Travel

We just returned from a trip to Rhode Island and it is good to be home. We flew out there and back. On the way out we changed planes in Milwaukee and again in Detroit; proof positive of my frugality. On our return we changed planes in Philadelphia. Airports and airline travel - yikes. I don't feel like a valued customer who just spent hundreds of dollars for a service. I feel like I am treated more like a threat. To use my ticket for which I spent a lot of money, I have to arrive 2 hours ahead of time. And don't try to park nearby to use the ticket at the airport! Get a ride or use a shuttle service. What other business does that? Then we're told to stand in line and wait. Hurry! Get in line! Wait there! Wait there for hours! I have to take off my shoes and jacket. I have to allow others to x-ray my bags and allow them to stick their hands into my luggage and rummage through my underwear. I even allow them to scan my body. Once you are on the plane you have to sit upright and belted into tiny little seats. I swear I'd have more room in a coffin than in a seat on an airplane. They offer you drinks but pour it into a small plastic cup. For the price I paid I deserve the entire can of diet cola. I know it's a 22 hour drive to the east coast because I drove it last year. With all the hassle and expense of airline travel, I'm not sure if driving might be a better choice. Once we got to Providence we were fine. We picked up our rental car (Ford Focus - ok to rent but I wouldn't buy one) and got to our hotel. Our hotel, like many of the hotels and houses in the area, had blue hydrangea plants. Blue hydrangea symbolize the beauty of the east coast. They just don't get that blue here in Minnesota. Offspring #1 met us and took us out to dinner at a local deli that serves organic food. The food was excellent and we finished it off by sharing a ginger creme brulee. We drove around town for a while and ended up at the beach. We stopped to admire a huge rainbow that began and ended in the Atlantic ocean. The pot of gold must have been in the water. As we watched we could see a second rainbow form above the first. The colors intensified and the stripes became more clear. Our maker was smiling at the three of us together again at last.