There are silver linings

 Even though my flight was messed up I did get a free night at a lovely hotel.  Even though my dinner voucher ($12) clearly stated that it was not to be used for alcohol the hotel desk clerk must have felt sorry for me.  He gave me the wine and cheese and entered it as food. I had a good night's sleep.  Even though they forgot to enter the request for the 5 am shuttle to the airport, the shuttle driver was ready for me earlier.  I zipped through security.  I went to use my second meal voucher  ($12) for my breakfast and coffee, she told me to save the coupon and she gave me my coffee and scone for free. I don't know where I can spend $12 before tomorrow night. ;-) Even though my suitcase was not at the airport, they will deliver it to my door and give me $50.   Because I came in in the morning I had an easier time finding my car in the lot. W1 is not right next to W2.  Traffic was light driving home.  So I made it home safe and sound and in plenty of time to get ready for the 10 am wedding.

Just a few pictures from the plane.  Since I did not have a window seat it was hard to get some of the pictures.  

Thursday was quite a day!!

 We woke up to rain and thunderstorms.  We had a leisurely morning.

United States theme

  Everyone ate at different times.  Around 10:30 am we finally had a plan.    We would go over to the Lakeside Inn because they have a beach access. The rain had stopped by then. They let us park in the Inn parking lot because they were not too busy.  

So we took George and Nathan over and then went back for Robbie and Ice. We picked up Dorothy on our way.  

Lakeside Inn

134 steps down to the beach

The rest of the gang were down at the beach setting up a beach tent.  

It was a nice beach.

The guys.

I was starting to get nervous about my flight, having lunch and getting to the airport

 We headed back to the house to fix a lunch.  By then everyone was leaving so we packed up and took our lunches over to Dorothy & Ed's place to eat.  It was a nice lunch of leftovers, and stuff ordered from the expensive fish store.  Nathan made guacamole.  yummy.  I had gotten a message that my flight had been delayed.  That made me more nervous so we headed out.  It was a 2 hour drive to the airport.  Unfortunately, Jeanne left her purse behind.  We did not realize it until later, much later.  The flight from O'hare was delayed but the flight from Seattle was also delayed so I was not worried. Jeanne dropped me off.  Then, I found out that my flight was delayed even more  A LOT more.  I went to a ticket agent and started the process of dealing with the problem.  A lot of calls and conversations later.  I got my flight changed from O'hare to Seattle to Pdx to O'hare to  Boise to Portland.  Instead of getting in at 10:45 pm it was to get in at 8:40 pm.  I was happy.  But then the flight was delayed due to weather.  Arth.  Instead of leaving at 4:04 pm we left at 5:55 pm. 

O'Hare airport.  We taxied forever

flight shots.

At this point I realized that I would miss my flight to Portland.  WHAT TO DO!!!  Luckily, I could do WhatsApp and look on the internet with my phone.  George helped me out.    We decided to wait until I landed to try to get an alternate flight.  It was a 3 hour flight but they had no beverage service.  There was some problem. with the carts  No food or beverage only water So I was hungry on top of everything else.. My connecting flight took off just as we were landing.  Everyone was very nice.  I was one of the first people off of the plane.   I felt a little guilty abot that since I knew that my flight ahd taken off.  i went to the ticket agent right away.  Eli was very helpful.  He arranged a hotel, 2 meal vouchers,  and booked my flight to Portland at 6 am tomorrow.  I had accidently left my sweater on the plane.  The guy I sat beside brought it out to me.  He saw that I was at the ticket counter.  Every one has been so nice.

From Boise Airport

The shuttle came to pick me up.  I thought that I was to be in an airport hotel.  But that did not happen.  I am 10 min away.  It is a very nice suite.  The guy at the dest was very nice.  I had a $12 meal voucher that was not good for alcohol.  Since it was so late and nothing was open. The desk clerk let me have a bottle of wine and some cheese and entered it as a meal. 

View from the window

dinner

After dinner

The TV was personalized but I could not figure out how to use it.

Nice room. 

Luckily we had our pet care person coming tonight. I did not have to worry about the pets.   Hopefully I will find my luggage at the Portland airport in the morning.  Also I hope that Jeanne gets her purse back.  I think that they are mailing it to her priority mail. 

It was fun seeing all of the Singers.  But the visit was way too short.  

Wednesday - Chicago to Lakeside

 We had breakfast in the hotel.  Robbie was working in the morning and Martin had to get his cat to the place where Tiger would stay for the weekend. We decided to head on out to Lakeside.  We made a few stops along the way.

Indiana Dunes Riverwalk

Redwing Blackbird

Riverwalk

See the bee?

We drove on the Indiana Dunes Visitor's Center.  We got some information of things to do in the area.

Buffalo

Hand painted mural

Welcome to Michigan

By now I was getting pretty hungry. 

We stopped in New Buffalo at the Stray Dog restaurant. Nathan picked it.  It had good reviews.  It was obviously a popular place.  It was nearly 2 pm and there still was a long line of people waiting to get seated. We had to wait about 1/2 hour to be seated.  The food was very good.  Nathan bought some deep fried cheese curds.  I had a few of them.  I had a delicious veggie burger, Jeanne had fish tacos, George had a rice bowl and Nathan had a fake chicken sandwich.

It was a very good choice.  Not only did it have great food but it had a lot of fun dog photos and themed items.

From there we drove to our AirBnB.  

It is a very nice 4 bedroom, 2 1/2 bathroom house.  Jeanne got the basement.  It has been converted into a bedroom.  Robbie and Ice got here about an hour later.  They got the master bedroom, since they would be here the whole time.  Jeanne and I would be leaving on Thursday.

 

We hung around, played some games, and generally waited until the rest of the group arrived.  Once Dorothy and Ed arrived we walked over to their place.  They have a nice house, too.  Ours has a little larger dining area. We picked up the rice cooker, since Ice was fixing dinner.  

Ice

Ice went all out with a Thai meal of toasted tofu, tofu vegetable curry, vegetable stir-fry and steak. Something for everyone.  We were eating by 8 pm. Martin arrived in time for dinner.  George S, Valerie, Kallie and Amelia arrived while we were eating.  

Ice and Robbie

Ed, Dorothy and Nathan

George S with Amelia

Robbie and Martin

Ed, Ice, Robbie Martin, George, and Jeanne.

Valerie, George S, Amelia and Kallie in the playroom porch.  Kallie is 14 and is Valerie's daughter.  She is great with Amelia.

Dorothy brought over 2 blueberry pies.  Robbie had gone out to buy ice cream.  This is all that was left.

It was delicious

When everyone was done eating George S and his gang finally sat down to eat.  They had had lunch even later than we did. So they were not very hungry.

Amelia and George S 

Amelia, George S, Kallie and Valerie

Everyone watching Amelia.  ;-)  

They played Jenga for a while.  Dorothy, Ed and Martin were the first to leave.  Martin was staying at Dorothy and Ed's place.  George S and gang were staying at the Lakeside Inn.  Once they left Robbie and Nathan set up their computers to play some computer game.  The rest of us just relaxed.  We spent a lot of time talking about Thursday morning's plan. Everyone wanted to go to the lake.  The Lakeside Inn has its own beach access but there is no public parking.  George S can park there.  

We had come up with a convoluted plan of a way to get everyone to the beach but not have anyone (except George S) park there.  We will see how it works out. The weather prediction is thunderstorms and rain for early in the morning.