(Wordy post, photos at the end.)
Think The Hangover. Oh yeah, Vegas at your wildest.
Then think of the opposite.
That was pretty close to what this last weekend was like.
I’m not trying to be Captain Grumpypants, but some weekends I’m convinced I shouldn’t leave the house. This was one of them.
The day started out well enough. We dropped Naava off at our friends that kindly agreed to pet sitting and headed to the airport. Zach dropped me off so I could check our bags before he headed to long-term parking. Well that was a FAIL since it was full so he headed back to short-term.
The security line was growing at an alarming rate and we actually didn’t have time to spare (like I normally do since I arrive insanely early to the airport). I desperately needed a coffee and was willing the line to move faster. Luckily a new security line opened up and we booked it to the new location so we could whiz through.
Soon enough I was sipping on my latte waiting at our gate.
Then the first announcement came that boarding would begin “a few minutes late” due to a “small mechanical issue.” What was it? Oh just the latch on the emergency door was not working. You cannot fool two Aerospace Engineers. We knew this would mean a loooong wait. A few minutes became 30 minutes, which became 1 hour, then soon 1.5 hours. There was no way we were making our short layover in Chicago so quickly scrambled to make new arrangements. Next flight to Cincinnati was 3 hours after the original. Oye..that’s a long time in O’Hare. Blah.
But hey, I got bumped to First so that’s good. Too bad hubby was sitting in the row next to the faulty door. Meep!
Then another FAIL. Lunch options for First sucked big time. Chef salad? Blech. Mushroom soup? Double Blech. Chicken lunch meat on a roll. No thanks, lunch meat. I ended up getting the salad, which turned out to be more mediterranean than chef, so I made do. Besides, First Class is really all about the warm nuts and free drinks anyway 
Okay so we land in Chicago and I find out our flight to Cincinnati is cancelled? WTF? Oh wait, it was our earlier flight that was cancelled so it looks like we wouldn’t have got on it anyway. Next we print our boarding passes for our rescheduled flight only to find out it is 2 hours delayed…UGH. That means we won’t get to Ohio until close to 2am. FML. AND that means killing 4 hours in ORD. Oh boy.
Dinner options were slim, but we finally settled on Italian and honestly it was pretty good despite some lackluster service. We tried to extend our dinner since we had nothing else to do.
Finally we gave up and just went to make sure the gate was the right one. What do we find out? Our flight was going to be moved *up* by 1.5 hours. That never happens. No announcement, nothing. What if we left ORD? We would have missed our flight. Thank god we looked at the monitors constantly. Sheesh.
So yeah, our 945p flight went from on-time, to 1120p, to 1005p. When did it take off? 1045p. Argh.
We landed in Cincinnati to a ghost town of an airport with absolutely no taxis. We had to call via cell phone and waited 25 minutes for someone to arrive. GAH!
Okay, get to the hotel no problem. The lobby is nice enough I suppose. Then we get to our room.
Hello ashtray, I’d love to sleep in you for two nights.
We immediately asked to change rooms to a non-smoking room. The receptionist said it was a non-smoking hotel. Yeah, my arse.
This hotel was Disgusting. It had a layer of grime on everything; the sheets were nowhere near the color white; the view was of a parking garage; and everything was just dank and old. Gross, simply gross. The reviews online gave it 4 out of 5 stars — huh???!!! No way, no how.
Lucky for us, we only had the remainder of Friday night and Saturday before we’d head to the airport at 7a on Sunday.
Doing the math: $1100 for 2 plane tickets, $240 for 2 nights in the hotel, $120 wedding gift, $60 for taxis –> $1500 in 30 hours. And this wasn’t no vacation! Sheesh.
Let’s talk about some good stuff though shall we?
My college roomie and friend recently moved to Cincinnati so we got to have lunch with her and her sister. Awesome 
I got to wear my new pink dress to the wedding:
Pink Express dress
The wedding was walking distance from the hotel at the Contemporary Arts Center, which was a neat choice.
The ceremony was short and sweet. The bride looked lovely, the groom handsome, and the preacher had a singing voice of a super star (no lie).
The couple’s first dance was well choreographed and a blast to watch:
Bride and Groom first dance
Dinner was a nice duo of chicken and filet, so the hubby and I swapped some stuff and had a great meal:
Stuffed chicky, russet mashed potatoes, steamed veggies, and filet
The wedding cake was tasty: chocolate with chocoalte granache and a think fondant layer of buttercream. I had two (plus) pieces until Zach cut me off.
I got to dance and hang out with this guy:
Me and the hubby (I hear there was a mechanical bull at the bar behind us..haha)
The wedding aspect was a WIN and we’re so glad we were able to share in their special day. The rest of the weekend definitely was more on the side of FAIL, which put both of us in a funktastic mood for the first couple days this week.
Have you had any travel-horror experiences?
Where’s the next wedding you’re going to? We head to Orlando in less than 2 weeks for our next one
