Trip Recap

I feel like it’s been forever since I blogged, but it has been a crazy week.  I got the call from my Mom last Monday that my Grandpa had died at the age of 96.  He had a good long life, & my Grandma dies 3 years ago, so he was ready to re-join her.

 

I flew out to Montana for the funeral & to see all the family gathered there.  PChad & the kids stayed behind, as the price of airline tickets was astronomical.  I managed to save a bit of money by taking the most indirect route on the planet, by driving to Halifax, then flying to NY, Salt Lake, & then Montana.  The trip out there took 20 hours.  It was long, but pretty uneventful.  I had ample time to finish the book I had brought along.

 

My brothers

 

For me, there wasn’t much to be sad about at the funeral.  My Grandpa was a Christian, & he’d lived 96 years.  His last few months had been hard & he’d suffered some illnesses.  He was ready to go on to glory.  I had a GREAT time with my cousins, & Aunts & Uncles.  My Uncle & his family live on a ranch in the hills, so we had a chance to go quading as a group one day & we also tagged some new calves.  It was nice to do some ‘country’ things again.

 

And, of course we ate some awesome food.  We ate at Famous Dave’s, & IHOP, & we also had many, many ham buns!

 

One of my Mom’s cousins had us all over for pizza one evening, & it was a fun night with lots of laughter.  We always have a great time when we all get together, but unfortunately it happens far too infrequently.

I really do love my extended family, & I’m glad I had this opportunity to spend a long weekend with them.  As we have married, & had kids, we seem to have all spread out across the country, so we don’t get to see each other near often enough.

 

After all that fun, it was time to head back home.  I find that flying out on a trip is always a bit of fun (think of the tales I’ve had to tell!), but flying home just doesn’t have the same excitement to it.  Perhaps that’s just because my flights home were routed even worse than my flights to Montana.

 

I started out at 4:30 for my 6am flight to Minneapolis.  That wasn’t so bad, early morning flights are never pleasant, but it was uneventful.  From there, I headed to Orlando.  No, I don’t know why, & I tried to get my ticket changed, but they gave me some song & dance about since I bought a cheaper ticket, I had to suffer on their airlines all day (I think that was the underlying message anyways).  In Orlando, I must have been on the wrong side of the plane, because I didn’t even get a glimpse of Disney, then I walked off my plane only to walk across the hallway & immediately board my next flight, taking me to lovely NY!

 

In NY I had a 3 hour layover, so I had a chance to walk around a bit & dine casually at a restaurant.  I had never had the opportunity to relax over a meal in an airport like that before, so I took the chance, but I think they must have rented to seats by the minute, because I paid dearly for my efforts.

 

I flew from NY to Halifax & for the first time, I had an empty seat next to me, so I spread out & relaxed for a bit in preparation for my 3 hour drive home.  I rolled in to town around 2:30am.  It’s good being back home, but I think it’s time to start planning the next family reunion!