Its the 4th of July 2014 Adventure!

Its the 4th of July 2014 and in order to avoid having to put our friends and

neighbors out (they are wonderful people and they would have invited us to come and visit them out of the kindness of their hearts and its really a family time of celebration) Keith and I decided to check out our bucket list and choose a destination for our little adventure and our own Independence :).

Chicago, Illinois won! If anyone remembers from their childhood a great kiddies TV program called "Big Blue Marble In Space" it featured the Great Lakes in one episode and I thought that would be just the best adventure to go on. I have harbored that memory for 45 a long time :) Chicago is decidedly cooler than the heat of Charlotte NC and so that is our wonderful destination this holiday week end.

Now Buddy (My 4 legged child :) ) had to go and stay in the doggie hotel (kennel) ! He hates leaving the comfort of home to stay in a hotel, unlike his mother who thrives on that! Anyway its always easy to get him to the kennels, because he thinks he is going for a ride in the car and then when we get there, he thinks he is going for a walk 'til

Buddy

we get about 10 foot from the door and the brakes go on! Of course I have learnt to circumvent that, I rub Pup Peroni all over the outside of the bag then drop it down in front of his nose and he follows anyone who holds the bag! hee hee hee hee. Anyway Keith keeps telling him that he is going to doggie jail! Its a good thing Buddy is deaf - imagine my little sugar plumb fairy hearing those evil words!

Now I chose the cheapest possible route, but i like Champagne with my beer money! We had USAirways dividend air miles from our US Airways Mastercards, our 1st bags are checked free (Yippee) and the flights there and back for Keith and I charged in at $20 each!! Then I went onto Priceline and got a great hotel at a fair price and I will add that hotel in after I arrive and have checked in because I would hate someone to cancel my booking or something funny! Did I mention that our hotel is a 7 block walk from the metro stop in Chicago and I would have to carry my own suitcase, so I decided to travel light! I packed everything: 5 outfits, shoes and my toiletry bag in an overnight suitcase (and I even ironed a shirt to take with.. I'm wondering why I did that?..) anyway, I insisted on taking my "Estee Lauder Beautiful" perfume with me and as it is a large bottle, we had to check our luggage in not take it on as hand luggage... This is be a part of my story later on, so remember this piece :)

Charlotte NC Today

We booked the earliest flight, and because of that we had a 4.00am wake up, (yawn) and arrived to an airport full of weary travellers, due to Hurricane Arthur who has reeked havoc along the west coast. You wouldn't really believe it, its a crazy hot day and not even a breeze here in Charlotte.. Anyway our flight cancelled.. and so the adventure begins again! We are now on our way to Raleigh NC to catch our next flight along the way!

Did I mention that our flight was cancelled because they couldn't find a pilot!!!! (we had to get up at 4am.. what was that pilot thinking?) LOL anyway good thing Keith and I have on our floral shirts (Hawaiian style) and we speak funny and cannot speak to the automated services (they don't understand even our best American accent) we are eventually assisted by a weary (wary too ha ha) travel agent who was happy that we are laughing and jovial, and gets us rebooked via via via and we are due to arrive in time for the 4th July fireworks in Chicago!!! It certainly beats flying through the fireworks I'm told!! So the first leg of a wonderful adventure begins... I LOVE travelling!

Ok so that piece of evidence earlier about the Estee Lauder Perfume.. well we could have gotten on an earlier flight if we did not check our luggage in, but they had to find our luggage which wasn't attached to our booking (why not?) before we could be rerouted... Keith of course has reminded me that 3 4 5 x already and I had to be very strong about telling him how important beautiful perfume is to me.. A girls got to do what a girls got to do.. :)

And now you are probably wondering why I have put links into my blog? Well I'm hoping that one day, somebody will notice it and pay me to write about these wonderful adventures. I'm just putting it out there.. U-n-i-v-e-r-s-e.. did you hear me? *grin*