Greetings From Chicago!

Let me just say that our honeymoon trip to Ireland.....hasn't gotten off to a good start.  Yet.  I'm hoping we can turn this around or at least make some good stories out of it.  Currently, it's too soon to say.

We arrived at the airport at 8:00am, grabbed coffee with Adam's parents, and were through security by 9:00.  Our flight was scheduled to leave at 10:21, so I had time to buy a new book and eat my pre-flight bagel.  We had not been seated at our gate for very long when the girl at the United Airlines desk broke the bad news:  the plane we were to board for Chicago had been delayed, and there was no way of knowing for how long. Turns out, there was a mechanical problem shortly after the plane took off from the Chicago terminal, and they were forced to turn around.  Not what we wanted to hear.....

Stephanie was the United Airlines representative at our gate, and she was doing her very best to get passengers accommodated on other flights.  Those of you who have flown in and out of Little Rock know that this airport is so tiny--there's only one United Airlines gate. We stood in line at the desk for an hour and a half! The next available flight?  6:30pm.  We were supposed to make a connecting flight in Chicago before departing Newark at 7:30 for Shannon Airport.  Stephanie was able to get us on an American Airlines flight that put us in Chicago by 5:30, but we had to reschedule our other flights. We found United Airways representative when we landed, but it took us a while to get to the correct terminal. This airport is huge!
The worst part?  United only has ONE flight departing for Shannon each day, so we'll have to wait until tomorrow evening before we depart for Ireland.  

It looks like we'll be staying in Chicago tonight. United has put us up in the Hilton and gave us vouchers for dinner and breakfast. We depart Chicago at 3pm tomorrow and leave Newark at 7:30pm. This will put us in Ireland at 7:00am on Day 2 of our scheduled tour.   The problem with this is that our guided tour will be leaving Limerick (our first stop on the tour) that morning for the next city on our itinerary. And the likelihood of us making it through the airport and on the bus before they leave.....isn't looking good.  We might be renting a car to catch up with our tour group....did you know that they drive on the wrong side of the road in Ireland?!? I'm thinking Adam and I will have to flip a coin to see who has to brave the left side of the road. Say a little prayer for us please!

We are off to dinner now. I'm hoping for some Chicago-style pizza! (Trying to stay positive about all of this!)

We also have "Flat Michael" with us on this trip. I'll have to give y'all the story in that too!