New England Vacation - Chicago

Our flight left EARLY the next morning. I got up at 3:45....yes, that is a.m.! Our plan was to catch the earliest flight home so Dad could still put in a full day at the office. I don't know about you guys but I really don't put much effort into getting ready at 3:45. I thought I was just going to be heading straight home (with a small layover in Chicago) - no big deal.

Wellllllllllll.....we arrived in Chicago around 7. Mom and I decided to sit and enjoy our breakfast while the guys checked out our boarding area and whatnot. So we are sitting at Chili's when Dad calls to inform us that we won't be leaving. The airline had asked for volunteers to give up their seats because they were overbooked.

My dad lives for overbooking! He absolutely loves it! The first thing he does at boarding areas is count the people. He's normally right on the money too. He's normally already standing in line before they even make the overbooked announcement. So that's what happened this time. Dad, Mom, and I gave up our seats and were scheduled for first class on the 3:45 flight. Dustin had a very important class at school so he went on to B'ham.

Chicago is one of my favorite cities so I was pumped about the idea of having more time. We caught the CAT from the airport and headed straight for the shopping district. An unlimited days pass on the CAT was only $5 each - way easier than messing with a taxi or rental car.

We managed to hit H & M and Nordstrom's Rack, along with other shops on State Street. We had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory at the Hancock Building. It was fabulous!



We didn't care that it was raining - we bought umbrellas and kept right on walking. I seriously looked rough - Little did I know that morning at 3:45 that I was getting ready to go shopping in Chicago.

We headed back to the airport and the CAT took a little longer than we had expected so we were literally running through the airport to make our flight. I get to through security and to the gate first, about 10 minutes before the flight was scheduled to leave, and find that the flight was delayed. All of that rushing for nothing.

The place was PACKED! Once again, the flight was overbooked and they were begging for volunteers. And yep, you guessed it, once again we gave up our seats. That's twice in one day! We now have 6 free roundtrip tickets good for one year. Not to shabby, eh? We didn't leave the airport this time but just hung around, read books, ate, shopped, and watched everyone hurry by. The 9:00 flight was also overbooked but we resisted temptation and headed on back to B'ham. They were offering free tickets, hotel room, vouchers for food, and seats on the 9:00 flight the next night.

That brings our little New England excursion to a close. Stay tuned though because we ended up with a total of 7 free tickets so more vacations are on the horizon. =)