A Festival of Lights followed by a Festival of Flights

This past week has had holiday fun and a criss-crossing trip through the snowy and icy Midwestern United States. Last weekend included two great Chanukah parties with the Mann and Pincus families. Our adorable neices got goodies from Uncle Howie and Aunt Karyn but the real fun was playing with Chanukah stickers and spinning dreidels - and of course, eating is always fun!

If you are interested in seeing some great shots from the two Chanukah parties, click on this link.

And post Chanukah included a very unique business trip. I had to be in five Midwestern cities for a work project and decided to cram it into 4 days. This included 8 takeoffs, 8 landings, 3 delayed flights and 6 voyages through Chicago O'Hare International Airport. All in all, I got everywhere on time and didn't miss any flights (except for a close call with my Chicago-Kalamazoo flight). The best part of this trip was that I added two new states to my list (North Dakota and Nebraska) and had two great dinners with Chicago and Kalamazoo friends.

The only bad thing was that I had to go through Airport Security 6 times! Oy! For Pictures, click here (press "i" for captions).

Here is an overview of the trip schedule:

Monday

Early morning flight from Washington to Fargo through Chicago
Meeting
Flight back to Chicago
Dinner with Mandy and Tami

Tuesday
Early morning flight to Lincoln, Nebraska
Meeting
Tour of State Capitol and University of Nebraska with Bill
Delayed flight back to Chicago
Rented Car and drove to Rockford Illinois

Wednesday
Broken down rental car in Rockford - emergency Taxi
Meeting at Rockford Airport
Replacement car and trip back to Chicago O'Hare
Traffic Traffic Traffic
Made flight to Kalamazoo (barely)
Meeting in Kalamazoo
Dinner with Luis and Melissa, tour of Kalamazoo
Overnight at Hilton Henriquez

Thursday
Morning drive to Grand Rapids, Michigan
Meeting in Grand Rapids
Delayed trip back to Washington DC over Chicago O'Hare...
....and then arrived back at home safe and sound.