My Life on the road | Peaches Prattlings

{December 4, 2016} The joys of winter travel for work

Left Hawaii…no problem. Arrive LAX… problem.

I liked Hawaiian Airlines, it was decent, food was ok, no free entertainment, oh well, but uneventful.

I land at LAX, looking for flight information, looking for flight information, looking for flight information. Finally…United updates, flight from LAX to Chicago cancelled. Weather…snow in Illinois.

They did rebook me LAX to Houston, Houston to Chicago, ok. Only problem is that I get in to Chicago at 1130am, my next flight to St Louis leaves at 930am, um…

I called United, waited 30 minutes on hold, talked to a very snippy woman, oh goody. I need to rebook my flight to St Louis. Ok, there is a flight that leaves at 1215pm. Well, I don’t think it will give me enough time to get my bag from baggage claim and check it in. Well didn’t you tell the agent when you checked in for the first flight about your final flight? No, actually, I didn’t and I didn’t know you could do that. Yes you can, well that would be a good thing to know…

Ok, I’m booked, now I just have to get to the other terminal, is easy, just a straight shot across the parking deck. Um, not really. Through the parking deck, left, right at the stop sign, cross the road, go left, back through security, sorry, TSA pre-check is closed for the night, take everything out, but leave your shoes on.

So…here I am at LAX about to board a flight to Houston, then 2 hours later to Chicago. Get to Chicago, leave the terminal, go to baggage claim, get my bag and check it through to St Louis. If it wasn’t a 5 hour drive to St Louis, I might have done it.

Fingers crossed I make it all the way through… as long as I get there and I can teach on Tuesday, I’m golden.

Bonus…this gets me more United segments…I promoted to Premium Silver on United, gotta catch up to my beau…he just made Gold with United! He’s starting to get spoiled…go PSM!

{November 29, 2016} Nyquil is calling me…

At least a cold in the winter makes sense.

PSM got a cold towards the end of our trip and without meaning to, he shared it with me.

It didn’t really hit me until a few days after we got back, I took two Nyquil and called it a night, literally. Yesterday, I started to feel like, you-know-what so I got back to the hotel, participated in a few calls, answered some emails, ordered some soup, took two Nyquil and I’m hoping to pass out soon! Wish me luck!

G’night!

{November 29, 2016} Wait! That is not a pocket!

I love my winter coat, sadly it might be time for a new one.

It’s a long, well, knee-length for me, off-white and quilted. I got it from Eddie Bauer two winters ago after seeing The Nutcracker with the family.

It’s been a great coat for the winters in Boston, Buffalo and now Chicago, not to mention on our trip this month in Iceland, Denmark and Sweden! It’s warm, comfy-cozy and since it’s a down coat, I can use it almost like a blanket.

Sometime in the last year it developed a few small holes at the bottom, it looks like it sat against something hot and burned the holes in it. Now there are feathers coming out of it! When I sit down, feathers come flying out! I leave them everywhere!

Today, DLP and I went for a much needed mani-pedi, when I put my coat on and put my hand in my pocket, looking for something, I realized I was putting my hand through a hole in the seem of my coat, just below the pocket, what?

My exact words were “That’s not a pocket!”

Yeah, that’s about it, not a page turner of a post, just wondering where my new’pocket’ came from! Let’s go shopping?

I know it’s not white, the colors make me happy.

{November 21, 2016} Welcome home!

We’re back! I really wanted to say ‘Back in the USSR’, well, I really wanted to sing it! ha ha

We got back Sunday afternoon, picked up my bag from PSM’s Boston office, then headed to GES’ house. Our welcome was just what the doctor ordered!

I opened the door, MGS saw me, screamed my name, jumped up, ran and jumped into my arms, oh I needed that!

We caught up with GES and MGS, played games, enjoyed the fire in the fireplace, talked until ACS and EJS got home and it was more of the same, fabulous. We did that until it was time for bed.

Today, I got to get MGS on the bus, hung out with AS, ACS’ sister-in-law, then u drove EJS to school, PSM had an appointment, I made some calls, then we had breakfast at a local place with great pancakes. Back to the house to work, more phone calls and then all of a sudden it was time to pick the girls up from school.

Back home, dinner and silliness until it was time for bed. What more could you want.

Welcome home.

{November 9, 2016} Day 3…Iceland… The Blue Lagoon!

What do you do in Iceland? Lots of stuff, but today… The Blue Lagoon!

Our reservation for The Blue Lagoon was for 1pm, we got up leisurely and moved from the air bnb to hotel, I’ll tell you about the hotel later, yum!

We went to breakfast at a fun place called The Laundromat, good breakfast, fun atmosphere and decoration. And the sun peaked through! Even a rainbow on the walk back, stunning. What an amazing and beautiful city.

We got our stuff together and waited for the bus. The bus that took us to the bus station for another bus, go figure. We drove about 45 minutes to our destination.

The Blue Lagoon (Icelandic: Bláa lónið) geothermal spa is one of the most visited attractions in Iceland. The spa is located in a lava field in Grindavík on the Reykjanes Peninsula, southwestern Iceland.
We got checked in, received our towels and wristbands. The wristbands were cool, all charges would go to it, instead of having to carry money or a wallet and when you hold it over the sensor it locks and unlocks a locker in the dressing room.

We met outside changing rooms, hung up or towels and stepped into the warm water. After a bit we waded over to the bar and applied silica masks and later algae masks, smoothing the skin and supposedly make your skin look 10 years younger.

We spent a few hours enjoying the lagoon, the sauna and waterfall. Then took showers and went to dinner in a wide open room with windows looking out onto the lagoon. We dined on reindeer, celery root and poached pears.

Then it was time to head back to town, drinks and pots of tea until it was time to head to our room and plan our next adventure!

Keep you posted!

{November 6, 2016} Vacation!!! We’re going to…

Iceland!

I have been promising to tell you where for a few weeks now and now you know!

Iceland has been on our bucket lists for years and last year while we were in Nova Scotia, I asked PSM where he wanted to go for his birthday next year, his answer, without hesitation…Iceland! Done!

The only drawback, since he moved to Hawaii in January, not as easy to get to from Hawaii. We postponed our big trip to the fall, worked it with Thanksgiving, perfect!

We are on WOW Air, $99 one way, can you beat that?! and as of this moment, we have our flight there and a place to stay for the first two nights. Sounds just like us!
We have a list of suggestions from people, apps download and the travel spirit. What more do we need? Oh, and PSM started with his traditional bloody mary.

The plane is pink and flight attendants match and aren’t the seats inviting?

Keep watching, you know I’ll be posting every day our adventures! see you in a few hours!!

{November 4, 2016} Seriously? Oh Delta…

Terrific, now what?

I checked two bags, left Springfield and got on the jet plane. I’ve got two bags again, one for work and one for our trip, wasn’t sure when I’d get home again.

When I picked up my bag from the carousel, which changed and no one told us…the zipper was ripped, really? so I call Delta, they send me back into the terminal to the baggage office.

After a long back and forth, my choices are get it fixed myself and submit the receipt or send my bag in to be repaired, um, what should I use as a bag?

They ended up giving me a bag, I divided my stuff between the two bags and got a label to send the broken bag to UPS.

How/where do I turn the bag back in? I’m here for about 36 hours, then I fly back to Boston for a few hours then vacation. not coming back here until Christmas. finally said I could drop it off at a Delta counter somewhere. Ok..I wonder how long all this will take.

At least they’re doing something about it and not just saying “sorry”.

{November 4, 2016} AirBnB.. I’m in!

I booked my first air bnb for our trip!

Nope, not telling you where we’re going just yet, you’ll find out soon enough!

We were looking at hotels on different sites, including Hilton and then I got an email from Delta about air bnb, I could get sky miles, bonus, let’s check it out!

I have heard about air bnbs from a few different people, even some friends who advertise their own places as an air bnb.

I looked at a few with PSM on the phone and we discussed. We decided on one that had quite a few good reviews and we only booked for 2 nights. Let’s see how we like it and go from there.

Cross this off the list of new things to try. Who knows, maybe some day I’ll have a place I can turn into an air bnb.

Adventure awaits!

{November 1, 2016} My walk through Springfield and Happy Halloween!

I flew in from Hawaii this morning to Chicago, hung out for a few hours aa the airport, then flew to Springfield.

When I got to the hotel my room wasn’t ready so I went to Starbucks for a few hours to work and then I went in search for lunch. On my way I found some great sights, beautiful graffiti, charming of houses and stopped in a few shops and even got some Christmas and Chanukah shopping done! Springfield really is charming!

And of course, it’s Halloween and I loved seeing all the costumes I had the pleasure to get for my nieces and grandkids, such a treat! I missed being there in person but the smiles on their faces helped!

There were so many great pics of costumes on Facebook and great memes and cartoons. I thought I would share with you.

Happy Halloween!!

{October 30, 2016} My travel day…good…bad…good…good

Let’s talk about my travel day. Now, technically by the time you get this, it’s Monday, October 31st, but I left Hawaii on Sunday, so here goes.

I’m home for the weekend, first time in almost two months. That’s too long! Last night was fun, we went to one of PSM’s co-workers homes for a BBQ with his family and another co-workers family. We had to prove that I wasn’t a figment of his imagination!

Today, I realized, it may be another two months before I get home again, although I hope not! That being said… I had to pack for four weeks of work with a two week vacation planned and the holidays with the family back on the mainland.

Can my clothes overlap? How much should I take for work? for the trip? for the holidays? PSM will take some stuff back after our trip, but what will I need for Christmas and Chanukah? Normally, I can pack for work in less than 20 minutes, this process took over an hour! So not me!

Then we chilled out and then it was time to head to the airport. I think Mollie knew what was up….she followed me around a lot, it was sweet.

Flight was long. Only 7.5 hours, which isn’t that bad, but when you’re in the second seat, you can’t always get out that easily to walk around or go to the lavatory. I’m glad I remembered to make some sandwiches for the trip, there is nothing for me to eat on these flights and unless you’re in first class, they don’t feed you.

The wifi was having issues, the entertainment was having issues. The good thing…United gave us something for our troubles, 5000 miles or $100, I took the miles.

Now I’m sitting in the United Sky Lounge, which is nice. Breakfast, drinks, comfortable seats, charging sstation. This is the way to go! I’m glad I have some passes for the lounge, although, if I spent more time in the airport, meaning time before my flights, I would consider getting a membership. It’s a nice way to kill a few hours before my next flight.

There was a rainbow as I left Hawaii I thought I would share it with you and the benches are from O’Hare airport, I love walking by and seeing art like this. i hope you enjoy them too.

Can’t wait to see all the Halloween posts later today! boo

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