful artwork, crystals, plants and of course their sweet kitty Molly, who was very happy to have someone to lavish with attention since grandpa has been away for a little while and she usually spends a lot of time with him. Our next visit to grandpa was a lot better since he was much more awake and we brought him some cool headphones so he could listen to his shows on t.v. without bothering his butt head roommate. He was much more talkative and had a great time checking out the picture of little Taylor (our niece/his great granddaughter) that we brought for him.
We tried to visit him often but he gets tired easily so we usually kept it short and sweet. We got to go to the mall near Nancy's house a couple of times and we had lots of great food, but most of all it was the company that made it a great time.



It had to come to an end some time, and we had forgotten that Sunday was fathers day so we decided to try and get on an earlier flight home to spend time with Jim and Chris (Suzy's dad and brother) who were celebrating their first grandfathers day and fathers day respectively. We checked on the Air Tran website and the 6am flight showed to have 22 seats still available so we figured ... cool, no problem... right. Well, no not right, we woke up at 3:45 am we were out the door at 4 and arrived at the airport in 30 minutes, when we got to the front of the line and asked if we could stand by for one of the available seats we were informed that there had been an error in Air Tran website showing and selling (un)available seats and the flight was actually way over sold. The desk agents were trying to shuffle the people who had been over sold on to other flights to get them to their destinations but it did not look good for us. That was not the best thing to hear when you have only had a few hours of sleep and you are aching all over from a long week of running around and sleeping on beds that you are not used to but the agent told us we should come back to the desk at 8 and try to get on the 11:30 flight so we decided to make the best of it and get a cup of coffee and a muffin and take a stroll around the airport. We came back to the ticket desk to find a different agent there who told us that we could pay $25 each and that would allow him to confirm us on the 11:30 flight, we decided that was the way to go and got our passes and headed out to the gate. Three hours passed while we played on the computer and read while sitting at the gate. The gate agents made an announcement asking if anyone wanted to upgrade their tickets to first class for a $50 fee and Suz thought that would be fun so we decided that would, she went up to the gate and asked if we could do that and the gate agent proceeded to tell her that not only could we not upgrade but that he was going to have to refund the $50 we had paid earlier and that we could not get on the flight at all!!!! Needless to say she freaked out, I was sitting close by but did not hear what was going on exactly but I could see that Suz was getting upset so I went over to find out what was going on and the agent immediately copped an attitude with me as if we were trying to sneak on to the plane and somehow it was our fault that the flight was full. I got very upset and explained to the agent that we were told that by paying the $25 per ticket fee, we had been assigned seats, our bags were checked and we were guaranteed to be on that plane! Maybe it was all the other flights and all the other passengers who had been yelling at him all morning, or maybe it was just me but he decided to argue with me and tell me that we were not going to be on that flight. I was livid, deprived of sleep and a little jacked up on caffeine so I let my voice get a little elevated and apparently that pushed the gate agent over the edge. He walked away from me and refused to speak to me at all! I tried to calm down and got on the phone with Air Tran while Suzy tired to talk to one of the other agents that were already almost done boarding the plane by now. Then, after a few minutes on hold the agent suddenly changed his tune and called us over, handed us our passes and nodded over toward the gate. I am not exactly sure what happened but I was just ready to get out of there so we grabbed our things and boarded the plane. It was pretty cool when we were walking down the isle towards our seats other passengers were saying "way to go" and "glad you made it on" I guess there were other folks who were having similar problems that morning. All I can say is I hope Air Tran gets the kinks worked out of their system and can avoid this sort of thing in the future. We finally made it back to Atlanta at about 1pm and by the time our bags got out to the terminal Suzy's mom had just showed up to pick us up. We headed out to their house to reunite with our puppies (we had been suffering some major dog love withdrawal) and relax while waiting for the rest of the family to come over for a little cook out and cake for fathers day. I am going to post the photos of our trip in my Photobucket album for all to see so feel free to go check them out!!

here is a link to photobucket