Two Nights Stuck in Chicago, a Bunch of Cancelled Flights, and a Rental Car: A True Story of Travel Hell

As several of you may have seen via Instagram, Eric and I had a pretty hellish trip home.

We actually had some trouble on the way to West Virginia as well, but, even though we lost an entire day, it still wasn't as bad as our trip home. (We found out we wouldn't be able to get a flight in due to multiple delays and cancellations while we were still in Omaha. We were able to get placed on another flight out the next afternoon, and then we just went home. Not an ideal start to the trip, but not the end of the world.)

The way back, though? Oh my God. Awful doesn't even begin to describe it!

Our first flight was delayed, and we knew there was absolutely no way we'd make our connection. We worked with someone at the ticket counter, and we somehow managed to get the last two available seats on the last flight from Chicago to Omaha that night.

We thought we were so lucky ... Until our flight to Chicago kept getting delayed. After about 5 hours of waiting for an aircraft, we finally boarded and set off for Chicago. Unfortunately, we would no longer be able to make our later flight to Omaha, so we had to get placed on yet another flight early the next afternoon.

We were obviously not too happy with the situation, but there wasn't anything we could do. We just decided to suck it up and sleep in the airport that night. (I can now say I've slept in an airport 3 times in my life, and it's just as horrible as it sounds.) We didn't get much sleep that night, but we were kind of like "Whatever!" at that point ... We just wanted to get home.

Our first flight out was delayed several times and then cancelled, but we managed to get seats on another flight a little later that afternoon. At that point we weren't too optimistic.

It's a good thing we weren't really expecting to get out of Chicago because they cancelled every single flight going out on Monday due to weather.

We obviously weren't going to rough it in the airport for yet another night, so we managed to get a pretty inexpensive (yet nice!) hotel in the immediate area with a free shuttle to and from the airport. (I also obviously had to take a picture of the sink in our bathroom because I thought it was really cool. I know, I know ... I'm a dork.)

Before leaving the airport, we secured seats on the first available flight the next day. That flight didn't leave until 8:00 p.m. and it was a flight to Lincoln ... So obviously not ideal at all. (If you're not familiar with my area, the Lincoln airport is about an hour from the Omaha airport. Our checked luggage had supposedly made it to Omaha, so we needed to go to that airport to pick it up and to get Eric's car.)

We rented a car, and thankfully Hertz worked with us and got us the best possible deal. (Apparently getting a rental car for a one way trip can cost up to $150 from some rental companies. Seriously ... We were quoted $150 from one place at the Lincoln airport and we were like, "Are you serious?" They were.)

We drove to the Omaha airport, returned the car, (thankfully!) found and claimed our luggage (I guess it had been sitting there for a couple of days), and went to Eric's car. After he scraped off the snow and ice that had accumulated while we were away, we paid our parking fee and finally set off for home.

Words can't even begin to describe how ecstatic we both were to get home. I've never been so happy to take a shower in my own bathroom and sleep in my own bed.

I didn't go to bed until 1:30 a.m. (and I had to work at 7:00 a.m. this morning), but at least neither of us had to miss yet another day of work.

We've had issues with travel before, but never like this. I wish I'd gotten a better picture, but here is a shot of part of the line for United customer service in O'Hare:

The line extended well beyond that point in both directions. I couldn't even see the end or the beginning. We managed to avoid that line entirely by dealing with gate agents and booking our own hotel, but man ... It was insane.

The one bright point in all of this (besides getting to spend time with my family and friends, of course!) was our experience in the United Club lounge. One of my friends had a couple of passes that were going to expire at the end of this year, and since she wasn't going to take any trips to use them, she mailed them to me to use.

We kept putting it off because our flights kept changing so often that we felt like we needed to be near the gates at all times in order to get booked on something else as quickly as possible. (I have no idea how we managed to avoid going on standby!)

By the end of the trip, we were in full on "fuck it" mode, so we spent our last few hours in O'Hare hanging out, eating complimentary snacks and drinking complimentary beer and wine.

While it didn't change our shitty travel experience, it made things a little better.

I'll probably write a little more about our time in West Virginia at some point (that part of the trip was great!), but I just had to share this story now. When we were leaving the Omaha airport last night I turned to Eric and said, "Well, at least I have something to post on my blog!" (Not that I didn't have a few other end of the year posts in mind. Those will have to come a little later, I guess!)

New Mexico (The Two Year Anniversary Trip): Part Two - Stuff We Did

I planned to share another post about my New Mexico trip last week, but time just got away from me. This last weekend was also insanely busy with in-law family stuff, but I managed to find a little time on Sunday night to answer emails I'd let pile up for too long, take care of some laundry that I'd also allowed to pile up for too long, and work on a couple of blog posts for this week. Unfortunately, I didn't quite get this post finished in time to publish it on Monday. Oh well. Wednesday's just as good.

As the title indicates, my post today is all about the stuff we did while we were away ... With one exception. I'm going to save our hot air balloon ride for another post (mostly because we took a bunch of pictures that I want to share, and I didn't want to put that many pictures in one post).

One of our first stops on the trip was a local winery. There are actually quite a few wineries in the Corrales/Albuquerque area, and, even though we did a little research before we left, we weren't sure which one we should visit.

The owners of The Chocolate Turtle (I talk about how awesome our stay was here, if you missed my first recap) told us about Casa Rodeña, and after checking out some pictures, we were sold. (And, to make it even more appealing, they gave us a voucher for a free wine tasting for two!)

We'd never visited a winery before, and I'm so glad this was our first experience! The bartender was very knowledgeable and very nice. We like drinking wine, but we're definitely not wine connoisseurs. We asked our bartender a lot of questions, and he was really great about answering them. 

We were able to try all of the wines that Casa Rodeña offers during our tasting. I generally prefer white wine, but the reds were actually pretty good as well (for the most part, anyway). 

After our tasting, Eric and I decided to order a glass of wine each and enjoy the beautiful scenery in the back of the tasting room. 

We also left with 4 bottles of wine. (Though, to be fair, two were for us and two were gifts.) I was really glad we decided to drive ... It definitely made it much easier to cart them home!

Old Town Albuquerque was another stop during our first day in town. It's a cute little area mostly filled with unique shops. I definitely wished we'd budgeted more money for this trip when I visited some of the shops because they had some fantastic jewelry and home decor for sale!

There was also an adorable little church in the center of Old Town, so of course we had to get a few pictures:

Our last stop in Old Town (and the first of several museums we visited) was the American International Rattlesnake Museum. Unlike my friend's husband who actually breeds snakes, I'm not a huge snake lover. I don't hate them (though I definitely wouldn't want to find a wild snake hanging out in my apartment!), but I'm not obsessed with them. However, since Eric and I are pretty nerdy, we thought it would be an interesting place to check out. And it was only $5 per person to get in, so it was cheap entertainment.

If you hate snakes, you might want to skip over the next few pictures.

I loved this last guy. His face reminds me of a crotchety old man.

We took a lot more, but I know most people reading this probably don't want to look at a bunch of snakes.

Before we left for our trip, we weren't sure if we were going to drive to Santa Fe and/or Roswell while we were in the area. Roswell was about 3 hours or so away, and Santa Fe was only about an hour. 

On the drive down, we decided we didn't want to spend a huge chunk of our time away in the car, so we opted not to go to Roswell. We still weren't sure about Santa Fe, but everyone we spoke to at the B&B and in the shops (everyone was incredibly friendly and wanted to know all about us and where we were from) asked if we were going to Santa Fe during our time in New Mexico. After probably the third or fourth person asked, Eric said, "Well, I guess we're going to have to go to Santa Fe since everyone keeps talking about it!

I'm so glad we took the time to drive there. As you can see from the picture above, it was absolutely beautiful. 

Santa Fe also had a ton of art galleries and museums, so we spent a lot of time checking those out. I couldn't tell you the names of the art galleries ... We just walked into the ones that caught our eye. As for the museums, we visited the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum and the New Mexico History Museum. We didn't take many pictures in any of these places (mostly because many of them didn't allow pictures), but here are a couple:

Above is the exterior of the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum.

I wish we could have taken pictures in the special pinhole photography exhibit at the New Mexico History Museum because it was my favorite thing. The photos were surreal and haunting and disturbing, and it was amazing to think that these images were created from something so low tech. 

We did, however, take some random pictures of the scenery (and ourselves), so I'll share a few of those:

Santa Fe was a really cool place. Like I said, it was definitely worth the extra drive time!

The last thing I want to talk about in this post is our visit to the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History. Eric and I both felt like we didn't spend enough time there because there was just so much to read and see. 

I'm not a huge history buff, but this museum was really interesting and I felt like I learned a lot. There was a ton of information about the Manhattan Project, the Cold War, nuclear medicine ... The list could go on and on. And, I'm not going to lie, I teared up while I was reading about and looking at pictures from the bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Horrifying stuff.

Anyway, I don't want to end on such a sad note, so instead I'll share a couple more pictures and then call it a day.

I know this was a really long recap, so if you made it to the end, I think you're awesome (and thanks for reading!)! If not ... That's okay too. I know I can ramble on and on sometimes!

New Mexico (The Two Year Anniversary Trip): Part One - Our Bed and Breakfast Experience

I'm finally going to get started with the New Mexico vacation recaps. It only took me almost a month to get around to it ... No big deal.

I love reading vacation recaps on other blogs, but I kind of hate writing my own. While it's fun to relive the fun and interesting things we did (and while I love sharing this stuff on my blog!), it can be kind of a pain to sort through hundreds of photos in order to find a few that will help me tell the story. 

I'm also completely relying on my memory (which is probably not the best thing sometimes!) because I failed to write anything down while we were away. I brought a notebook, writing utensils, and my laptop along and wrote exactly 0 words. Fail.

Anyway, I originally thought I'd be able to cram everything into one post. After thinking about all of the things we did and looking through all of the pictures, though, I decided to break it up. It just felt more manageable that way.

Today's post is going to focus on our experience at our bed and breakfast. We had such an amazing time there that I felt like it deserved its own post. (And please note: this is not a sponsored post. Eric and I just genuinely loved The Chocolate Turtle, so I wanted to spend some time talking about it.)

The Chocolate Turtle is in Corrales, New Mexico, which is a small town/village just outside Albuquerque. The location is perfect: the area is quiet but still close to a lot of restaurants and shopping. And this is the view from the backyard:

See? Perfect.

The owners, Keith and Denise, are the exact type of people who should be running a B&B. They're friendly, full of useful (and interesting!) information about the area, and they make delicious breakfasts each and every morning. It honestly felt more like staying with friends or family members than staying in a hotel.

Every day they served freshly baked cookies, and also kept an assortment of free candy, soda, coffee, and tea available to guests throughout the day. On busier days we didn't take advantage of it, but we spent our entire Sunday afternoon at the B&B (Eric watched football while I read) and it was really nice to have drinks and snacks right there (especially since it didn't cost $5.00 or something ridiculous for a can of soda like it would if we utilized a hotel minibar). In addition, they left a couple of chocolate turtle candies in our room each day when they cleaned. That was always a nice thing to come back to!

And the breakfasts ... Oh my God. They were phenomenal. I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves.

Morning 1:

Cheesy egg bake with green chiles and fresh rosemary from the garden. (Not pictured: biscuits with red chile raspberry jam, fresh fruit, and sausage.)

Morning 2:

Orange crusted French toast. (Not pictured: fresh fruit.)

Morning 3:

Crustless mushroom and broccoli quiche, sausage, and homemade blueberry scones. (Not pictured: fresh fruit.) I just need to take a minute here to say that I don't even like mushrooms, and I thought this quiche was delicious. And those scones?  So amazing and buttery and perfect. I think I ate at least three of them.

Morning 4:

Huevos rancheros with a homemade red chile sauce, sausage, and fresh fruit. Keith was so accommodating that morning! We didn't get back from our hot air balloon ride until about half an hour after breakfast had been served, but he told us he'd make plates for us if we were willing to wait about 20 minutes. This was worth the wait!

Morning 5:

Hashbrown and egg scramble with fresh salsa, bacon, and chocolate filled buns.

The tables were set beautifully each morning as well, with unique dishes and table accessories. I loved all the extra little touches! The picture below shows my favorite table setup:

Don't worry, I'll be devoting another post to some of our other meals. We had some really awesome food while we were gone!

The food and owners weren't the only amazing things about The Chocolate Turtle, though. The rooms were clean and decently sized, and each room had its own bathroom (an absolute must for us if we're going to stay in a B&B!). 

We opted for the Quail Room when we made our reservations, mostly because of the adorable little guy you can see in the picture below:

They actually moved the stuffed quail around the room each day when they cleaned, so it was kind of fun to search for him each day.

The bathroom was stocked with the essentials, including face towels specifically labeled for makeup removal. (I thought that was a nice touch, especially since I wear black eyeliner and black eyebrow pencil and generally like to avoid getting that shit all over nice towels.)

The owners also had two pets, a dog named Zorro and a parrot named Rico. I didn't get any pictures of Rico because he wasn't out as often as Zorro, but I got a picture of Zorro on our lazy Sunday afternoon when he was hanging out with us in the common area:

He was such a sweetheart!

I don't think we could have asked for a more beautiful or comfortable place to stay. (And it was very affordable, which is also a must for us when we're traveling!) We honestly didn't want to leave!

I would highly recommend staying here if you're planning a trip to the Albuquerque area. In fact, Eric and I have already discussed maybe trying to get our families together (even if it's just our parents and us) and renting out the place for another vacation. (There are only 4 rooms, so that wouldn't be too difficult to do, especially if any of our other family members came along.) I don't know when that will happen (or if it will happen), but I think it would be a really nice getaway for everyone.

Life Right Now/Random Thoughts and Things

I rarely write "currently" or "life lately" posts because, to be honest, my life isn't always that exciting. Not that I'm complaining. Sometimes I like to reread my old journals (including my LiveJournal), and I have to say that I do not miss living a crazy life worthy of a teen soap opera!

I'm happy with the way things are in my life right now, but I don't always go out and do a lot of things that I'd consider "blogworthy." I mean, if I'm being totally honest here, most of my weekends are pretty low key. And by low key, I mean that at least 80% of my weekends are spent living like a hermit, escaping to the world of books. Nothing wrong with that, right? 

Anyway, today I've decided that I actually have enough random things I want to share to write a post. Some are more exciting than others, but they'll give you a good snapshot of my life right now.

Right Now in Entertainment:

- I'm slowly making my way through my gigantic stack of library books. I returned a couple today, but, of course, I had one waiting on my hold shelf. At least I returned more than I checked out (which is rare for me!).

- I'm currently reading Black-Eyed Susans by Julia Heaberlin, and I'm having trouble getting into it. I think part of the problem is that I've been reading it in very short spurts, but I don't know. I feel like it's taking me forever to read it. I started it on Tuesday, and I'm not even 100 pages in! I hope it wows me soon because I was on the waiting list at the library for at least 3 months for this, and I was so excited when I finally brought it home!

- Speaking of books, I still need to finish reading and commenting on the blogs that participated in Steph and Jana's Show Us Your Books! link-up. I've gotten so many great recommendations so far, and my "To Read" list just keeps growing!

- I've been on a huge Dallas Green kick thanks to the release of the new City and Colour album last Friday. I knew he'd be exploring some new sounds on this album (his willingness to play around with different musical styles is just one of the reasons I love him), and I definitely wasn't disappointed! 

- In addition to If I Should Go Before You, I've been listening to the entire Alexisonfire catalog on shuffle every afternoon on my drive home from work. The weather has been beautiful lately, so I've been enjoying it by opening my sunroof and singing at the top of my lungs. Definitely one of my favorite things to do.

- And just one more Dallas Green related thing (sorrynotsorry). When I was trying to figure out what live Alexisonfire video I wanted to include in my post last week, I found some videos of them performing back around 2004-2006, and I could not get over how young they look! I know it's been like 10 years and I've seen plenty of pictures of them from that era, but man ... They're just so adorable with their headbanging. Also weird/funny: Dallas with no facial hair and significantly fewer tattoos and George actually wearing a shirt. Haha.

(P.S. The quality of this video isn't as shitty as the still frame would have you believe. Also, this is a shortened version of the song, but you can at least get the idea.)

Okay, I promise to stop going on and on about how much I love Dallas Green ... For now, anyway.

Right Now in Random Shit I Like:

- I've been having some issues with breakouts lately. It's nothing serious (thankfully I've never had any major issues with my skin!), but it's annoying. I started using Aveeno Clear Complexion Foaming Cleanser a couple of weeks ago, and my skin looks so much better already! It's also not drying out, which is a problem I often have when I'm trying to fight breakouts. (By the way, this isn't sponsored or anything, I just really like this product and wanted to share it!)

Via

- I always take a late morning break at work in an effort to recharge. I'm usually starving by this point, and my new favorite thing to snack on is a Clif Bar. If you haven't tried them, you should ... They're so fucking good! They have a ton of varieties, which is really nice if you're like me and find yourself eating one every day during the workweek. (Again, this isn't sponsored ... I just really love these. If you don't believe me, see the picture below.)

Right Now in Things I'm Looking Forward To:

- I'm getting really excited for Christmas this year. I've been pretty depressed around Christmas for the past few years, so this is a nice change. I think I'm mostly excited because Eric and I will be flying to my hometown to spend Christmas with my family. This is something I haven't done since 2008 (and my grandmother passed away the following month). I'm hoping I can shake off the sadness this year and just enjoy the time with my family. 

- Eric and I finally picked a destination for our anniversary trip next month! We were having a hard time agreeing on where to go, and it suddenly just clicked for us in the most random way.

At first we considered going back to Europe (we considered Greece and Spain), but we really didn't want to spend that much money. It just wasn't practical for us to blow thousands of dollars on a vacation this year, so we started researching places closer to home.

New Orleans was pretty high on both our lists, but we knew we'd probably end up spending a lot on food and alcohol if we went there ... So not exactly a "cheap" trip.

We then started considering places within driving distance, and Colorado seemed like a good option. The only problem is that Eric has already been there several times, and we really wanted to go somewhere that was new to both of us.

So then I just started researching bed & breakfasts in random states we'd never been to that were 15 hours away or less. I found The Chocolate Turtle in Corrales, New Mexico and asked Eric what he thought. He thought it seemed like it was exactly what we were looking for, and we booked a room shortly after.

New Mexico is completely random and pretty far away for a road trip (about 13.5 hours, according to Google Maps!), but I think we're going to have a lot of fun. And, really, we were sold after looking at pictures like this:

Via

I can't wait!

If anyone has been to New Mexico (specifically the Albuquerque area), please feel free to give me some recommendations on places to eat, things to see, etc. We're only staying 5 nights, and we have a few things in mind already, but I'm always open to suggestions!

Labor Day Weekend 2015: A Trip to The Twin Cities

I planned to write about my Labor Day weekend trip to Minnesota last week, but I wasn't really in the mood to edit a bunch of pictures ... So I didn't.

So I'm a week late posting this, but it's okay. Better late than never!

My friend Danielle invited us to spend the weekend with her, so Eric and I both took some time off to extend our Labor Day weekend and drove the 6(ish) hours to St. Paul on Friday.

It was my first time in Minnesota (so I got to mark off my 27th state!), and I had an awesome time. We were pretty much on the go constantly, but I was glad we were able to do so much in such a short amount of time. Eric and I were both off on Tuesday as well, and I'm so glad we decided to take an extra day off to unwind!

On Saturday, we went to see the Cathedral of St. Paul. None of us are religious, but the church is absolutely beautiful and it was a nice quick stop on the way to a sports bar to watch the first Husker game of the season. (Obviously Eric couldn't miss that!)



This picture is from the steps of the church:



We then made our way to the sports bar, and took a few pictures of the downtown area as we walked.





After the game was over, we headed to the Mall of America. I would have loved to spend an entire day there (okay, maybe two or three days!), but Eric hates shopping ... So a few hours at the mall after a few hours of football was a nice compromise. I actually didn't buy anything, but we did ride the Fairly Odd Coaster. I love roller coasters, so I knew I'd enjoy it, but it was actually a pretty thrilling ride. I was surprised ... I mean, it's inside a mall. I didn't expect it to be as awesome as it was!



Sunday morning began with a trip to the Minnesota State Fair. Apparently the state fair is a huge deal, and it definitely didn't disappoint! We didn't try all of the amazing food (I wish!), but we did a beer tasting, ate a few things that were terrible for us (cheesy garlic breadsticks, frozen custard, and fried olives), and took a silly picture or two.



Danielle and I also rode one of the rides. We considered riding more, but the lines were really long and, let's be honest, riding crazy rides after drinking a lot of beer isn't exactly the best idea. My stomach was pretty queasy after the ride, but thankfully I managed to get over it without getting sick!

Eric didn't want to ride the ride we picked out, so he took a few cool action shots of us on it. I loved the ride, but it was terrifying! My butt kept lifting out of the seat and I remember screaming, "Danielle, I think I'm going to fall out! I'm not even touching the seat!" I clearly get very dramatic when I'm riding scary rides.



After we left the fair, we headed to a St. Paul Saints game. Danielle managed to snag some free tickets, and even though I'm not a fan of baseball (at all), it was a lot of fun.



Eric was trying to be "saintly," but it kind of looks like he's praying to his beer on the ground.



We obviously had to get a picture with the giant baseball!

After the game, they let everyone out onto the field, so we took a shit ton of ridiculous pictures.



I think I was trying to dance ... Or something. If you've ever wondered how I act in real life (especially after I've been drinking quite a bit!), please refer to those pictures. I can be pretty silly!



This one is a little more normal.



And here are the three of us. Clearly I'm not the only one who can get a little ridiculous!

On Monday, we finally made it over to Minneapolis to do a couple of touristy things before we left. Danielle told us we had to at least see Minnehaha Falls, so we went to the park for a little while to take some pictures.



We also drove over to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden and got a silly picture in front of the famous spoon.



And yes, I'm wearing yoga leggings in public. By the end of the trip, I was so bloated from all the alcohol and greasy food that I didn't feel like squeezing into my jeans for the long drive home. Sometimes you just stop caring.

And, speaking of food, no vacation recap would be complete without some food pictures. I actually didn't take pictures of every meal we had (shocking, I know!), but I took quite a few.



These pictures are from our dinner at the Mall of America. We didn't know it at the time, but we actually sat on the bar side of this Mexican restaurant ... And it apparently turns into a dance club around 9:00 p.m. They served us food (obviously), but it was kind of hilarious. We were trying to eat and talk, and a DJ was in the corner playing loud music and using a fog machine to create a "club" atmosphere. It kind of made us feel old.



These pictures are from various bars we went to. The pulled pork nachos and bacon jalapeño cheese curds were both from The Bulldog Lowertown (and both amazing!). The stout float from Great Waters Brewing Company was refreshing and delicious. And, finally, the chili cheese tots were ordered during the Husker game at Tom Reid's Hockey City Pub.

They actually just had chili cheese fries on the menu, but since I saw that they also served tater tots, I asked our waitress if they would be willing to make chili cheese tots for our table. They were such a great idea ... The tater tots stayed perfectly crispy even under all the toppings, and I couldn't stop eating them! (Okay, so maybe that means they were a bad idea.)

I also took some pictures from our trip to a Thai restaurant in St. Paul, but I'll be sharing that in a separate post. This has gotten long enough!