OK this is a big long rant – but since I had the platform to say how feel about American Airlines I thought I would use it. (Most regular readers can probably skip it – if anyone with a connection to American Airlines happens to see it, you can know that I will happily pay more to avoid your airlines and I’m very sad that I have two more overseas journeys scheduled with you.)
I left Cabinteely at 6 am on Sunday to go home. When I got to the airport I waited in line for 2 hours because the plane had been delayed for 5 hours. It sure seems as if they could have emailed or texted that info out to people. It sounded as if the plane hadn’t left Chicago so they knew it wasn’t going to arrive in time. (We heard multiple excuses for the delay – starting with maintenance, which is something I hate to hear. If there’s a problem with the plane – please use a more trusted plane!)
Because the flight was delayed I missed my connecting flight from Chicago to Minneapolis. They could find me a flight to St Louis – but I had to point out that wasn’t very helpful since I was going to the other Saint city. I did get an 8 euro credit at the restaurant. A breakfast is 9 euros – it’s that kind of attention to detail that really puts American Airlines on the map. Luckily for me I had plenty of euros and dollars – but the plane was 90 percent Americans. I suspect many of them left the last of their euros at the pub the night before! What I didn’t have was an adapter. I had calculated that with 7 hours on my laptop battery that I should be OK to leave the adapter behind for the kids (with my Irish cell phone). So I had a computer for half of the day.
Also American Airlines flies small planes overseas. They are turbulent and no private computers/TVs in the backs of the seats ahead of you. For folks who don’t travel overseas often this may sound petty – but it makes a long journey to try to watch a tiny TV from the window seat 8 rows back.
So you’re probably think getting from Chicago to Minneapolis would be pretty easy. That’s what I figured. What are there – 40 flights a day?! Nope. They could get me nothing. I am still in Chicago. (I left Cabinteely 27 hours ago.) I have a flight at 11 am. That’s 7 hours from now.
But the worst of it is how absolutely rude the American Airlines staff were. The folks in Dublin were just unhelpful and unapologetic. The flight attendants were fine – but I had a little room for them since I assume they were on overtime. (Of course they were being paid to be on the plane while the rest of us paid top dollar for the pleasure – but still I only saw one rude comment from a flight attendant. So that’s not too bad.)
The clincher really is that they made me line up *again* to get a standby ticket from Chicago – but they wouldn’t put me on standby. They would only book a ticket for the next day. So I have to line up in Dublin and Chicago for the same thing?! And the guy at the counter could not have been meaner. In fairness, I know I got the meanest guy. One of his coworkers moved the barrier ropes – and he started yelling at those of us in line for doing it! (Whacko!) Then when she admitted to doing it – no apology to us. He started by yelling at me for being in the airport on the wrong day. Remember – I’ve just arrived from Dublin. I pointed out that he was looking at my return info. (No apology.) Then he snaps at me because I have no ticket. The Dublin folks said to get one in Chicago. Finally he realizes that my problem was that the plane was delayed – I have not done anything. But still no apology, and no helpfulness. So then I kind of lost it, which always helps but I hate to fly and now I have to do it all over again in 7 hours.
Do you think American Airlines looks for the mean people or trains them for the wining American Airlines spirit?
Luckily Katie was able to get me and I am staying at her house. So it was a fun bonus to see the Lynchs – but I had 3 meetings scheduled tomorrow morning which I may or may not be able to reschedule. (That’s’ assuming I am able to get to home tomorrow.)
Filed under: Chicago
This year we spent Thanksgiving in Chicago. We drove as far as the Dells on Wednesday. Stayed in a hotel and left the next morning for Chicago. We convoyed with Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Billy. Actually Aine drove in that car and the rest of us in our car.
Thanksgiving Dinner
We got to the Lynches just in time for dinner. I think Katie had 25 people over for dinner. They made 3 turkeys; one was grilled, one deep fried and one was cooked the usual way. There was stuffing, pumpkin pies and a lot of other secondary foods. (Well secondary in my opinion.) Everything was great. The kids had a fun time with their cousins.
Friday Pedicure
Instead of going shopping on Black Friday, Katie, Mom and I went and got pedicures. That’s a trend that I think we should continue.
Horse Drawn Carriage
Friday night all 13 of us toured downtown Chicago on horse drawn carriages. Kate got us great Groupon bargains. It wasn’t too cold – and we got a fun trip around Michigan Avenue towards Navy Pier. I don’t think we had ever done a tour like that – it was fun. On the way to the carriage we stopped in the largest ER hospital in Chicago. We just had to use the bathroom and warm up – but it felt a little bit like ER – without Dr Carter.
After the carriage rides we went to Greek Town for dinner. Greek Town is always fun! Our group of 13 was hardly the biggest group there – we weren’t even the loudest. Our favorite part is when the set the Saganaki on fire.
Saturday Café Too
Saturday we went swimming at Grandma & Grandpa’s hotel. That was fun. Then we went to the Lynches chirch to make Advent Calendars. But the very fun activity of the day was trying out a new (for us) restaurant in Chicago called Café Too. It’s a small restaurant. They hire homeless and low income workers to learn the restaurant business. You can get a 6-course meal for $24; bet yet, they don’t have a liquor license so you can bring in your own wine.
The food was very good and the service was even better. They should open a restaurant in St Paul.
Sunday we drove home. There was a lot of fun hanging out, walking around Katie’s neighborhood and stuff over the weekend too.
Filed under: Chicago
We went to Chicago for First Communion for Betsy and Sean. It was cold – but we had a good time. We drove in a convoy with Grandma and Grandpa. We go there in time for dinner on Friday night then we took a walk to get ice cream cones at the dairy bar. Everyone’s ice cream looked good except Kate’s – she got some neon green lime yogurt.
The Communion was on Saturday. It was very nice – pretty communiony. Then there was a party back at the Lynch’s house. There were sports in the afternoon – but it was pretty cold so some of us stayed home.
Saturday night the grownups went to Roy’s downtown for dinner. It was really good. What was fun that we saw a big, moveable statue of Mary. I think it was Millennial Madonna or something like that. I added a picture.
Filed under: Chicago
When I was a kid I loved the Museum of Science & Industry. It is great. We went the day after Thanksgiving. We were there when it opened – and we ran to the new toy department. So we had all of the great machines to ourselves. Everyone got a chance to drive the car or be the skier going down the slope.
As soon as it got busy we had to hightail it to the U Boat exhibit, which is what we came to see. Most of the adults have read The Shadow Divers, which is the best book ever even though it’s about submarines.
So we took the tour, which is very cool. The U-Boats were super powerful until the US figured out the code that the Germans were using to communicate with the U-boats. Then they became underwater death traps.
The tour of the U-boat walks you though it’s capture. Although the U-boat is huge, I think they said a city block long, it’s tiny inside. I think they said about 50 soldiers lived on the submarine – and all of them smoked. I can’t even imagine what it smelled like back them.
It was cool to kind of experience the capture. Once the U-boat was spotted it dove deeper into the water – kind of like a free fall and the men had to be silent since noise carries so much farther in the water. It was a cat and mouse chase until the Americans actually took over. Apparently they just stormed the U-boat and were then able to get the Enigma (decoder) machine and tomes of code notes. They didn’t admit to capturing the U-boat because they didn’t want the Germans to know that they had the cheat sheet to their codes. So the men on board were in a POW camp in America.
It was interesting to see the war propaganda. They didn’t just promote shopping as your patriotic duty back then – and that was good to see. They had an amazing visual that showed how many men were killed by U-boats over the years.
It’s also kind of amazing to see how they got the boat to Chicago, where it sat outside for decades and then into the Museum of Science and Industry.
We visited some other rooms in the Museum – like the Christmas trees and some Main Street setup – but the U-boat was the coolest part by far.
The Chicago museum is a little like the museum we visited in London. It’s very cool – but so busy that you can’t handle being there for very long.
Filed under: Chicago
Ok it’s been a month since I last posted. That’s terrible. I’m going to try to bring us to date quickly.
Thanksgiving… We went to Chicago for Thanksgiving. We had a convoy going. Kate made a really nice Thanksgiving dinner. It was warmer in Chicago than Minnesota so it seemed like a good break.
We have some pictures of everyone bagging up lunches to drop off to Katie’s church. They do a nice job there of coming up with projects that everyone can do to contribute to the community. Well, maybe not to the local community of Glenview – but the Greater Chicagoland anyways. Also you’re never too young to learn how to work on an assembly line!
The girls, Betsy, Patrick and I planned to hit the town again and visit the American Girl Doll store. Sadly, poor Kate woke up super sick. Maybe it was the filthy dirty water from Millennial Park the day before.
Patrick took the girls into town. They went to the art museum. I was so jealous. Lily seemed to particularly enjoy American Gothic by Grant Woods. They saw In the Park with George too.
Kate and I hung out at Grandpa’s hotel room. The room was 2-3 times the size of the hotel room we had in London. It’s tough to meet America for comfortable hotels – with swimming pools.
Luckily Kate recovered in time for the American Girls (AG) lunch. The AG lunch is really a site to behold. It’s a 4-course deal. They have high chairs at the table for your dolls.
After AG we went to the Lincoln Zoo to meet up with the rest of the crew.
A good time was had by all and we finished the day off with a fun dinner in Greek Town – starring Saganki!
Filed under: Chicago
We had a great day in downtown Chicago. We took the train. The train in Chicago is kind of double-decker – there are vertically 2 rows of seats. We walked past the Sears Tower. You can see the picture below of everyone at the foot of the Sears Tower and then everyone pointing to the top of the Sears Tower.
We headed to Millennium Park. The famous public art there is The Bean – a mirrored structure shaped like a bean that works a little like a fun house mirror. It’s great.
The kids’ favorite thing was the water display. I have a video below. It’s a two-story (that’s a guess) structure that shows changing faces that eventually spit water at everyone. Then water pours over the structure like
a waterfall.
The water has to be filthy dirty – but that didn’t stop Aine from trying to drink it. I thought Patrick was going to tie her to a tree; every time we turned around she was lapping it up like a dog.
Filed under: Chicago
Last week we flew from Dublin to Chicago. The flight was actually very nice. We went through customs in Dublin – then we sat in a holding pen for 2 hours before our flight. That wasn’t the best but we could buy beer; so it wasn’t the worst either. Many of you know – I am not a good flier.
I have to say the take off was perfect. Twenty minutes in the air Aine asked when we were going to start flying. She didn’t realize we had started moving at all. The best part – we each got a TV/computer in the headrest in front of us. So the kids could watch Dora and I could listen to Led Zeppelin. (Strange rang of options, huh?)
My dad picked us up at O’Hare and we went to Katie’s house to see the cousins. We had Chipotle for dinner – at my request. It was the one food/restaurant I missed most.
We just kind of hung out for the next day or so. The jetlag was very minimal – but it was nice to just hang out. The kids noticed right away how clean Glenview is. I think that’s both a sign of its cleanliness and a side of the Dirty Old Town we didn’t talk about much.
10 Questions About... 