Getting here/Shelly

So our original plans had us starting the trip a week ago on Wed. March 21.  A couple of days before, Chet came home and mentioned concerns about the weather.  I had been so busy packing that I had missed the memo that another Nor'easter was on the way.  We made calls Monday and Tuesday trying to rebook the flights.  At that time, our airlines were not rebooking for free and the change fees were more than our tickets.  After lunch on Tuesday, the first of our airlines (PIT-BOS) cancelled our Wednesday flight.  The second (BOS-LSB-VGO) had not been cancelled by the other airline.  So, we in all hope and ignorance thought that flight was still a go.  About 6 pm on Tuesday, we drove into the storm to get to Boston so we would not miss our flights from Boston to Spain.  Only at 4 am on Wednesday morning did that flight get cancelled after we valiantly drove all the way to Danbury, CT to get to our flights in time.  Because of the weather, the earliest we could rebook to was Sunday, March 25.  This was definitely a heartbreak -- especially because Thursday, March 22 was Harrison's birthday, and we had promised a trip to a fort in Valenca, Portugal and dinner there.  With flights cancelled and rebooked and some calls to our travel agent to change trip dates we drove back through the storm to Morgantown on Wednesday.  So the first test of our pilgrimage was logging 16 hours of 24 hours in a car together driving through a Nor'easter.  The picture above is of a car and u-haul trailer from NC with items strapped to the back of the trailer.  I decided in those 24 hours, they were likely having a worst time than us travelling in this weather.  This was outside Harrisburg, PA on Wednesday.

The kids returned to school on Thursday -- March 22 -- much to their heartbreak and embarrassment.  Imagine telling your friends you are headed to Spain only to show up a couple days later back at school.  Ellie Grace did not make it a full day -- she was sent home with a fever and low grade fever.  Since Harrison had a lingering cough, I took them both to urgent care that evening (Happy Birthday Harrison!).  Two strep tests later, and I guess there was some providence to delaying our trip 4 days -- because both kids had strep.  Two days of high fever and surprising rash later -- we were back at the urgent care and grateful for a friend who is a doctor for more tests for Ellie Grace.  Tests confirmed Ellie Grace's new nick name, Funky Cold Scarlatina aka Scarlet Fever.  Chet and I googled strep throat in Spanish to be prepared in case we found ourselves with a sore throat and fever along the way.

By a miracle, her fever broke Sunday, and we were on our way -- even with a delayed flight out of Morgantown. 

We arrived in the early hours of the morning Monday (1 am EST) to Lisbon and then on to Vigo by the afternoon and settled in for the evening in Tui.

Certainly some learnings from this -- always try to book your flights through one airline, and its partners (or better yet, a travel agent).  We spent a few hours on the phone re-booking the two airlines.  The best was our travel agent who for the low prices of $49 euros re-booked all our accommodations and resent us the information in about 24 hours.  We did lose a day of our trip, but that was due more to commitments at school that impacted the end date.