Trip back to Minneapolis

I can't believe that my trip back to Minnesota was a week ago. It didn't get off to a great start considering that we missed our flight out of London. To be fair it was both of our faults. I didn't bother to write it down on my calendar, although the day before we left I went on the NWA website to look and see what times flights left. I saw a flight that left at 2:30 p.m. and assumed that it was our flight, but I was wrong. Matthew had been sent an email from the airline confirming the reservation and they even sent him a reminder the day before we left, but he didn't bother to open it.

We were getting ready when Matthew decided to check the reservation and found out that our flight had left at 8:30 in the morning. What a terrible feeling it is to miss a flight, especially when you find out that just can't get on the next flight. We couldn't get on the next flight without buying another set of tickets. We weren't very happy about that. The company refunded half of our money, but I can't believe that you just can't get on the next flight if there is room for. Leaving later meant arriving in Minneapolis at 10:30 p.m. instead of in the afternoon. If we had made that 8:30 a.m. flight we would have gotten in at 2:30 p.m.

There was also a bit of craziness when we changed planes in Chicago. For some odd reason I thought that the seat number on my ticket was the gate we had to fly out of. We were already late, our flight from London sat on the runway for an hour and half. Oh and the entertainment system wasn't working, which reminds me United gave us some kind of voucher and I should get around to looking it up. So we run to the gate only to discover that it's not the right gate and then we get to run to the right one. I gotta tell you, I am not very good at running. In fact I would say that I hated it. We made it to Minnesota only to find that our luggage didn't make it, but not such a big deal. It would be delivered in the morning. Now, that's service!

Matthew and I picked up our rental car and drove over to Dennis and Peggy's house. I directed Matthew to drive on the left hand side of the road! We were turning off a highway onto a residential street and I steered him to the left hand side. Thankfully there weren't any other cars on the road and Matthew knew better. He was proud of me, wanting to be on the left hand side. I will also say that it felt really strange to be on the right hand side of the road through out the entire trip....

We got to Dennis and Peggy's house and had a quick chat before they hit the hay and we hit the town. Well, we went to get some food at Mickey's Diner, a historic diner in St. Paul that's open 24/7. That's right England! 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Love it! After feasting, I had a grilled cheese and chili with a chocolate malt, we headed back to West St Paul to call it a day. We were in bed by around 1 a.m. and foolishly got up the next day at 7 a.m. The phone woke us up. Thankfully it was the person dropping off our luggage! We decided to stay awake...what a silly idea. I usually don't have a problem adjusting to the time change, but I did on this trip. I feel horrible if I don't get at least 7 hours sleep a night. Oddly enough, Matthew felt fine with the time change this time.

It was really nice driving through the quiet streets of West St Paul at night. The air smells so good and fresh. I loved seeing grass in the front yards. Beautiful grass. It was just so quiet peaceful and it felt safe, like home.

**This is going to have to be part one, I am a bit tired after the bank holiday weekend. Second installment up tomorrow! Cheers!