Holiday Travel

My husband and I recently returned from traveling to WV, PA, and DC. We decided it would be a great Christmas present to his nieces to take them to DC for a couple of days. So, we flew into to the Philadelphia airport, picked up our rental minivan, drove to Buckhannon, West Virginia (5 hours) stayed overnight in a hotel.

Uh Huh, they do have hotels in Buckhannon. A very nice one as a matter of fact. The Bicentennial. If anyone gets out that way, that's my recommendation.

We picked up the girls the next morning from my husband's sister's house. After finding it.

Thank God for GPS and Google Maps. She has no address. Nope. None. Just lives on this little one lane road in the middle on nowhere.

We drove to Washington, DC (5 and 1/2 hours later). Thank goodness for a laptop computer and a movie. It kept the girls occupied.

The first day of our tour we saw the National Archives and the American Indian Museum.

In the rain.

Cold rain. And wind. Oh yeah. Wind and cold rain.

Of course none of us had umbrellas. But, I don't think it would have done any good anyway. But, I digress. The next day we parked at Union Station and walked from there to the Lincoln Memorial and back and saw everything we could in between before traveling back to WV. (Another 5 1/2 miles)

By then it was snowing. And snowing. And, we're from Florida remember? We're talking 20 degrees and under.. Brrrrrr.

We got back to Buckhannon, dropped off our nieces, checked into our hotel again, burrowed ourselves into the covers and blasted the heater.

Ahh, family time.... two days spent with my in-laws. (I plead the fifth here).

Then, it's time to travel back to Philadelphia to catch our plane back to Tampa, Florida.

Easy peasy, right?

NOT!

First, we get there early, because, well, I'm an OCD, and have panic attacks and anxiety, and my hubby can't deny me when I get that way, so we get their early. About 4 hours early.

Then we wait.

He keeps himself occupied with his computer. I walk.

Then, we find out our flight's been delayed.

So, we wait some more.

He pulls out his computer again; I get antsy.

Then, you guessed it, our flight is delayed again.

NO!!!!

By this time, hubby is deep into his computer, and I'm tapping my toes and trying to do a puzzle while eating a turkey sandwich, because now I've missed dinner.

Finally, the plane arrives. They're excuse: Holiday Travel.

Okay. From December 10th to the 15th, they had excessive holiday travel. Hmmm.. Sorry folks, but if that's the case, I really feel for those of you who are traveling right through the holiday.

So, back to the story. We make our connection some how in Atlanta because, low and behold, our plane is late. Imagine that!!??!!

Eventually, we make it back to Tampa, tired and beat.. several hours late.

But, what didn't arrive??? Our luggage!!

After all that, our luggage never made it on the plane!!!

But we were so glad to be home. And, the airlines were confident they would find our luggage and deliver it the next day. (Miracle upon miracle, they did just that!)

And we woke up to 80 degree weather. Can't get better than that.

Here's an article titled 12 Secrets to Surviving Holiday Travel for tips to help you get through your holiday traveling.