The sad, sad cancellation.

They made an announcement at 8:30, which nearly scared us to death, but they just said, for flight 164 to Dublin, the gate attendant would be there at PRECISELY 9:00, and that we should all be ready to board early, we WOULD be leaving on time. (You could really tell they weren't going to wait around for anyone. Mom arrived just a few minutes later from an eventful bus ride from Connecticut, and Nicole was waxing really sentimental about how she couldn't believe it. It was like a miracle that we were actually going to go to Ireland!

Then the announcement came.

Dun, Dun, Dun!!! A flight from Atlanta was turned around mid-way to Ireland, and the Dublin airport would be closing again, per the latest report.

Brent was the quick thinker, and he jumped in line right away. We were, like, the 3rd people up to the front, and had just enough time to figure out that we weren't going to be able to make any big decisions tonight. We did decide to go back to Salt Lake at 7PM the next day which would give us a break from airplanes, time to sleep in, and maybe a peek at New York City so the trip wouldn't be complete bust.

Then Brent jetted over to the internet cafe and found us one a very few hotel rooms left in New York City. We booked it not knowing how we would get there. And were on our way out of the Airport while hundreds of people were still waiting in line. As sad as I am for all of them, I was in awe of our amazing team! If I'm ever going to be stranded in New York again, I pick these guys!

It turned out that there was an air train that took us right to our hotel! You could see it from the station.

A very friendly air train employee named Ulysses helped us save a heap of dough getting a pack of tickets rather than individual ones. He also helped us see where the hotel was so we didn't get lost on the way. Which was REALLY appreciated since it was a shady neighborhood.

Imagine the smell of live poultry, and you kind of get a sense of the neighborhood. Luckily, mom had a knife on her shirt, so Brent figured that gave us some street cred. :)

(These pics were taken the next day. When we arrived it was almost midnight).

The quality Inn people were very nice to us. It was not what I expected in New York. Actually, we met lots of nice people on our brief trip.

We figured we might as well have a New York experience, so we ordered a New York pizza before crashing in our comfortable room. Although obviously disappointed, we were feeling very blessed. We were safe, comfortable and had a flight home on the next day. Some people we met were stranded in a foreign country for who knows how long. Others that we didn't meet had homes destroyed by the volcano. We had our vacation delayed. Doesn't exactly seem to deserve a big pity party in that context, does it?

See the next post for our real New York adventure! :)