Okay, so I've been really lazy about blogging! What can I say? So in the past couple months I've had a couple interesting travel ventures.

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In early September I went to Hawaii, specifically to Waikiki / Honolulu on the island of Oahu. That's where this picture was taken, and that's a real plumeria in my hair! I had just gotten done swimming in the oh-so-lovely (and kelp-free!) ocean.

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I don't want to sound too spoiled (I mean, I do live in SoCal and San Diego County at that), but the beach I visited in Waikiki was way better! The sand didn't make your feet black and there was no kelp. The water was about 75 degrees and you could see through it to make sure there were no sea monsters trying to eat you. These are things I value in a good beach. Though I do think our California beaches are absolutely beautiful, I don't entirely enjoy getting dirty and thinking a giant sea monster is drowning me whenever kelp touches me! haha.

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So then I was home for a week before I was off to my next adventure: Minneapolis. Now, I'm not sure how much more opposite than Hawaii you can get (within the continental USA minus Alaska which is in the frozen tundra of the north)... When I left home it was averaging mid to high 80s. When I was in Hawaii, it was the same (but with a more tropical bent). I checked Minneapolis' weather before my Hawaii trip and during, and it said mid to high 80s. So the same, right?

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Well. The week I came home from Hawaii a huge cold front blew across the northern US... And so instead of 85, it was... 45. Okay, in the day it was probably (maybe) 60. But by the time I got off work, it was definitely in the 40s. With rain. And the week after I left it snowed! It dropped 20 degrees in 1 week! Crazy weather!

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So along with this crazy weather came crazy rain, and crazy flight delays. Mine included. Oh, but I get ahead of myself. Let's start on the way to Minneapolis (MSP).

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I had a stopover in Denver, had to de-plane but then was to get back on the same plane. We boarded the plane, bound now for MSP and... There was an issue. They announced that the cockpit was having trouble communicating with the cabin (seatbelt signs/TVs weren't working), and though the plane was mechanically sound they were not going to take off until it was fixed. They had just worked fine an hour earlier on my flight there from San Diego-- how strange.

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So 2 1/2 hours later after finally de-planing us and having us loider near the gate for an unknown period of time, they finally booked us onto another plane. Then off to MSP, 3 hrs late which really ate into my audit time (then unbeknownst to me). Once I got to MSP, I realized there was not a main store with 2 tills and a smaller satellite store with 1 till (as I'd assumed)... There were 3 stores. And 1 had 3 tills, 1 had 2, and the other 1. And they had an ATM I didn't know about. So my (now) 2 days and 3 hrs was looking rather insufficient.

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To make matters worse, I had also gone out to audit the bank site there. When I got to the bank site, they informed me there were TWO bank sites! Well, each one takes a full day, so that surely wasn't going to happen. And I was already looking at not finishing the airport stores, so this wasn't good! Communication with my boss resulted in abandonment of bank audits in favor of finishing the airport, so back to MSP it was!

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Then on my final day, my flight was scheduled to take off just before 6pm. At 1pm I got a phone call (not surprising due to what I'd been observing all week in flight delays) saying my flight was delayed 100 minutes, causing me to miss my connection in Phoenix. Well yeah, since I only had max 60 minutes between landing and take off of next flight, that would cause me to miss it. They told me that because it was early though that they could possibly make up the time, so I waited to change my schedule.

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At 4:30pm I got another call. My flight was now delayed 180 minutes (3 hrs), "causing [me] to miss my connection in Phoenix". Yeah, they're not going to make up that time! So I thought about my options and decided to get out of rainy Minneapolis and spend the night in Phoenix to depart at 7:30am the next morning (Saturday). But I still had to check in at the originally scheduled time or the counters would be closed they said.

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EVERYone in line was from a delayed flight. So it took over 1 hr to go through 15-20 people (a relatively short line). Then I was all checked in and went back to work for a while. Around 7pm I went through security because I was finished at work. The plane finally took off at 9:30pm! So we flew to Phoenix and when I got outside the airport I about dropped dead waiting for a shuttle because it was 85 degrees (at 11pm)!!!! I had just been in 40 degree weather! Good thing I had the foresight to bring a skirt or I would have died the next day!

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So, there you have some update. Since it is so long I won't go into October details... That shall be for my next blog! Have a blessed November-- I can't believe it's November already. I love this season, it's so wonderful! :)

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