Chicago

Let me catch you up a bit.

We left Saskatoon in winter weather. There was some type of complication at the airport and we ended up waiting 45 minutes to have our plane de-iced. We all slept on the plane before we even took off.

Turns out that was a pretty precious 45 plus another 15 or so in Regina waiting to be de-iced there. We also flew United which guess what - they are as great as their reputation. Jeepers, did we miss WestJet. Arrived in Chicago O'Hare late and had about an hour to get off our plane, go customs, collect our bags, check our bags again, and then book it across the airport. This involved a tram ride and a 20 minute walk/run to our gate. Arrived at our gate at 1:08 to discover that our 1:11 flight had already left. Thank you, United.

Sweaty, exhausted, and hungry (we had been up since 4 a.m. and only eaten the snacks I packed) we walked back to Customer Service. There we met United's Only Friendly Employee. Lucy was terrific. She took care of everything and got us on the 7 pm flight. She also recommended some restaurants. Lucy, we heart you.

So, we had a mere 6 hours to kill in the Chicago airport. Didn't go nearly as badly as you might think. Maddie was So Good. She ran with us for that 1pm flight, we were late but it wasn't b/c we were waiting for her. We played Uno, she played Pollys and watched shows. I managed to "sleep" for a little while.

We arrived in the wonderful heat and humidity of Jacksonville around 10:30 that night. Headed to our crazy cheap hotel ($50 a night??). The hotel was amazing - clean, comfortable, newly renovated. A pool right out our window. Perfect.