Home Sweet Home

ahhhhhhh.....I left for HHH terminal this morning at 5:30am. Where were you going you ask? Well I decided to help out my brother and sister-in-law and accompany Susu and Kaden to Chicago to visit the Brazilian Consulate to get Kaden's passport. So off we went....only a few minute late which is impressive for the Israelson's. We arrived in Chicago a few minutes early and headed to the train station....attached to Midway....and then proceded to the ticket machine. I learned a very important lesson - if you stick $20 in the ticket machine, it will give you a ticket for $20 even if you didn't want it. So...for the $4 we needed in tickets I got $20 ticket and we proceeded to the Orange Line headed to downtown Chicago. So far Kaden was great...thank goodness. The train ride was about 35 minutes and fairly uneventful. We excited to find out we had to carry the stroller down a rather long flight of stairs and then off to find a taxi. Our taxi ride was short and sweet about 5 blocks and costs us about $5. Then up to the 18th floor we went to the room we would spend the next 2 hours. The first lady we talked and by that I mean Susu talked to since it was all in Portugese - told Susu she would have to come back another day. We quickly learned that our response (You've got to be kiding) was a very common comment from the consulete visitors. But after having a discussion with a nice old man, Susu was able to get everything going as planned. She learned she can't take names off her name in Brazil so she was going to have 5 names in her name now that she would be officially married in Brasil. And I learned that if you look 16, and you are holding a crying baby, that older Brazilian women will decide you don't know what you are doing and take them from you :) Long story......

Then we were told we needed to go to the post office to get a Priority Envelope so they could mail Susu the passport in a week. So off we went in the rain, and finally decided to catch a cab to the PO. Another 5 blocks, another $5, but a very nice lady at the post office to help us. We decided to walk back this time as the rain had tappered. It was brisk, but enjoyable after being couped up in the room all morning.

Now, cab - train - security - rediculously long line at PotBelly subs for lunch - and arrive at gate A10 to find out that our plane is delayed 10 min - then 40 min - then 2 hours. Chicago was having thunderstorms and had delayed plans arriving - our plan had to go to Moline, IL to get refueled and head back our way. Finally it arrived and we headed of to Minneapolis at 4:30pm. Ahhh....stale pretzels and a cup of sprite and all was well with the world......until 30 minutes before our flight was to land anyway.

As you can see ( yes Eric actually tracked our entire flight and saved our flight plan :) - We stopped and did a little sky NASCAR over southern Minnesota while MSP decided how there were going to land all their flights. Da da da....45 minutes later and one paper clip shaped flight plan path led us to a new announcement. "Ladies and Gentlemen, the weather had gotten excedingly worse in Minneapolis. They are only using one of the four runways and it is one not used very often. It looks like we are going to have to go to Moline to refuel and try again. We have about a 3 minute window to decide so we'll let you know." What, are you freaking kiding, you are going to take us back to IL to refuel - what happend to Duluth, Minot, Iowa - I just wanted off the plane. About 2 minutes later they came back on and told us that we had been cleared to land and to buckle up. Had I known how bad the wind was, I wouldn't have wanted land after all - but we made it. Not without a few prayers and tight squeeze to baby Kaden who was sleeping patiently on my lap.

Thank you Lord for safety, for the nice old man at the consulate, and for a good pilot. I'm soooooooooo glad to be home. I'm ready for bed!