Pages

Monday, November 30, 2015

Surprise Ending

I'm realizing that I never got around to posting about the very end of our adventure to England.

First of all, can you guess where this picture was made?



If you guessed any location in Great Britain, then you are wrong.  This is the Rockefeller Chapel in the good ole USA.  We ended up our 3-week trip to England with a surprise layover in Chicago!

We had a great flight back and though we were tired, we were really looking forward to getting home.  We were supposed to have a five hour layover in Chicago, but while we were there, a squall line of thunderstorms moved in.  All flights in and out were suspended for about two hours.  When the weather cleared, most flights just resumed on a delayed schedule, but ours was cancelled entirely. The next flight to Knoxville was over 24 hours later!  We might have considered sleeping overnight in the airport, but I did NOT want to stay there 24+ hours.  

So then I remembered that my nephew and his family are in Chicago.  We gave them a call, and they came to our rescue.  We took a train ride downtown




then James picked us up and took us to his apartment, where Allison had a great American home-cooked meal waiting for us!

The next day, James took us on a walking tour of the University of Chicago, where he is working on his PhD.   

                                                                    

Robbie house - a Frank Lloyd Wright on the way to campus


Window in Rockefeller chapel


The library


Mansueto library - aka "The Egg"


The spot where they had the first controlled nuclear reaction.

We enjoyed getting to see some unexpected sites.  But it was also great to visit with James, Allison and their two sons and see where they live.  I don't know why I didn't take more photos at the apartment (we were a bit jet-lagged, though).  I only got one of Rebecca reading to Jesse:


The next day, our flight was also delayed due to weather - but this time only about two extra hours in the airport and one extra hour sitting on the runway.  It was good to finally be back in Tennessee!