Can't Believe We Are Back to Normal Living!

It was an amazing trip, but now reality has struck.

But before I end this blog, we'd like to share some thoughts, statistics and memories.

 

We were gone 19 days. Longest vacation of my life.

We slept in 12 different beds.

We rented 5 cars.

We flew for 36.3 hours.

We traveled 6,500 air miles.

Rick took 256 pictures.

Karen took 1179 pictures.

Karen lost 164 pictures. These are unopenable. Additional pictures just disappeared totally.

19 video clips were taken.

Cost of trip - worth every penny!

 

What Karen misses most: Private flying. A car or golf cart met you at the plane. There were no body searches or bag searches. Not only were all the airport workers friendly, they also gave you treats on your arrival!

What Rick misses the most: Flying! With me as his private stewardess. :) You can tell I added that.

 

Not missed: For Karen, Rocky Mountain Flying!!!! Too bad John Denver.

                    For Rick, traffic on the ground.

 

Best Hamburger: Rotier's Restaurant in Nashville, Tennessee

Best BBQ: Mesquite BBQ in Mesquite,Texas

Best Pizza: Homemade at Amy and Dave's

Best Salad: Holiday Inn, Rapid City, South Dakota. Can you believe that???

Best Drink: made with Hangar One Vodka. Thank you, Manny.

Best City: Chicago

Best Restaurant: Iorio in Portland, Oregon. Better than Italian food in Italy.

Best Site on the Ground: Antelope Canyon, Arizona

Best Site from the Air: Monument Valley, Arizona

Best Moment: Two older gentlemen pilots in Mesquite, Texas thought Rick was "Sully" Sullenberger! And they didn't believe him when he said he wasn't!

 

Trips are good when you take them one day at a time. And we enjoyed every day.

 

Thank you all for reading my blog, for your comments, and for sharing our journey with us.

Karen

 

Home Sweet Home!!

We did it! Arrived back at Hanover Airport at 12:05 pm, after a 3 hour and 5 minute flight from Chicago!  Rick said we were going 218 mph we had such a great tail wind. You can't tell when you are in the plane, at least I couldn't, except for the fact we were home in record time.

The pictures are pretty obvious, from landing to turning off the engine. I look back at that Christmas morning when I gave Rick the "unleashed" tshirts and told him I'd go with him. I had much trepidation, but decided I just couldn't let him go alone. As you can tell from my blog, it turned out to be the most spectacular, fun, exciting and beautiful trip ever!  A truly once in a lifetime, unforgettable adventure. Thank you, Rick.

Now strange as it may seem, when we got home he gave ME a rose for each day of our trip, in multi-colors!!

Check this blog one more time to hear the statistics, what we learned, best-ofs, etc.

Lollapalooza

Chicago was filled with Lollapalooza people today - those who like punk, rap, etc. We were not one of those. Instead we walked along the waterfront admiring the sailboats and the prettiest skyline we have seen on our trip. However, despite not paying the $280 for Lollapalooza, we could hear the music everywhere we went!

There was so much to see in just one day, we went back to my favorite mode of travel - yes, the segway - for a city tour. Well, the city from a distance, and Millenium Park and Grant Park from across the street since the music was there. But what a tour! We were supposed to be gone for 2 hours, but our guide took us for nearly 3 hours. It was so fun!  We may not have learned so much, but we were kept totally entertained from seeing arrests of drinkers to 100s of young kids crashing the gates to the park in one big mob. And we lucked out by getting back just as a huge thunderstorm hit the city.

This morning we saw another side of Chicago by stopping in a neighborhood breakfast place - Bialy's. It was like going back in time to small town America, where everyone knows each other. I could live in Chicago. But I'm happy to be going home to Richmond tomorrow.

Chicago!!

A really short flight brought us to Chicago - a new city for us to explore! Each city really has its own personality and we like this one.
We went to see the musical "Million Dollar Quartet" (thank you Manny and Sharon for the great recommendation) at the Apollo theatre in the Lincoln Park area. What a perfectly lovely area - unique old buildings, wide streets, lots of neat stores and restaurants,  and little parks here and there. I don't know how I'd feel about it in the winter, though.
I didn't want to leave Chicago without having real deep dish Chicago pizza.  We went to Gino's East - OMG what a huge place- the line was inside and out maybe 1/2 block long! But the wait wasn't that long and just seeing the place was worth it.  Filled with graffiti. Too bad I didn't have a marker with me. We got the smallest pizza, but one piece did us each in!
Tomorrow we'll explore more and eat less!

What Do You Do in Minneapolis?

That's right- you go to Mall of America! You would never think the stock market was falling if you saw the crowds of people here. It was like our malls at Christmas.
Not only is there the compact amusement park in the center of the mall, there is also an aquarium under the mall.
I thought the coolest thing was the ropes course. People were literally walking on tightropes. You know I'm a chicken so I wasn't in that photo!

My Pilot

Rick has been so good teaching me about flying and making it interesting, since, as most of you know, it is not my passion. Here is his latest tidbit.
When you are flying VFR (visual flight regulations), as you fly east you must fly at an odd altitude level plus 500, for example 11,500. Going west, you fly at an even altitude plus 500, say 12,500.
When you fly IFR (instrument flight regulations), as we did today, it is odd altitudes going east and even going west; no 500 added. So we were at 9,000 flying today.
I am sure you can see the value in these rules. And while you are flying, the controllers let you know if your plane is even 200 feet off. That has never been us, but we hear it on the radio with others.
Lesson over!

Clouds

Aren't these gorgeous?! These puffy clouds were right under the plane so we really couldn't see the flat ground. What a trade-off, huh? And believe it or not, it was like riding on a cushion!