Dateline: AA terminal, O'Hare Int'l, Chicago, Saturday afternoon, sometime. At last! We're on our way to the German-speaking part of Europe to meet Dylan and Rachel and knock about with them for a couple of weeks! Our flight to Frankfurt leaves in an hour, or so, and I thought I'd write a quickie. Who knows if I'll get to it, again, for another, well, two weeks. My Dad and Jean and Abby, their sweet dog, are holding down our fort for the duration. Here's a picture of them, watching us go (and looking quite pleased about it, I think).
We actually left home, yesterday, Friday, about 5pm, to spend the night near the airport in SF. Our flight was scheduled to leave about 11, this morning and we didn't want to chance traffic on the day of (over 150 miles), so we got an early start. Good thing. At about 3:30 this morning, an automated call from American Airlines woke us up to inform us that our flight from SF had been canceled, that we would miss our connection in Chicago to Frankfurt, and that we had been rescheduled for Sunday to arrive on Monday! Yipes! The kids were planning to meet us at the airport (communications with them were iffy), and we had already arranged for rooms in Freiburg for Sunday night. A potential monkey wrench in the works, for sure. We figured it would be beneficial to talk to an actual human being before we panicked, though. Tom called AA, immediately and they were able to book us on an earlier flight out of SF. Just barely, as it turned out, since the flight would be full from other cancellations and "Rosh Hashanah" (one reason given). Turns out, she might have meant Yom Kippur. The new departure was only 1 1/2 hours earlier than the original, but we would have left right then, had it been necessary.
So, here we are, with a little extra time to burn in Chicago, and not particularly looking forward to the 9 hours in the plane--my longest, to date. I will try to sleep, but past experience isn't encouraging. But, how cool it will be to see Dylan and Rachel, there, and see parts of Germany, Austria and Switzerland, including a bit of Octoberfest! We'll spend time with our good friends, the Vajnas, in their home, toward the end of the two weeks! So fun! Tom and I, both, studied German for a year in college. I'm pretty sure, for me, it will be as though I had studied Greek. Tom will do much better, and has been brushing up. And Rachel spent a summer there, 11 years ago (enjoying the wonderful hospitality of the Vajnas, then, as well), so she'll be leading the pack, language-wise, I'm sure.
Well, must fly (really)! Don't know when I'll next blog in, so, for now,
Auf Wiedersehen!!
--Sandy
