Sunday, January 13, 2008

Back Home

It is a wonderful feeling to walk back into your home after being away for any extended period of time.

We checked out of our room at 11 am on Wednesday and had quite a bit of time before we had to leave for the airport. We checked our bags with the bell captain and went for a walk. We hit the International Marketplace and I finally found a few pieces of jewelery that I wanted. We still had lots of time to kill, so we took a cab to the Ala Moana mall and went to Barnes and Noble. During all of our wanderings in the downtown area, we couldn't find a book store and we were both craving some reading material. I found a couple of books and Charley found some Stephen King that he hadn't read. We decided to have lunch at the mall, so we went to Ruby Tuesdays. I had my last pieces of fresh pineapple with my salad bar order and we both enjoyed a fresh pomegranate lemonade - so tasty! We headed back to the Marriott and read for a while to pass the afternoon. Before our shuttle to airport came, we decided to get some ice cream, so we headed to the Coldstone Creamery around the corner of the hotel. The diet starts up again when we get back!

We left Hawaii at 9:30 Wednesday night and arrived in LA around 5 am. We arrived at our hotel, a stone's throw from LAX, around 5:45 am. Charley went to bed almost immediately because he had a meeting at 8:30 am and would have to get up by 7:15 to get ready, grab a cab, and arrive at the school in time for the meeting. He didn't sleep much on the plane and he had to be fresh for his meeting. I stayed awake for a while - I was kind of wired from all of the travelling. I ironed his shirt for the meeting, read the newspaper, and ordered some room service. Our food arrived at 7:20 and we enjoyed a deliciously expensive meal of pancakes and hash browns. Charley got himself showered and dressed and as he was about to head out the door, he realized that he didn't have his cell phone. We are fairly certain that he lost it on the shuttle from the airport to the hotel, but sadly, it is probably gone forever. Charley went to his meeting and I went to bed. I slept for a glorious 5 hours.

Charley's meeting went really well. This meeting was for his job at the LBC, which officially begins in May. He was meeting with a school that is interested in Artful Learning, and I am really proud to say that the meeting went really well. The school is likely going to sign a 3-year contract, which is more than was expected when he went into the meeting. Needless to say, Charley was completely exhausted when he got back, so he went right to sleep. That evening we ordered Chinese food and just chilled out in our room. We both slept well, though probably not long enough!

On Friday morning, we got up early and had to make our 9:15 plane from LAX to BWI. The flight was good and I'm really happy to say that all of our flights went well on this trip. There weren't any delays. We didn't lose any luggage. And even though our last flight was in the regular seating area on the plane (we couldn't upgrade to get those extra 6 inches of legroom this time), the trip was comfortable, and went by pretty quickly. We got into Baltimore at 4:55pm and were worried about Friday night rush hour traffic. I drove and I'm happy to report that we didn't hit a bit of traffic! There were lots of cars on the road, but there weren't any accidents and we flowed along quite well! We stopped for a quick bite to eat, since we don't have any food at home! And we were walking in our door at 7:20 pm.

We were so happy to be home. And our kitties seemed quite pleased to see us too - well, as please as cats can seem anyway! We unpacked and spent some time snuggling with Ulysses. Shiloh took a while to come out, but since she finally did, she has usually been in my lap or Charley's. I have had to contort my body to accommodate the cats sleeping on our bed for the last 2 nights. I don't mind though - I'm just happy to be home!

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