Hard way home - visit with Nephews

We got up Thursday at 4 AM, and were at the airport at 5 AM, only to find that things haven't opened up yet. The plane left at 7 AM, on schedule. When we got close to Houston, Marianne noticed that we were flying in circles. The pilot later announced that the Houston airport was closed due to weather, and that we were going to have to divert to San Antonio to refuel. We eventually arrived in Houston, but had missed our connecting flight. We were put on standby for the next flight to Denver.

When we arrived at the gate, we found a bit of a mob scene, with a long standby list. The scene felt a little predatory, with stress all around, even security was called. We ultimately did not get onto the flight. I called the Continental 800 number, only to be told that the next flight that they could get us a confirmed seat on was on Sunday morning! Three unscheduled nights in Houston.

We resigned ourselves to an unscheduled vacation in Houston, and went to the baggage office to try to retrieve our bags. The lady in the baggage office did a quick check, found two seats on the last flight in the day, and put us in them. The only Continental employee who helped us was in baggage.

Richard called his nephew Ryan, who lives in Houston, and arranged to have dinner with him. Ultimately, it turned out to be dinner with both of Richard's nephews, Ryan and Patrick, and Patrick's girlfriend Kelly. It was good to see them; Patrick is doing better, having gotten into a new environment.

We flew home without incident, and took the 12:10 AM shuttle to Boulder, arriving home in the early morning hours of Friday.