Mandy met us in the gymnastics parking lot to get the kidlet. Arden wasn't phased and barely glanced my way as I said goodbye. I suppose it's better that than sobbing...right?
I headed for the airport (I can't tell you how much I love Manchester Airport, if I can avoid it I will never fly out of Logan again). I gotta tell you, I haven't traveled without the kid since her arrival and boy that was a different experience. I bought a couple of books and got to read the entire flight without worrying about keeping a small child entertained. Amazing. And a little bit odd, frankly.
I made my way to the hotel and had no idea what to do with my free time. You see, we just don't get a lot of unplanned time anymore, so I was at a total loss. I ended up just hanging out at the hotel waiting to hear from Dora, who texted me and said she was on the way back to the hotel so we could go to dinner.
We went to a restaurant in our hotel "ItaliAsia" -- italian/asian flare. It was delicious.
The next morning we decided to take a walk and see what we could find. We ended up taking a water taxi over to Navy Pier. There is a river through the middle of the city. Amazing. We strolled and explored and had lunch at Bubba Gump, which neither of us had done before. We planned to take their Architecture Cruise around the river but the skies opened and it started to pour, so we passed. Of course, just like MA weather, it was sunny 3 minutes later, but we didn't trust it.
We spent far too much time talking about the child, shopping for the child...but really it was nice to be just the two of us for awhile.
We headed back to the hotel in the late afternoon and went off to our respective events. The next morning we headed for separate airports and made our way home.
Arden had a fantastic time with Uncle Bobby and Mandy. They went to the Zoo, the Rainforest Cafe, painted nails (with glow in the dark flourescent orange nail polish, to boot) and just had a wild time in general. They said she was perfect and even declared herself ready for bed at 7:30 the second night since she was so wiped out.
She wasn't particularly happy to see me when I picked her up, but the dog was, so I'll have to take some solace in that.
So, we're home and trying to readjust to life. Unfortunately D learned today she has to go to New Jersey tomorrow. Thankfully it's just for one day but given that her flight there is at 6:15AM and she won't be home until midnight...well...it's going to be a long exhausting day on top of an exhausting weekend.
A few pics I took with my phone. I really need to get the camera fixed!
View from the front of our hotel
This tree was a conversation piece for us. We still don't understand the significance. Any Chicago experts know? I swear they piped chocolate scent under the street around the tree.
