Our trip to the States: commentary and photos

OK, so, I'm just going to start at the beginning! :)

On Thursday, March 20, we flew out of Riga, and just hours later (time zones are great) arrived in Chicago, Illinois, where my friend AW met us at the airport. We spent the night with her, caught up on old times, had our first trip to a grocery store (jaw dropped-could have spent HOURS there!) watched some TV, and promptly passed out at 9pm. :) On day 2 we lazed around a bit, and then had our first shopping trip at a mall near her house. This picture is from day 2 when she dropped us off at the train station so we could catch a train into Chicago. Thanks for picking us up and a good time AW! :) I'm working on your baby's hat! :)

Joel and I spent one night in Chicago at a very nice posh hotel that I got for a good price on the internet. :) Oh, I forgot to mention that when AW picked us up on Thursday it was warm and sunny. We went coat-less, and had the windows open in the car. On day 2 we awoke in the morning to blizzard conditions basically and a few inches of snow. This sucky weather continued through Friday. Joel and I decided to brave it and had a walk down the Magnificent Mile and surrounding area in the pelting sleet and rain. Here he is posing in front of a well known Chicago theater.

The next day, day 3, we woke to clouds, but soon enough the skies cleared and we had another beautiful sunshine day. We decided to go ahead and go up in the John Hancock tower for a view from up high. Another classic pose here- Joel with a view of the city's lake shore behind him.

A few hours later, my mom came to Chicago to pick us up. This is where the fun started because I finally got behind the wheel after two years! :) Ok, we had lots of fun already before that- but I was so happy! :) Somehow, I don't have any pictures taken at my mom's on Saturday. Joel was slacking that day I guess (he is the official photographer).

After spending a lovely night with my mom and her husband I passed out in front of a movie that Joel actually managed to watch, even though my mom and D were also nodding off.

On Sunday after a DELISH breakfast (thanks mom!) we hit Walmart. OH MY GOODNESS. I have to say, I'm not generally for these kinds of stores- but we needed stuff, and it was there, and it was Easter, and it was open, so we went. We loaded up on toiletries and random other things available at such places.

End of day 4 we drove in to Kalamazoo to my dad's house. Just to review, on day four we reached the fourth city of the trip. :)

That night we had a great dinner with my dad and my friend KS.

On day 5 we actually stayed in one city. :) We went SHOPPING! Joel got his first exposure to Old Navy and the ease and wonder that it is to buy lots of wearable, stylish, cheap clothing in one place. :) By now my credit card had been getting quite the work out (no worries, we have a solid plan for paying this all off!).

That night we went to the Pilsen Klub, which is a long standing Latvian bar. Owned by Latvians (at some point, maybe not any more) the place is decked out in Latvian beer ads and scenes of long ago Latvia. They used to even carry Aldaris beer. Anyway, that night we met up with some old, and some very old friends. Here is a picture of that scene:

On day 6, much to Joel's chagrin we continued shopping. He was over it by now, but, a girl's gotta do what a girls' gotta do! :) He was still in search of the Wii he never found, but otherwise, was reaching boiling point on the shopping front.

Day 7 brought another day of traveling. Down to Indianapolis we drove. The main person I had to see there was my great-aunt Alisite. She turns 90 this weekend! She's always been like a grandma to me, and is very near and dear to my heart. We spent quite a long time hanging out with her. Joel got great practice for his Latvian, and she got some practice for her English as well. :) It was a day of luck, because although we only stopped by to see her my cousin stopped by at one point. Later, my aunt, who lives in Des Moines but happened to be traveling through Indy called, and decided she couldn't pass up the chance to meet us as well. So she stopped by too. Here is a picture of me and my nearly 90 year old aunt (who still lives on her own by the way!).


That night we stayed with my aunt and cousins and caught up with what's going on in their lives. The next day (day 8), after another failed attempt at Wii finding we got back on the road. We were on our way to Lansing, MI, but made a pit stop in Ft. Wayne, IN to meet a friend of mine. We had a couple cups of coffee and a fair few laughs with VP before heading back on the road. For a short visit, it sure was great! :)

Ah, the road. Have I mentioned how much I enjoy driving? I'm not sure whether or not Joel enjoyed my driving. I don't think he had anything to worry about, and he didn't say much one way or another, but, then he wouldn't. Anyway- here is a shot of me happily behind the wheel. :)

So, back into Michigan we drove:

Oh yeah, this day it again started to snow and rain and sleet and be nasty all day. The driving wasn't the best, but we made it safely to where we were going.

This next stop in Holt, MI (ok, not Lansing, but *just* outside of) was one of the highlights of the trip for me. It's not every day that you get to meet someone new that you know you will love in an instant and forever. In Lansing I reunited with my best friend from uni, AS and her husband, and their new baby girl Brenna Ann. Little Brenna was only 6 weeks old at the time of our visit and good goddess was she cute. That evening AS, her husband and I played a game of pass the baby while Joel happily watched basketball on TV.

So, here is the series of shots of the baby in various arms.

Isn't she gorgeous!?!? :)

Here she is with her wonderful mother (still freaks me out a bit to say that) AS.

Yeah, so she sleeps a lot- she's only 6 weeks old! Actually, though, AS and the hub are doing very well, they have their routines, they aren't psycho (whooohoo, way to go new parents!) and they are just taking everything as it comes. They are obviously doing a good job too because AS told me that at their last doctors appointment the doc said that Brenna had advanced saliva production! She's a genius! :)

Even though the weather was nasty that night, the snow day we hoped for for AS (she's a teacher, and already back at work) didn't happen the next day, and we were off again. I was really sad to go. I really, really wished we could have spent more time with all three of them!

Alas, we scraped the car (see? That's me- happy to be doing anything that involves me getting behind the wheel again!) and were off back to Kalamazoo. Oh, and I forgot to mention, but of course, in all this driving we had Taco Bell 3 times I believe. :) It was also delicious.

We got back to Kalamazoo and did all the shopping that was left to do. Joel didn't get his Wii, but he did get a PS2 and a few games.

On our last night in town we had a few people for dinner. My uncle/godfather Marty stopped by on his way home to Indianapolis (yes, it was his wife we had stayed with earlier in the week). It was great to see him. Later my godmother and her husband came by. My mom and D stopped by as well, as did KS and her boyfriend. Here is a picture of me and my mom from that night:

We really didn't get a lot of shots with family...well, my dad took a lot of pictures, maybe he'll send me some and I can add them here later. It was a really nice night again- but I have to admit that after 9 days of near constant driving and shopping, even I was pretty worn out. We had hit 8 cities/3 states in 9 days, all at least an hour or more apart. Mostly though, I couldn't believe that it was already time to leave. I wanted more time with family and friends for sure.

On Saturday, day 10, after just a few errands, and last minute buys, we headed back to Chicago with my dad. Here is a picture of Joel with Malda just before we got in the car. Hmm...Malda might not appreciate this photo- but she'd just got up, made breakfast and exercised, cut her some slack. :)

The flight home was stupid but uneventful. We got to the airport on time, only to find out that KLM (who I swear I had never had any problems with before!) had canceled our flight. They said that the flight coming to Chicago has been canceled in Amsterdam, and they didn't have a plane to send back that way, since one hadn't come! So, we got shuffled to a British Airways flight. One plus, it was a slightly nicer plane- it had the personal video screens and choice of hundreds of movies/tv shows on demand. One big minus- they didn't have my veggie food, because the request didn't transfer from KLM to them, even though I specifically asked the lady at the KLM counter to make sure that it did. Well, Joel was happy to give up his salad to me, so I didn't starve. :)

So we flew to London, had a two hour layover, flew 45 minutes to Amsterdam and then proceeded to try to kill the 6 hour layover we had there. I bought books and had a manicure (good idea for an express spa in the airport!). Our flight finally left sometime past 8. We got into Riga after 11, and were home some time around 12:30 I think. This whole thing just sucked because our original flight plan put us in Riga at 12 noon on Sunday, which would have been VERY nice. As it is, we're still sleep deprived and not yet unpacked. :)

So, well, it was a great trip. I probably left out a lot of important things in this boring photo log, maybe if people send me more photos I will remember them. :) I hope it's not going to be two years before we get back Stateside again. Actually, I'm pretty sure we'll make it there next summer, now that we can afford it! :)