S. Worthen | Weblog

I had such a good trip to visit my relatives this weekend that it made up for all the drawbacks in getting there in the first place. Two flights aren't normally this complicated, but thunderstorms in Chicago delayed our Thursday night flight by three hours. We weren't rerouted because our connecting flight was delayed too - but by the time we arrived in Chicago, it was cancelled, and they could only rebook us from Chicago the following evening. I wasn't going to waste twenty-four hours in Chicago when that's not where I wanted to be this weekend. Instead, they rerouted us onto a two-hour-delayed flight to Dallas, where we arrived at 1:30 in the morning. We had four hours for sleep, resulting in what is probably the highest-per-hour rate I've ever paid for a hotel room. The flight in to our destination left early, and arrived on time, although without luggage, which they promised would be delivered later that day. It wasn't, and, after a second night with no change of clothing available, we were desperately glad to find it had arrived in the early morning on Saturday. Happily, the trip home was uneventful.

Arkansas has spring with a vengeance, after Toronto, where there are snowdrops finally in bloom. The daffodil crop was past its peak, but there were pear trees and so many other plants in glorious bloom. We ate so many good meals, duck, monkeybread, pies, muffins, strawberries, and one of the best sandwiches I've ever had, at a place called Charlotte's. I caught up with relatives I hadn't seen in a long time, and with their cats. I saw some beautiful landscaping jobs, some in progress, some complete. I saw frogs and I saw an otter (or maybe it was a mink - I'm not sure). The weather was beautiful, pleasantly mild, somewhat humid, and everywhere we went, we ran into friends. It was a good trip.