Delayed in Paradise

We were supposed to depart Palm Springs last Friday morning and get into Green Bay at 7:00 p.m. While Patrick was in the lobby getting coffee that morning he overheard a conversation discussing three hour flight delays in Chicago. Come to find out, our flight was canceled! Unbeknownst to us Chicago was in the midst of a snow storm --- snow was such a vague notion to us in the 80 degree, palm tree, florally deluged climate of Southern California. A call to the travel agent confirmed the canceled flight and notified us that we wouldn't be leaving paradise until Saturday evening. That meant TWO MORE DAYS IN PALM SPRINGS!

Patrick pouted for half the day because he was ready to return to New London and spend some time with his friends over the weekend. And let's face it, the kid had spent five days with his mother and sister which was proably enough for him. He had been a good sport and agreeable about whatever we wanted to do. So, Ann and I left him at the hotel (he sat by the pool and ordered a pizza) to go to Tiffany's and the art museum.

Ann and I thoroughly enjoyed our delay in Palm Springs. Tiffany's is in a beautiful outdoor mall that boasts sculptures and flower gardens. I felt a bit intimidated walking into Tiffany's but the staff made us feel so comfortable, and we laughed a lot.

We stopped for a soda at an outdoor restaurant in the mall, and Ann introduced me to endamame (pronounced attamommy) which is steamed pea pods topped with sesame seeds. This was so tasty and the perfect snack for us. After sitting there for about 15 minutes a sprinkler-like system located on the overhang of the restaurant turned on. It seemed like a soft spray of water but didn't really get anything wet. I'm not sure what the spray was but it cooled down the area and was refreshing.

Next it was on to Saks. Ann had never been to a Sak's before. We just browsed the clothes which were out of our price range. When we stopped at the Chanel purse department a delightful sales associate stopped by to ask how many of each we wanted. He had a great personality and told us about living in Palm Springs; he had moved there from New England and loved being in California. After looking at a $1600 Chanel necklace, Ann and I moved on.

There is an art museum downtown and Ann had originally wanted to stop there but we had run out of time. This delay afforded her the opportunity to finally see it. We didn't view the entire museum but what we saw was impressive. Both of us love contemporary art and that is what we saw. The staff was also chatty and informative. Apparantly some people think it is acceptable to touch the artwork and these two staff members regaled us with some of their horror stories about such happenings. (It is amazing that people think actually touching the painting is an okay thing!)

After the museum we headed back to the hotel and then to dinner. Since we were going to pull an all nighter the next evening no one was in a hurry to go to bed so we stayed up til midnight or so and didn't get up until mid morning on Saturday.

After packing up all our belongings and loading them into the Ugly-mobile (PT Cruiser) we went for lunch at an outdoor cafe. The hotel was agreeable to our using the pool after checkout so after eating we went back and spent the afternoon working on suntans.....or in Ann's case, brightening her burn. I swear the girl was a glowing beacon of red! We sat, chatted, read, and splashed in the water until about 4:30 when it was time to get dressed and head to the airport.

We left Palm Springs to fly to LA at 8:00 p.m. Departed LA at 11:00p.m. and arrived in Chicago at 4:55 a.m. We finally arrived in Green Bay about 7:30 a.m. Easter morning. I have to admit that the night wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I'm sure watching "Alvin and the Chipmunks" made the flight whiz by!

This trip meant so much for me. To spend that time with my children is something I won't forget. Who knows when I will have them together again for a vacation. So this was a special

time for us.