Last night was the business meeting for the group and our opportunity to present the power point presentation for the 2007 reunion in Palm Springs that Bob and I will be coordinating. As you know anything that can go wrong around computers usually happens at the worst times. Fortunately ours were all worked out about ten minutes before the meeting began and I do believe, we managed to look calm and enthusiastic for our production. Lots of compliments and intentions to come to California for the next reunion, so we are feeling very optimistic about our plans for next year.

We woke early to have breakfast before our tour bus left at 8:30 AM and then headed out with the group to visit Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry. So many wonderful exhibits and so little time to really spend at them. Since our group is known as The Ancient Mariners, a must see on our list was the U505 exhibit. It was an unbelievable history lesson seeing this U-boat with men whose military careers began during the Second World War.

From the museum, we drove to a Greek area of the city and a delightful restaurant for lunch. The lunch was more like a marathon of courses. It began with flaming goat cheese and ended two hours later with Baklava. We didn’t walk back to the buses. We rolled.

Our next and final stop for the tour was the John Hancock building where we rode an express elevator to the 94th floor for a breathtaking view of the Chicago skyline.

So it is early evening and we are back at the hotel. Bob and I have decided to skip dinner, rest, and get ready for tomorrow morning’s early rising. We are off on our second day of touring. Too tired tonight to download photos, but I will put them in an album and post it when we get home and I have more time.

Oh, I thought I was so funny yesterday, when I said we were flying out of our little airport and it was only a “hop, skip, and a bump” to Los Angeles. Clever, clever. . . no way, the aviation gods were listening and not to be undone. They rolled around on their heavenly clouds , laughing and holding their fat tummies saying, “So she thinks that is clever. Wait until she hears that we thought she said, “dump not bump!”

You got it. The noon time flight was dumped because of a conflict over the use of a military flying corridor near and around Edwards Air Force Base. We waited until 6 PM for our flight to be cleared for take-off and then spent the next 5 hours in L.A. waiting for a red-eye to Chicago. We arrived in Chicago around 6 AM Chicago time. We spent a total of 16 hours in airports and airplanes. It was time enough to read a good novel and still get in some good nap time.

On arriving at our hotel, we were given the room from hell. It was next to the elevator. It was smaller than a postage stamp. It had double beds and worse yet, it was a smoker’s room. We had called ahead and told them we would be very late and would probably arrive very early morning and to hold our room for us as we would want to catch some immediate shut-eye. The receptionist told us that would be no problem.

When we realized that the room was not the non-smoker, king-sized bed, luxury room that we had reserved, Bob was immediately back at the desk requesting a different room. No manager was on duty, and the young lady said she had given us the last room. We went back to the postage stamp, listened to the ping of the elevator, and breathed in stale cigarette smoke for the next four hours until we could confer with a manager.

I honed up my negotiating skills, calmed myself, looked for a win-win situation and we met with the Manager, a young man named Rod. He listened, explained, and said it was Wyndham’s problem caused by a lack of communication between personnel and a crashed computer. (Crashed computers are wonderful whipping boys for any problem anywhere.) The long and short of it. . . he upgraded us to an elegant suite at the same price as our original room. So here we sit in the lap of luxury enjoying a panoramic view of Chicago and thanking the hotel gods for our good fortune after a shaky beginning.

As to the aviation gods, well, we will give them another opportunity to make up for their practical joke on our trip back. BTW, I don’t hold out hope for any penance on their part. Right now, Bob is patiently waiting for me to finish this post and get dressed for the Hospitality Hour and the Orientation meeting. THE REUNION BEGINS!

Our bags are packed! Our house sitter arrives this evening. Directions and food for the critter”s days without us is ready and waiting. We leave our little airport at noon for a hop, skip, and bump (truly that is what it feels like) to Los Angeles and a three hour wait before our flight to Chicago. We get into the Windy City around ten in the evening (a late hour for me as I like to be in bed and reading by 9PM).

This is a Midshipmen reunion and if it is as much fun as the Vermont reunion of 2005, it will be wonderful. The reunion is for three days and then we will spend another four days exploring Chicago on our own before heading home.

Bob is the Reunion Chairman for the 2007 reunion in Palm Springs. I haven’t been reading posts because the two of us have been putting together a power point presentation with lots of photos and interesting Palm Springs facts. It has come together beautifully and I am looking forward to presenting it at the business meeting Thursday night.

I have a brand new laptop so hope to keep in touch with blogger friends and also let everyone hear about our adventures.

Humming Chicago, Chicago da, da, da da……. and smiling!

Dawn sent me this photo from her evening at the Playboy Mansion. That is Denise Brown on her left. Denise is the sister of Nicole Simpson and sister-in-law to the infamous O.J. Simpson. She has become an advocate for battered women and this was a fund-raising event for that purpose. Dawn was invited there to represent Sally Anthony’s Heart Wings Foundation. .

In these days, when the whole world looks at the kids of the 60’s and 70’s as the “Me Generation”, she really stands out as a most giving person. I am not sure how she handles it all. She is a single mother, works at a college, volunteers at the local Women’s Shelter, is doing re-writes on a book, and bless her heart, has just taken into her home, an elderly extended family member, who is seriously ill.

Am I proud of this daughter of my heart? You Betcha! I couldn’t be prouder if I had given birth to her. I am so grateful to have her and Jade in my life.

Yesterday, I hosted a luncheon for my three closest friends. It turned into a mini-baby shower for Kristi who came up to spend a couple of days with us. It was very intimate and filled with memories of pregnancies, babies, and all that talk that women share with new mothers.

Today, I rested and read. It seems fixing a lunch of Swedish Meatballs, Harvard Beets, Buttered Noodles, and Broccoli with a cheese sauce, wore me out completely. Thank goodness, there are lots of leftovers and I do not need to think about fixing dinner tonight.

Bob and I are leaving next week for 7 days in Chicago. It is a reunion of his Navy Academy Class from Monterey. We will spend three days with the group and then enjoy ourselves exploring Chicago by ourselves. So anyone out there with suggestions of tourist spots to include in our itinerary, please comment,

When we get back from Chicago, it will only be three weeks until we leave for Manzanillo Mexico and a week at the beautiful Las Hadas Resort. Three weeks after that we will be on a Christmas cruise aboard the Island Princess.

I can’t believe we scheduled so many excursions at the time Kristi is expecting. I am hoping she has the babies in between our trips. She has promised to schedule the caesarean for times that we are here, but of course this may not happen. Does this make me a bad mother? I am feeling lots of guilt, but the Las Hadas trip is pre-paid and we would not be able to get the money back. The twins are due Nov. 17th, but can come at any time. The Doctor says she may even go full-term so who knows?

I took a few minutes out of post writing to visit some of my favorite sites and found myself laughing my head off at Golden Lucy and her teeth incident. I immediately called Bob into my office and he laughed so hard as he read the post that he had to sit down to finish it. If you haven’t read it already, go take a peek at this wonderful woman’s writing.