Robert Vrabel

I just go back over the weekend from a 5 day Cruise we took with some family. It was nice and relaxing up until we got off the boat for the last time and ran into all the American Airline flight cancellations. Originally we were supposed to fly from New Orleans to Dallas, then to Detroit. Both of those flights got canceled so we had to stand in line to get booked on a different flight. The only opening they had was 11am the next day, from New Orleans to Washington to Detroit. We decided to take that flight since it was our only option and they placed us up in a hotel a couple of miles away from the airport.

When we went to get our tickets the next morning, they said they can’t access the second flight information so they cannot print the tickets there and that we would have to talk to someone once we arrive in Washington. Meanwhile, they will ship our bags straight to Detroit on another flight. We arrived in Washington, and went to the United desk to get our next tickets and they told us that our flight does not exist, that they booked us on the wrong flight.

They made us go back to the American Airlines counter to talk to them since it was there problem. We waited in line, and all they could do for us was book us the next morning again and give us a hotel. We were furious at this point, especially since we had no luggage, and asked if there was anything else. They found a North West flight from Baltimore to Detroit, which was leaving about 2.5 hours from that time. We decided to take that, splitting into 2 groups and taking 2 cabs over to the Baltimore Airport which was supposed to be an hour drive.

Traffic was horrible and it was taking us 1.5+ hours to get to the airport. About 1.5-2 miles before the airport, our cab broke down and we had to pull over. Our cab driver barley spoke English and refused to get us another cab. We grabbed our carry on luggage and starting booking up the freeway to make our flight which is supposed to leave in 50mins. Luckily, someone saw all this happen and offered a ride for us about 1/2 mile after we power walked to the airport. He dropped us off and we ran insid, got our tickets and got to the gate just in time for the flight to leave.

At this point we were amazed to be in a plane headed to Detroit. When it was almost our turn to take off, the runways got shut down due to “Weather Conditions”. The captain told us that we have to wait 20-40mins for an update to see how long it will take. About 45mins later we finally took flight and made it to Detroit. Thankfully our luggage was sitting in the American Airlines terminal which was all the way across the airport.

So thanks American Airlines!

So i just recently got back from Chicago. What a AWESOME city! I wouldn’t mind at all living in a city like this. Even though we did a lot of walking, it was nice because everywhere you walked to there was a lot to see on the way.

I didn’t get to eat to much Chicago Style Pizza, wish i could have stayed longer to find some more places since I love pizza so much! We stopped at Uno Chicago to eat there one of the nights. It was pretty good, but it didnt satisfy me. I bet there are better pizza joints in the area.

I posted my pictures up on flickr, so be sure to check them out!

I just got back from traveling to Seattle for the An Event Apart Conference. It was such a good Conference i’m really thankful i had the opportunity to go. If you are interested in web development i would suggest reading A List Apart which is an online magazine made for “People who make websites”.

I posted all my pictures up on flickr if anyone is interested in checking them out.

If you ever have a chance to visit Seattle i would suggest staying at the Edgewater Hotel, they had excellent service, great view of the port, water and city. They were also very close to any attraction near downtown Seattle. We visited the Aquarium, Space Needle, Pacific Science Center, and Sculpture Park all within a 10-15 min walk from the hotel.