Finally on Our Way

It was a very busy weekend, and all of the doings associated with our stake conference made it even more hectic. We had meetings starting at 8:00 AM on Saturday morning. I was home by noon, and didn't have to go back until a dinner that we arranged for all of the stake leadership. The dinner was very nice and a good prelude to our 6:00 PM session on Saturday night. I had a talk in that one. Daniel and Rosalyn were house-hunting and visiting us, but alas they were left to their own devices much of Saturday and Sunday because of the conference.



Bubby did get this nice shot of Mr. Drewfus and we had a lot of fun seeing the kids. Daniel made us a special lemon pudding cake for dessert on Saturday night. Thanks Dan for all of the effort. It was very tasty.

On Sunday, I conducted priesthood leadership, and then we did the general session. We were all released and although I am sure it will feel weird for awhile, it is going to be good to go to Church with Bubby. It will also be nice to have a little more flexibility with Tuesday afternoons and Sundays. Of course, something new awaits. I already have to speak in Sacrament meeting on Sunday, March 15th.

After lunch with Daniel and Rosalyn and sending them on their way, we started to get ready to drive to LAS and catch a plane. I went on-line to check us in, and saw something weird, our reservations said we departed on Tuesday morning instead of 11:15 PM on Sunday. I tried calling Delta (our airline) and we got busy signals. I finally got through to Expedia, through which we booked the flights, and after much consternation on their part, it was realized that Delta had canceled our flight and re-booked us on Tuesday morning at 11:40 AM. I looked into alternatives, but of course the cost was triple what we had initially paid for our tickets. The problem was weather at JFK, I guess it was an awful snow storm.

After a conference call with Gayle, and a realization that we were not going to be able to leave until Tuesday morning, we decided to wait until Monday morning to drive down to Las Vegas. We were able to sleep in our own bed, prepare for departure in a leisurely fashion, and still left home by 10:00 AM. I did some checking and got us a room at the Mandalay Bay. That is Bubby's favorite and after lunch at the 4 Kegs and some shopping at Trader Joe's, Fry Brothers, and an oriental store, we checked-in. It must have been a quiet night for Mandalay Bay, because they offered us a half-price upgrade to a suite. We jumped at it and had a really lovely room for the night. Bubby had a jacuzzi bath.



When it came time for dinner, we headed to an old favorite, located in the Commercial Center off of east Sahara. We both had soup, mine was huge and full of noodles. Bubby's was so hot she has been suffering ever since. She ate it all anyway, though. We also shared some green papaya salad, and of course some dessert.



Bubby wanted to include this image for all of the sticky rice and mango fans we know. It was really good.



I decided to put this one in for Booty. He'll remember the coconut ice cream. They now offer it as a topping to sticky rice. It was really good, much better than what Bubby ate.



On Tuesday morning we left Mandalay Bay at about 7:30 and headed to Weiss Deli in Green Valley. We had decided that we wanted a bagel to take on the airplane, which turned out to be a very good thing. Had it not been for the bread and cheese and bagel we took with us, we would have been consigned to our "milk run" flight with little more than soda and Biscoff cookies. We also had a cheese Danish for our breakfast, in honor of Aaron's birthday. Bubby's was apricot, and she loved it.

While we were waiting to board our first flight (we flew LAS to SLC to ATL and, finally to BWI), we realized that Delta had put us in 1st Class for the first leg of the flight. This is Bubby immersing herself in the experience. Sure, it was only for a 45 minute flight, but it was absolutely wonderful. We were sorry to land. It made the other two legs seem even more crowded than they were.

When we got to Baltimore, we finally rounded up our luggage at about 11:45 PM, and then waited until 12:10 AM for the light rail to the Inner Harbor. We got off at Camden Yard, very nervous to be wandering downtown Baltimore (the panhandling capitol of the world as far as I can tell) that late at night. Luckily it was too cold for the homeless and we were able to walk directly to our hotel and were in bed by 1:00 AM.

We had missed most of our conference,through no fault of ours, so we don't feel too bad. There is lots more to tell, but we will do it in the morning. We are headed into Williamsburg for a grocery run.

Buboppy