We'll try again tomorrow!!

Well, here we are - back at my parent's house in Richland, MI. We were suppose to be in the air right now, halfway to Japan, but our trip didn't go quite as planned today.

We woke up at 5:30 am to get to the Detroit airport by 8:30 for our 10:30 am flight. We said our goodbyes at about 9:45 and headed to our gate. They came on and announced that our flight had been delayed into Chicago due to strong thunderstorms (this was sounding way too familiar) and we would have to wait for the storm to pass and then we'd be on our way. Well, the second time they came on and announced that we were now going to be 2 hours delayed and that the Chicago airport had been shut down three times already this morning. He said there was no need to worry about connecting flights because all flights out of Chicago were delayed by at least two hours. At this point I called my parents who unfortunately were very close to home. I had a feeling that we were not going anywhere today. Finally, the ticket agent announced that it would be best to find alternate plans and rebook for tomorrow. I got to a phone (I don't have a US cellphone, so I had to use the old fashioned payphone) and called American because the ticket counter line was a mile long. A very nice lady rebooked us onto a flight tomorrow morning to Dallas and then on to Tokyo. I told her there was no way I was going to try to connect again in Chicago. Chicago is suppose to have strong storms again tomorrow.

So, my mom and dad drove all of the way back to Detroit and picked us up. Thank you Mom and Dad! We opted to come back here instead of pay for a hotel in the detroit area. After two hours in the car this morning, six hours in the airport, and another two hours in the car this afternoon, we feel like we have already traveled to Japan. We'll be getting up in less than six hours to start all over again.

Luckily, even though we had checked our luggage, we were able to retrieve it since the flight was cancelled and never went anywhere. So, we have fresh clothes for tomorrow!

Wish us well as we start all over and try again tomorrow!!