Take THAT, ground crew!

San Fransisco was fabulous. We weren't there long, but we managed a great jaunt out to Alcatraz, which was very cool and only a little creepy. I was surprised at how open it was--you get to go in the cells, even "the holes", the solitary confinement cells they have. I highly recommend it.

The best part of the trip by far was something that happened at the very beginning--before we even left, in fact. I was going with two co-workers, Karen and Jeff. Jeff is certain that he is a cursed traveler--any time he's going, the plane will be delayed or canceled, the weather will be bad, etc. Karen normally has good luck, but unfortunately fell to the hands of a total incompetent upon checkin, and was in a really angry mood (justifiably). We were to fly from here to Dallas, then had less than an hour to connect to the SF flight. It was tight anyway, and thunderstorms were setting in around Dallas. Trouble!

The details are exhausting, so I'll spare you, but through a very advantageous set of circumstances we were given the option to change our connecting city to Chicago and arrive in SF 2 hours late. In exchange, we each got $250 vouchers. Sweet! Turns out we would have missed our connecting flight in Dallas anyway, so it worked out unbelievably well.

That's not even the best part! The girl changing our flights for us at the counter was very kind and had been working her tail off. I can't remember her name for sure, but I think it was Shanda. When she finally got us re-ticketed, she called down to have them move our bags to the new plane. The ground crew came back with, "Sorry--too late. Can't get them." We all three groaned, imagining never seeing our bags again. Clearly, we underestimated Shanda, and so did the ground crew. She marched to and down the walkway, out onto the tarmac IN THE RAIN, and over to the plane. While Karen, Jeff and I watched from the terminal with our mouths hanging open, sweet Shanda hoisted herself up into that cargo hold, rummaged around, and pulled out all of our bags! We could not get over it. We talked about it the entire trip. Say what you want about living in a small town, but I guarantee you THAT never happens at O'Hare.