I started writing this post last Monday and never got finished. Now it's 6:45 AM in Seattle as we sit waiting for our 9:30 AM flight to Chicago. Yippee! Our vacation has begun! The weather has been iffy all week; we heard horror stories about flights being cancelled on Tuesday and Wednesday and many of those passengers were still waiting on Friday. Thankfully we had a nice pretty day and were holding confirmed tickets when we showed up yesterday evening. We waited in line at Pen Air for an hour--that tells you just how busy they were! We usually don't have much of a wait, if any. Then the plane even left on time--now that's unusual! Arriving in Anchorage at 8:30 PM, we had plenty of time for dinner and then just had to sit around and wait for our flight to Seattle at 12:30 AM. The good thing about an overnight flight is that we don't have to pay for a hotel. The bad thing about an overnight flight is that it's not very easy to sleep sitting up in a packed plane (especially if you are stuck in the middle seat, like me). I brought my slippers and a blanket so got as cozy as I could but still didn't rest much. I got to try out my new Kindle (and it gets a nod of approval) and listened to the ipod while dozing intermittently. We arrived in Seattle at almost 5 AM local time (one hour time change), had to retrieve our bags, get our boarding passes, recheck our bags, go back through security, and here we are. While in Anchorage, we pricelined a room in Chicago and got a great deal on the Intercontinental downtown. We love priceline! We just reserved the first night and will do the rest when we get there. We are excited to be traveling again and can't wait to see everyone in Texas in a few more days! Also hoping that baby Emery will wait till we get there before making her entrance into the world.
Okay, so here's the rest of the post from a few days ago:
Last weekend basically revolved around eating. Friday night we went to Anne and Jeanette's for an Ethiopian potluck. We had never eaten nor cooked Ethiopian food before but after doing some research, Rich stepped up to the stove and made some chickpea fritters with a berbere sauce, meeting with the group's approval. We also had injera (flat bread), honey bread, two versions of wat (stew), several veggie dishes and salad. It was all delicious and a very nice evening with lots of conversation and laughs.
We went to dinner at the Chart Room on Saturday night, since Rich needs to do some quality assurance from time to time :) and I am lucky enough to get to tag along. We made a meal of yummy appetizers and small plates and I even liked the scallop appetizer, which is not typically my favorite thing. We topped it all off with dessert and I just have one thing to say: pumpkin creme brulee. A delicious nod to the holidays. I think Rich is going to make some for our Thanksgiving dinner in Texas, too.
Sunday night, we had an early Thanksgiving potluck with friends and a rousing discussion of the classic book Heart of Darkness. Several years ago, we saw a recipe for a sweet potato-banana casserole with a pecan streusel topping and had never made it so I decided this was the perfect opportunity. I spent a good bit of the day working on it and it turned out pretty well, although the banana taste almost overwhelms the sweet potatoes. Again, more good food at the potluck. No wonder we haven't lost a pound before vacation.
Some of you might remember that Rich and I met a woman named Anne on a plane leaving Denver after the Democratic National Convention. She was traveling with some teens and we struck up a conversation about their work filming a movie called "Papers." It is about undocumented teens in the US and what happens to them when they reach the age of 18 : considered "illegal aliens" even though most of them arrived here as babies or small children and have no memory of nor experience with the country of their birth. We just found out that the film is finished and I saw Anne and one of the kids on CNN being interviewed by Rick Sanchez. How cool is that? "Papers" is being screened around the country by various sponsoring organizations. I am hoping we can bring it to Unalaska after the first of the year. Look here http://www.papersthemovie.com/ for more info and to sign up for a screening.
All righty, stay tuned for more vacation posts. Have a good weekend, everyone!
3 comments:
Glad you finally made it down South. Hope you don't freeze in Chicago...haha! The documentary on "Papers" is very thought provoking. What can they do? Can they apply for citizenship on their own? Wow! How horrible to be in that predicament. The showing in NJ is this coming week. I'm not even sure where Pompton Lakes is but I would like to see it.
I checked on the location and unfortunately, it's near Patterson in the northern part of the state. However, I did forward their site to others on my address list.
Hope you're having a good time!
Too bad it was not showing nearby. You can keep an eye on their website and maybe someone else closer to you will sponsor a showing. I am not sure what recourse they have--I will have to read more or see the film to find out!
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