My update

Just like that the trip is over and I am home blogging on the events that occurred. Time flies when you are having fun. This was a very interesting trip. Tears, laughter and even some frustration filled my days away while here at home record high temps was baking my family and on Monday a storm left them 12 hours without electricity. On the cell phone that evening I told Jim I wasn't coming home till they had electricity. LOL
Thursday I arrived in Charlotte at a reasonable time. A little confusing finding the daily parking lot but once I got to it and on a shuttle bus to the airport it was going smoothly. Got to the terminal and checked in. They asked for 2 dollars for a checked in bag plus a tip. LOL I went to the designated area to wait for my flight and looked at my ticket for my seat number. NO SEAT NUMBER!!!! I go to the desk and she tells me I don't have a seat number that the flight was over booked and she was going to ask for volunteers to give up a their seat for a later flight. HOW CAN THIS BE??? I bought these tickets at least 5 months ago!! There was the sweetest couple over-hearing me talking to Jim on my cell phone about my dilemma and they told me they were going to give up their seats and that I should be able to get on because there were many lined up with them to do the same. Finally, after they accounted for those who did not show and all only one person had to be the volunteer and I was told to sit where I saw a empty seat. WHEW! That was a close one and I am still upset at Price line for not getting me a seat assignment. It said on my print out that the seat would be assigned once I checked in. The day before my departure from Minneapolis I called the airline to find out again I was not assigned a seat. After I explained what happened on the way from Charlotte to Minneapolis the agent at the airline assigned me a seat. Good thing I called and there were No problems flying home at all PLUS the didn't charge me a fee for my checked baggage. LOL
After a aggravating time trying to find our way home out of downtown Minneapolis because of a major highway been closed the weekend for repairs on Friday night we decided to take the lite rail from the Mall of America into downtown for Saturdays conclusion of the conference. It only cost $1.50 for a ticket and a lot less stress than trying to drive into the city even with the aide of a GPS. EVEN with the shirt-less man who kept getting on and off the train! LOL Every big city has their characters and I had a lot to see! If you returned in 2 1/2 hours or less you didn't have to pay the fare again. Of course we had to pay again but still it was worth it. The Mall of America was unbelievable. I couldn't get over a amusement park, an aquarium, movie theaters and many, many more things under one roof. I hope someday Elena and Jim can see all this. We walked around a couple of lakes that had some extraordinary homes there and walking and bike trails. Separate trails for walking and bike riding. It was nice not having to worry about getting in a cyclers way. Rode a trolley car and got a short tour around Lake Harriet. There is many things to see that I didn't get to see. I did get a picture of the statue of Mary Tyler Moore where she threw up her hat for the Mary Tyler Moore show. "You're going to make it after all" kept going on through my mind.
My sister's house is very nice and their neighborhood looks really young. My niece and nephew's school is actually in their back yard and the kids can really WALK to school UP HILL in the snow both ways! LOL Also around there was more walking trails and a couple of ball fields for baseball and soccer.
I think Elena did pretty good while I was away. Her riding instructor took her and another riding student to the water park one day and then they had their camp as well. However the horse we are leasing has a lame hoof and can not be ridin right now.
Well, lessons were learned in more ways than one on this trip and now I have the cruise to count down to now. But first, my EGD tomorrow. Pray it will be a simple fix and NO MORE SURGERY!
Goodnight