Coming home

We were stranded in Ushuaia for two days, due to the Chilean earthquake and apparent Argentine intransigence. Special thanks to Bud and Kendra, trip leaders, and the entire Lindblad team for all their attention and efforts to get us home with minimal disruption - including flying a special charter from Miami to get us all back to the states. The earthquake had left all South American travel in shambles. For example, in Santiago there was a cruise ship where over 2,000 passengers were not allowed to
have anyone disembark, nor shore passengers to board, because there were no hotel rooms certified safe!

We, however, arrived home safe, sound and exhausted. We had as good a trip as could be expected considering a five hour leg, an hour layover on the plane, a two hour leg, a two hour layover off the plane, and finally a five hour leg to Miami (all with three bodies in three seats in steerage). But it was better than it sounds. Mike Nolan, one of the Lindblad photographers, sat with us, and he used to be a deejay, so we had a group sing-along with Mike, Jake (from Bonaire), and Juan (from Canberra) leading the way. The sing-alongs and the layovers really helped break up the tight space for the rest of the trip.

From there it got much better. We hustled in Miami, and our expected layover of ten hours was not only cut to an hour and a half, but we were upgraded to Philly, and arrived back in Philly by 11 am, and home before noon. After showers, Donna called friends and crashed around 790, while I went to our club, where the National American Paddle Tennis Association (APTA) finals were being held. It was unreal - "A game of which I am unfamiliar," as someone once said.

The Philly clan arrived and we had a great time with a Chinese dinner and watching the Oscar prelims, the Red Carpet. Pop Pop fell asleep twice prior to heading upstairs before the actual show started, and never heard a thing until workers arrived yesterday am, installing new wiring in our basement and finishing the work on our family room.

Just prior to our trip, and while we were gone, we had over fifty inches of snow - in PA, not Antarctica! We have pine boughs down everywhere, and mold (yuck)in our basement. We have things to do and miles to go before we sleep.

P.S., The pictures are our last day in the Falklands, a scene in Ushuaia, and a scene from our sing-along.