Fun things I did while in the US

The first weekend I was home was the annual hot air balloon race in Maysville. I've never been there for it before so it was kind of cool to see them all take off and then cover the sky. It was also cool to get the first milkshake I've had in at least 10 years while watching them light up the next night! YUMMMM!
The next week, I went to TN and got to spend time with my sister, her kidlets, and my mother and her new husband. Well, he's new to me. They've been married almost a year now. I just hadn't been home since then. =) We did lots of shopping and, to keep Eli from going crazy from too much girlie stuff, we went to Ripley's Aquarium in the Smokies in Gatlinburg. Fun times.
The last week...after the other last week...long story...Sis, the kids, and I went to Chicago for a few days! I think this may have been the best part of the whole trip. If I had left when I was supposed to, I would have come back thinking that I did not get to spend enough time with them. It was an extra special blessing from God to stay longer.

The long story...
Before I left Spain I tried to change my return flight to come back later. (The whole month of August is vacation for all of Spain and no one is around. Everyone heads to their beach house and the city is like a ghost town.) I spent 45 minutes on the phone with Orbitz and ended up being told I could come back a week later for $2000!!! NO way. So while I was in America I called British Airways several times but could never get a human on the line and the recording kept telling me I could not change a ticket purchased from a site like Orbitz. I gave up. However, the day I left I had lunch with a friend that I had not seen in 20 years. Thomas and I were good friends in h.s. but had been out of touch until recently on Facebook. Sis and I had lunch with him at the airport in Cinci where he works for Continental Airlines. While having lunch Sis mentioned again that I should try to change my ticket when I got to the British Airways counter in Chicago. I said that would be silly since I would then be stuck in Chicago. Thomas immediately said that he would fly me back on a "buddy pass" if I got it changed. I wasn't sure how serious he was and didn't think it would work anyway so I said my goodbyes and got on the plane to Chicago. When I got there I had to go to the BA counter to check in and I asked the lady, half-heartedly, if she thought it would be possible to change my flights back. She checked, made a few phone calls, broke a few rules, swore me to secrecy, and 30 minutes later, I was standing in Chicago wondering just how serious Thomas had been. I called and he started working his magic. I flew to Newark that night, had an eventful/bad night there, and flew back to Cinci the next morning. Sis picked me up and took me back to Somerset!

Thanks, Monica, for driving the 12 hours to drop me off and then pick me up again!
Thanks, Thomas, for giving me an extra week with my fam!
Thanks, nameless lady at BA, for working it all out for me!
Thanks, God, for being so fun!

When we got back I started looking for tickets to Chicago since I had wasted my Cinci-Chicago ticket already. Monica and I got to talking and decided that a road trip was in order. We spent the next couple of days booking hotels, tickets to stuff, etc, and off we went to Chicago. Such good times!